Cooking Therapy

My husband, 11-year-old son and I have been confined to our Queens apartment for over a month. While the days are long and tempers can run short, I’ve managed to find a few things that have brightened my days, forced me to broaden my horizons and will likely change my habits long after our lives return to “normal” – whatever that may look like.

 This first blog post is about my altered perspective on food and cooking.

While I never went hungry as a child, what we ate wasn’t a priority. I was raised by a single father who had no idea how to feed my older brother and me. There were years where I could tell you the day of the week by our dinner fare.  Mondays – Mac n’ Cheese, Tuesdays – Sloppy Joe’s, Wednesday – take out Chinese food. You get the idea. In our house, mashed potatoes were made out of a box of dried flakes - a fact that my husband finds deeply disturbing. For most of my life, eating has been nothing more than a mandatory exercise, to fend off head- and stomach aches.

 During my single adult years I didn’t do much (really any) cooking. I could boil pasta and add tomato sauce from a jar and make scrambled eggs and toast, but that was about it. As a longtime resident of Manhattan, it was easy to get delicious ready-made meals from a supermarket or buy delicious food from countless ethnic restaurants just a few blocks away. And when I was feeling particularly tired and lazy, cereal for dinner suited me just fine.

 When I got married, my husband quickly stepped into the cooking void.  So for the past 14 years, I’ve played the role of side dish Suzy. I’m a whiz at making instant rice and sautéing or roasting vegetables with some garlic and oil and there’s always my old standby - pasta with tomato sauce.

 But once the coronavirus came along in March 2020 my world (like everyone else’s) was turned upside down. With all three of us trapped in our apartment, I became increasingly desperate for some “me” time. My husband (lovingly) suggested that I try some “real” cooking. This reminded me of something my aunt once said when I was a teenager: “If you can read, you can cook.” While I wasn’t completely convinced, I’ve used this rare opportunity to push past my hesitation.

 My husband is big fan of Italian food, so I started out by ordering a small pizza stone for ten dollars, buying some fresh dough and making a pizza - which was a huge hit. From there, I Googled “easy and delicious stuffed shells.” Of course, there are a million cooking websites, but a few of my favorites are: countryliving.com, allrecipes.com and ifoodreal.com. I’ve ventured forward to make roasted chicken with thyme and onions, shrimp stir fry with mixed vegetables, spaghetti and (homemade) meatballs, beef tacos with yellow rice and kidney beans and meatloaf with fingerling potatoes.

Yes, I’ve burnt my fingers along with some of the food, but my husband and son have given me rave reviews, which motivates me to expand my menu. This is all to say, that if I can cook, anybody can! 

While I’ll never be Julia Child, I’ve found a new space to call my own and some quiet time to create meals for my family. Cooking has become not only therapeutic but rewarding. Suddenly, eating is no longer just a human necessity, but something I’ve come to savor. 

 What recipes have you tried and how have they turned out?