cooking and baking dreams

I love to cook. I am kind of addicted to cooking. I also like to cook new things. I like to experiment and spruce up recipes to make them a little more exciting. I also like to not use any recipe and see if I can make something up on my own. I usually can, and I usually do, and the results are amazing. However, there are days when I just DO NOT want to cook. I don’t want to do any more work because my 8-10 hours at the office were just so busy and draining. I looked at the beloved last night and said, “I wish there was a restaurant in this town that served our food so we wouldn’t have to cook it.”

We make some damn good food. And that is not me just being full of myself, it’s fact. We have cooked for many people and we always get raving reviews. We’re a good team in the kitchen—we know what the other will be doing next and have this fluidity of moving together in the kitchen. It makes it nice since our kitchen isn’t the largest.

We’ve discussed opening a restaurant where we cook whole, organic foods. With a dessert section of course, because your meal would not be complete with just dinner. It would need one of my delicious desserts to top it off—to put you over the edge into sweet bliss.

I never did much cooking in college. It’s kind of hard. You work, you come home, you do homework, and then you have to cook? No thanks, I’ll just stick with eating a pint of coconut milk coffee ice cream, thankyouverymuch! That right there is probably why I was in the 200s when I graduated.

When I moved out, I cooked more. I had more time with only working 32 hours a week. It was so nice to get home from work and not ever have to turn on a computer to do homework. I could cook, read, have a dance party, or all the above. It’s still awesome. I have some obligations here and there, but nothing as time consuming as school.

I have been seriously debating on turning this love of cooking/baking of mine into a career. Making a cookbook, teaching some classes on how to cook/bake gluten-free and vegan, opening a bakery/restaurant… something to get me out of sitting in an office all day. I have allergies to both gluten and dairy, so I have altered my baking to exclude both of those things. I can obviously make a cake with all the normal ingredients, but I take pride in the fact that I have become a specialized chef. I like being different and offer people healthy alternatives.

Luckily, my partner is an excellent photographer, so might start putting together a little book anyway and give it to friends as a test run and see if they’d be willing to give me some critiques and advice, as well as tell their friends/family about this awesome new cookbook to purchase! We’ll see. All I know is that I need a change, but not yet. The Oracle has told me that opening a bakery will happen, but right now is not the time—I need to work on grounding myself and the idea a bit more before charging ahead. And I will take that time. She knows best. I might start a blog as well as a jumpstart to the cook book. But, I am pretty snobby with my recipes and don’t like to share. We’ll see what happens. Stay tuned.