It is no longer the rest of the week. Please know that I was thinking of you and wishing you sweet rest in the midst of a power outage. It was quite something to be completely unplugged—as in, no refrigeration, hot water, internet, phone charging, etc.
By the time the lights came back on, I was well into some reading, then visiting, and then navigating unexpected news requiring the purchase of airplane tickets… and I forgot all about the newsletter until an hour or so ago.
Heartfelt apologies.
I’ve decided it’s a good time to receive the invitation to rest tucked into Bee Wilson’s lovely book, The Secret of Cooking:
If I could beg you to do one thing and one thing only to improve your cooking life, it would be to cut yourself some slack. If you want to make cooking a regular and enjoyable part of your life… you need to give yourself as much leeway as you can in how you get there. Drown out the voices that say you can’t be a good cook if you ever use stock cubes or buy frozen vegetables or if you never make your own oat milk… Never feel the need to apologize—to yourself or others—for serving an imperfect meal. The only way to cook, or to live, is imperfectly. It’s far better to cook and be prepared to compromise than never to cook at all because you are trying to live up to impossible standards.
Perfection is a terrible idea because it makes us feel bad and stops us from doing so many things that would make our lives better. This is as true in the kitchen as it is anywhere else. (page 11)
[Perfect moments do] happen surprisingly often and when they come along, we should celebrate them… [but] you can’t fully plan for perfection. Yes, you can seek out great recipes and take pride in the craft of what you are doing, but the truth is that no one is ever fully in control of ingredients and how they behave because they change in characteristics from day to day and so do we as cooks. (pages 11-12)
May we go into this new week free from the feeling that we are flailing about and already behind. May we start right where we are and find joy in new discoveries.
Until next week,
Alicia