the cauldron

yesterday, i cooked for 30 people at our monthly MAC meeting at townhall. i was a little nervous about it, but things turned out great. i borrowed a huge pot from Virginia, my landlady, and used it to make butternut-squash soup. my sister came over and when she saw me, she said i looked like a witch over a cauldron. i like that.
the pot was so huge (30 gallons or so), it barely fit on the stove, and i had to use 2 burners at the same time to keep it warm. washing it was also pretty intense, i had to come up with some creative ways of getting it near the sink.

i cooked most of the day; made the squash soup and corn bread. ed, sena and aiyana helped me transport everything to townhall, in time for my meeting at night. i could tell that people liked what i made, and weren't just saying it. they kept coming back for seconds, and their expressions told me they enjoyed it. this made me feel really good.

there's something about food, and feeding people, that i'm really drawn to. it seems really personal. yesterday, as i cooked throughout the day, i could not stop thinking about that book, 'like water for chocolate', and how the woman in it could make people feel all these things through the food she cooked. i don't think that's too far out, i really think that if you put a certain type of energy and love into the food you cook, it will come across to those who eat it.

in any case, i have to say that although i worked hard, i really enjoyed my little project yesterday. while cooking, i put on some bob dylan and bruce springsteen albums, which i hadn't listened to in a while, and that created a nice atmosphere. and then it felt really good when everything came together in the end, when i saw people enjoying my food so much.

peace