Reflection

While I did miss eating out at restaurants, I think that my week of cooking was an eye-opening experience for me and I am glad that I did it. When I was making my lunch today, I initially decided to warm up this microwavable meal but it smelled disgusting and I did not eat it. While it was in the microwave, I thought about how I could do something easy such as cooking an egg that could help give it more flavor and make it seem like not a cheap microwavable meal. While I ended up not cooking anything extra, I know that I never would have thought about cooking an egg if I had made this meal last week. My experience kind of reminds me of A. J.'s after he has been doing the rituals for a few months. While we both may not have liked to do these tasks, they did give us some structure to the day and we feel slightly confused when the tasks do not/cannot be completed. With practice the difficult tasks, whether they be praying or cooking, got easier, and they did not seem as threatening as they once were.

I find the process of cooking to be almost like a paradox; I had the freedom to make whatever I wanted do (pizza, fried plantains, spring rolls), but I was also a slave to the kitchen for nearly an hour each night so that I could make the meals I willfully chose. Probably the most obvious thing I have learned from my week is to NEVER trust the time listed on the recipe. "Twenty"minutes usually equates to "most of an hour" unless you have made the recipe before several times. With practice the process of cooking gets easier, such as when my mom puts things in the slow-cooker and she can walk away from the kitchen for hours, but I did not even attempt to do anything of the sort.

It was also hard to think up meals as I got later into the week, and the novelty of the situation went away. It makes me appreciate people who have to think up new meals nearly every day to feed their families. I know I certainly could not have done it. Thankfully there are restaurants that help add variety and make life easier for the home-cookers.

I think that this experience has made me appreciate both food itself and the restaurant industry more and has allowed me to learn some basic recipes that can help me in the future.