Thursday, December 6, 2007

Cooking well is a pursuit I’ve dismissed for a while now, conveniently prioritizing it behind one new distraction after the next, but the excuses are running thin. It’s that time of year when the earth’s axis is tilted at entirely the wrong angle, bringing with it earlier sunsets and colder nights, and as much as I enjoy running around in the freezing dark, outdoor activities are basically limited.

This final pillar of self-improvement is a tower surrounded by an instant oatmeal moat, which once crossed will only lead to another obstacle: the things I enjoy cooking aren’t necessarily the things I enjoy eating. Burritos, sandwiches, and cheeseburgers, delicious as they are, don’t exactly call for deep culinary skill, and the deck seems to be stacked more toward assembly rather than creation.

There’s the oven or the stovetop, then, each of which powers a different kind of mindset. The oven demands all that deliberate upfront work, but after you pop your invention onto the rack, it’s more an issue of managing the situation and avoiding scorching. Now, the stovetop runs more on immediacy and, when things go wrong, improvisation. It just seems more exciting. The main goal, though? To make something that doesn’t require irradiating for 90 seconds or less.