Today, I have a guest post over on “Take Back the Kitchen,” a great blog hosted by Alma Schneider. My post is a RECIPE (don’t faint) I created for Iced Green Tea that actually tastes good.
Yes, I realize that I won’t win any foodie awards for this recipe. (ie. What? “Boil water. Put tea bags in. Add ice?” Pretty much.) But proclaiming to the universe that “I made this dish!!” is more important than that for me.
Before, I told you about how I had real issues with food growing up. Well, as a grown-up, the net result of that is I believe that I hated to cook. Or at least that is what I have always told myself.
Flip-Flop
Listening to NPR’s Audi Cornish’s interview on ‘All Things Considered’ yesterday with international gymnastics coach, Bela Karolyi, Karolyi explains the parts of the vault that made the U.S. athletes so successful.
Karolyi breaks down the “ingredients” in a great vault, which includes the speed of the run, the strength that are required to launch and land the vault successfully.
However, Karolyi says that physical ingredients are only part of a successful vault.
Oh, a good 80 percent of the vault is still physical and another percentage of it, 20, 25 percent is mental. Mental is always the mental strength, the confidence building up to that contest or repetition, practice, practice, and practice. But still – still, a strong mind the athlete is always capable to even squeeze a more perfect vault out of the performance rather than a younger athlete who has not mastered yet the vault properly.
I had always told myself that I hated cooking. Then, I had four kids and a very busy husband that needed to be fed. I had a set of values that I couldn’t ignore (wanting to feed us all in a healthy, sustainable, and organic way, as much as possible). And also, most of all, I did not want to be miserable in the kitchen. I had to face the challenge.
So, I had to change my mind. That was key ingredient.
And the best way I can think to do that is to give myself credit for every effort and every success in the kitchen. And to even say “Oh well, I tried!” and shrug it off when I failed.
One of my successes — humble as it is — is my addictive, iced green mint tea that I “invented” (yes, boil water, add tea bags! Starbucks makes billions inventing this crap!) last summer.
I’d recommend you try the tea, even if you like coffee! You can chalk it up to “mental strength” if nothing else.
Say, what do you have a “strong mind” for?
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