Recipes we create

In 2007, a movie called No Reservations- starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Abigail Breslin- was released. This movie follows Kate(Catherine Zeta-Jones), a master chef in NYC, as her life takes a dramatic turn when she becomes the guardian of her nine-year old niece Zoe(Abigail Breslin). (Thanks to IMDB for the summary)

Towards the end of the movie, Kate is talking to her therapist, frustrated with her feelings of failing and uncertainty as she navigates this new chapter of her life and the following conversation takes place:

Kate: I wish there was a cookbook for life, you know? Recipes telling us exactly what to do. I know, I know, you're gonna say "How else will you learn, Kate."

Therapist: mm. No, actually I wasn't going to say that. You want to guess again?

Kate: No, no, go ahead.

Therapist: Well what I was going to say was, you know better than anyone, it's the recipes that you create yourself that are the best.

I think one of the reasons I like this movie is because of my love of cooking. I love the process of creating something new and seeing how it turns out. I love the idea of learning from my failures and attempting to recreate my successes. I love that at the end I have something I can share with people. Once when I asked my mom for some help with a recipe she told me that it was "more of an art than a science." I suppose if it were a science every apple pie and chocolate chip cookie would taste as good as my grandma's!

In the past couple of weeks, my roomie and I have fallen into a wonderful (well, wonderful for me) pattern, where I cook and she cleans up afterward.

I will usually start with what I can find in the kitchen, I will begin the hunt for a recipe. Finding a couple I like, I take the basics-ingredients, temperature and cook time- and then go from there. I add different spices, leave things out if I don’t like them, and make substitutions if something can’t be found. Sometimes the result is not so great, but most of the times I come up with something I am excited about and excited to share: roasted veggies, pita chips, cheesy rice and beans and most recently an apple dessert.

In many ways, this year with YAGM is just one more series of recipes I will create. There is no cookbook for this year, no recipes telling me “exactly what to do.” I have been given some of the basic ingredients: the people, the places and the primary worksite.

However, after that, how the recipes turn out is totally up to me. I get to decide how strong the relationships are, what other places I will add and the extra places I will volunteer. When things don’tgo quite as planned, I get to decide what subsitutions to make and how to tailor the results to make it better. I get to decide what things to say “yes” to some experiences that will enhance and say “no” to the things that I don’t think will fit. I get to create something new, learn from my mistakes and in the end share it with people when I return home. And at the end of the year, I will have a few brand new recipes to add to the cookbook of my life.