Joys of Cooking

There was an observation in Steve Martin's Shopgirl that a single person should spend time cooking a good dinner as it soaks up time on those evenings one is not otherwise occupied. It's a line that I've given quite a bit of thought to as there are many evenings I could put my time to better use. So why don't I cook. I can cook and when I've lived with people who like to cook I did a pretty good job of preparing a meal. In my experience people who enjoy cooking really like the eating and get a lot of pleasure out of the tastes of a well made meal. Some people like to discuss favorite meals they've had, fine ingredients and exceptional recipes. Surrounded by food loving coworkers I participate in these discussions fairly often and have enough culinary knowledge and experience to hold my own. Aside from the heavenly taste of a perfectly steamed lobster food isn't something that brings me a whole lot of happiness. Day to day I'm perfectly happy with a frozen pizza. I suppose in some respects it's the cooking for one that's no fun. Generally the solo cook ends up with an overabundance of food leaving mediocre leftovers for the next three days. Once in a while I try to discover the Joy of cooking. Afterall it's healthy, inexpensive, creative, and soaks up time. Cooking usually prompts me to set a place at the table and read the paper thoroughly while I sit and eat which I find relaxing. Cooking of course leads to cleaning. The other problem for the solo cook, one has to both prepare and clean up the meal. I don't mind doing the dishes, scrubbing the pots. But then there's the stove to be cleaned and the counters and the floor to be swept. Then when sweeping the floor I notice it really is a floor that needs to be washed. So I walk into the bathroom to get a bucket and sponge and see that the bathroom counters aren't nearly as clean as the kitchen, and the bathroom really needs to be cleaned. And for that matter the computer table is really dusty and the spot on the carpet where the cat vomited should be vacuumed. Thus the whole evening has been spent cooking and cleaning which is not such a bad thing except the whole day was spent working and thus no time is left for the more trivial pursuits such as blogging.