I always thought I enjoyed cooking - until I realized I didn't know how to cook. It suddenly dawned on me one day in Jbay when I was on supper duty. Here's some chicken, here's some potatoes, and some veggies. Go. Where's the recipe? I thought. Where's the Campbell's soup? Where's the fajita mix?

I can follow a recipe just fine, thanks. And I even enjoy it. But I'm lost without them. I don't know what spices go with what meat or how to make anything from scratch.

It could've been on that same day or another when Sergio from Angola said to me, "You know, in my country, we know a woman is ready to get married when she knows how to cook." All I could say was, "Well, I'm glad I'm not from YOUR country!"

I expressed this to my parents a little while ago, and Mom piped in with, "well, if you want to learn how to cook, you can make supper every night!"

And that's what I've been doing. I spend a few hours in the kitchen every day, chopping, frying, spicing, baking. Last week I made borsche, lemon chicken, curried meat balls(which my Dad pointed out were more like meat 'flats'), and Masala stir fry, among other things. It's been great! Even though I didn't know it, I was right - I do enjoy cooking.

So today I had to plan my menu for the week, and I decided to flip through the pages of a cookbook given to me in South Africa by a very kind woman named Brenda. She was one of our hosts during outreach, and served an absolutely delicious ginger cake, which I just HAD to have the recipe for. She gave me the whole book! It's a church cookbook, which I love - a collaboration of all the grannies' best recipes.

Not only does the book include fantastic meal ideas - it has fabulous quotes and scriptures on just about every other page. And I found one today that made me get up from my menu-planning and head straight for the computer. It has nothing to do with cooking, but it's one of those things you come across that need to be shared.

"People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people can cheat you. Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy in an instant. Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, others may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough. Give the world the best you have anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."
--Mother Theresa

Have a nice day. :)