Be Vewy Vewy Quiet...

After a very hectic week and weekend, I have today off. And it's time to cook! I couldn't over the weekend with talks and lessons to write for church, company, and no room in the kitchen. I didn't even feel like cooking for anybody. I even snuck upstairs at 5:30 Sunday morning to make secret French toast for just Jesse and me (he's not just anybody).

So now it's on. Kelly loaned me this awesome Alaskan cookbook, and there is a great-sounding recipe for braised rabbit in it. It reminded me of the one time I've had rabbit--at Madeleine's downtown in a cassoulet--and it was scrumptious. So I've decided to try to recreate that dish. Armed with my Mastering the Art of French Cooking (it was literally tucked under my arm as we went to the meat market), Jesse, Tara, and I went wabbit hunting! Turns out, due to maybe a combination of being in a semi-big city surrounded by hunting land and populated by many Russians, we were successful! Home we came with a frozen Thumper and three pig ears for the dawgs (which were all three eaten by Molly over the course of the evening). So tonight is rabbit cassoulet and a beautiful lemon meringue tart I found in Barefoot in Paris (a gift from Jesse for Christmas). Then tomorrow is coq au vin, which I'm very excited to try.

Last night I was thinking about why I tend to shy away from cookbooks without many pictures. I love to be inspired by what a dish should look like when it's finished. It's like the cookbook is a giant restaurant menu, and I can order anything I want. And I think it's also because I create the thing in my head before I ever touch a pot or pan. And our lesson from Sunday school was still fresh in my mind, about how God created all things spiritually before he made their physical beings:

"And now behold, I say unto you, that these are the generations of the heavens and of the earth, when they were created, in the day that I, the Lord God made the heavens and the earth.

"And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord God, created all things, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth (Moses 3:4-5)."

People talk about expressing themselves through art, and I think they're partly expressing that part of themselves that needs to imitate that process: create something spiritually and then physically.

When I cook, I read the recipe, picturing myself building the dish. First sauteing the onions in their butter, then adding the rice, then boiling the broth and adding it to the rice and onions, then in with the herbs, salt, and pepper, and into the oven. And I have created a very specific thing in "spirit." Then I make the dish, creating a "body" for the risotto that (hopefully) matches that spirit. We've learned that a body plus a spirit equal a soul--a complete being. And I think this idea holds true with any art form.

Hopefully I haven't gotten too carried away. But this blog serves as a place for me to work out some ideas. Now into the kitchen!