How do I cook, since a few of you asked for the gnocchi recipe, well I wing it, that is how I cook. I open the fridge and figure it out as I go. If I do not have an ingredient I improvise. Imagine that the day before the French Muse I went to the grocery store that was said to be opened, and found that it was closed. And all the grocery stores I could think of were closed as well, as that day was a holiday. Even though when I checked on the internet the day before, they said they would be open. Panic set in at record speed. After going to several teeny tiny mom and pop shops between Lacoste and my town (an hour and a half a part in between) I found some of the things I needed and reinvented meals while walking around those shops. I guess you could say winging it is how I fly.
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
— Albert Einstein
Gnocchi recipe:
Gnocchi
Peas
Cream
Shaved truffle
Parmesan
Salt.
While at the Muse one of the guests asked me where I learned how to cook. I had to think about that…
In the end I learned how to cook while at the monastery. There were forty or thirty or fifty of us in community, I don't remember exactly, each of us were assigned to a job within the monastery, I was assigned to the kitchen. When one has to cook breakfast, lunch and dinner, between the liturgy of the hours, one learns how to cook real fast. Of course others helped, and that is where a variety of recipes came to be. I loved every minute of working in the monastery's kitchen and do not have one recipe written down from it.
“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.”
— William Arthur Ward
Colorful. Spice. Garlic. Fresh. A splash of white wine or whisky to the pot. Taste. Texture. Local. Seasonal.
What I learn from my mom about cooking:
Serve it faithfully with love.
Serve it plentiful and well prepared.
Set the table with care and respect.
Be thankful and do not waste.
“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”
— G. K. Chesterton
Growing up in a rural community, surrounded by a large family played a big part in my education about food and hearth. It taught me that it takes many hands to bring food to the table. It starts with a seed.
A seed.
Dirt.
Water.
Toil.
Air.
Light.
Love.
and many hands from earth to mouth.
Farmers deserve more attention than they receive.
“We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.”
— Cynthia Ozick
Where did you learn to cook?
“Take full account of the excellencies which you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.”
— Marcus Aurelius
Leave a Reply