One early morning, with the sunshine peeking through the upstairs window, the smell of bacon and eggs makes its way up to my room. I walk into the kitchen to find my mom and brother preparing breakfast. In my house, days like this have become quite frequent recently.
My family doesn’t always wake up early and cook breakfast, but being stuck inside with a free schedule allows for a lot of time to rekindle a long lost love for cooking. A lot of people have started to dust off the kitchen utensils and to cook as a family again, including me.
I have a floral pink metal box with a label titled “recipes” written on the front of it. A layer of dust has sat on top of it for who knows how long. Recently, I wiped the dust off and began using it to place my new recipes in.
Cooking has always been something I have enjoyed doing, whether it was making spaghetti with my mom on a Friday night or grilling with my dad in the summer heat. I enjoyed getting to be a part of something for the whole family.
One thing I did not like doing was the dishes. It has always been my least favorite chore and, to me, the worst part about cooking.
At my house it’s a “eat what we have here” kinda day, every day. We are doing our best to do our part during the current pandemic by staying home, limiting the amount of times we go out.
One of my favorite days is when we have breakfast for dinner. You simply can’t go wrong with breakfast foods. For example: sausage casserole. When it is straight out of the oven, the steam evaporates into the air and the cream cheese simmers melt in the middle. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it. We also have other foods that night such as fruit, pancakes, cereal, waffles, eggs and bacon. That is the kind of food I want to have after a long hard day of school work, zoom meetings and staring at a laptop.
One night my mom cooked dinner, but I didn’t know what she was preparing until I walked into the kitchen and saw her pulling hamburgers out of the oven. At first, I thought it was odd. We no longer have a grill, which explains the oven. I’ve never heard of oven hamburgers before, but they tasted good. She seasoned them to perfection, and the first bite was hot and flavor filled.
Of course, it’s not everyday we are cooking gourmet meals. I have definitely made Kraft mac and cheese with a side of apples and peanut butter for lunch to enjoy outside on the patio. The goal is to have a plate that is somewhat colorful. A plate that is filled with fruits and vegetables.
Cooking brings people together and cultivates community. Cooking gives families time to spend quality time together and grow closer. It allows families to gather around the table, put the phone down and talk about their days. It is a way for the chaos of the world to be forgotten about, and instead, our attention is turned towards something far more fruitful: family.
Due to many states issuing stay at home orders, families are forced to stay within the same walls for a long period of time. There will no longer be a multitude of trips to our favorite places to eat, like Chick-Fil-A.
For many, this has been a blessing in disguise. It gives me the chance to make day-to-day life exciting while also being creative through cooking. If we did not have this time to cook, we would lose the opportunity to be together as a family. And that is perhaps my favorite reason for cooking.
