Culinary Therapy

It surprises me where one can find a sense of comfort.

Be it an activity, indulgence, or whatever.

I don't think I realized until now just how much I enjoy cooking.

Ok, maybe NOT everyday, but I do indeed enjoy it.

The only problem was recently I was not able to spend any real time in the kitchen.

The reason for this was the recovery from surgery on my chin. The first few weeks were the worst as it hurt to move my jaw at all. Nothing too painful mind you but it certainly wasn't any fun.

After that it really boiled down to the muscles were just sore and stiff when operating them. They still are, however they are far better today then a few weeks ago. What would happen is my jaw would just get tired from being told to open and close not to mention the additional pressure of being forced closed through some type of edible entity.

Put it this way imagine your jaw aching after you have been chewing gum too long. Now place that right up front and under your chin. Multiply and that is what it feels like.

The last few weeks have been a careful balancing act of eating more things but making sure not to overdo it. Which could happen easily with certain items.

As I mentioned though it has all gotten slowly better. You can imagine my excitement when I graduated from soups, smoothies, eggs, yogurt, and Jello, and moved onto things like Chili, Noodled dishes and the like.

My first Thai noodle dish in almost two months was like the best meal EVER!!

Which prompt a cold cut pita sandwich and eventually french fries!!

*GASP*

I know right!!! I said the FF words!! Shhhh, don't tell anyone.

I was in nom heaven!

All of this was been carefully monitored and if at anytime I felt that eating something was stressing things out too much I stopped and moved onto something else if I was still hungry.

The down side to all this was with such a limited menu I wasn't doing a lot of cooking.

You wouldn't think this would matter, honestly I didn't either. Though I was growing quite tired of the bland repetitive menu.

So you can imagine my glee when I finally pulled out the dutch oven and promptly set about to braising a wonderful pork shoulder this last weekend. Mostly because I was looking forward to eating something real for a change. Besides I knew I could handle eating it because after three hours in the oven it comes out so moist and tender. I even whipped up a side of garlic and white cheddar mashed potatoes.

[Editor's note: The liquid diet had a serious impact to my weight not only did I loose the ten pounds I had gained from stopping hormones prior to surgery but lost an additional eight. Which is way too thin for me. Grabbing any extra calories I can get right now is a good thing.]

The totally unexpected part of all this was the calming affect being in the kitchen had. With all the craziness in my head lately it allowed me to let go a bit and just do something that felt...well,for lack of a better term...normal.

Fussing with ingredients, cooking them, tasting, adjusting.

It is amazing the sense of peace being in the kitchen brought to me. Not to mention how yummy everything was later.

[Editors note: Many people who have eaten my cooking usually ask my why I don't do it for a living. Having had worked as a short order cook, and seen the restaurant industry first hand. No thank you, I would loose all the joy I receive in the kitchen.]

Crazy how something like this can allow me to find my center again and help the process of returning things to normal.