In the kitchen...

Since studying the material in this course, I've come to realize how central creativity is to the human experience. We are all creative in different spheres, and it's like we all need that creative release (in whatever form it may come) for personal catharsis and psychic equilibrium.

I'm beginning to notice the various areas of life that I enjoy some creative 'charge'. One place I've recently considered is the kitchen. I grew up in a home full of good cooking. My mom is an excellent cook, schooled in large part by her mother who could feed an entire threshing crew with an hour's notice and who knows how to use fresh, whole foods for the tastiest meals. Moreover, my dad had a natural talent in the kitchen - he's a master griller. Twice, my family owned or ran restaurants - once when I was young enough that my first memories take place there. The second time, I was twenty, and I helped design the space and the menu. Food - good food - has always been a big part of my life.

Lately I've been reflecting on the many times I've gone on a baking kick, a bread making kick, a soup kick, etc. I have been known to relax by spending hours in the kitchen. I'm just now realizing that, in large part, I enjoy it because of the creativity involved: the experimentation, the development of a final product to be aesthetically enjoyed, the chance to express myself in a unique form.

This holiday weekend, that expression that I felt the need to release was a celebration of harvest, just like is intended with Thanksgiving, and I found myself drawn to the kitchen to find an expressive form. As I wrote on my personal blog...

How fitting that on the holiday we celebrate harvest and bounty, I felt compelled to actually harvest some things from our garden? (I'm usually best at planting it, tending it, and never really using it. Maybe I run out of steam by harvest time.) Earlier this fall, I had used about a tenth of the zucchini (those plants just never stop!) to make a batch of nineteen loaves of to-die-for zucchini bread. I'd share the recipe, but then I'd have to kill you. I will say, however (for all you skeptics out there who don't believe it's really that good), a key ingredient is a great deal of chocolate chips.

Anyway, this past weekend, I decided to use up a bunch of parsnips and some carrots. I don't really remember planting the parsnips, but they're there, and they're huge! I had heard of parsnip soup, so I did a little researching and I made my own recipe that turned out pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself. It's not exact, since I made it up as I went, but if you're interested in trying it, here's what I did:

• Three yellow onions and a head of celery sauteed in about a cup or so of butter. Add garlic, salt, tarragon, and chili powder.
  
• Smother over peeled and cubed parsnips and carrots (about a 5:1 ratio of the two). As far as the overall amount of parsnips and carrots, I had enough to fully cover two large baking sheets a couple inches deep. Or put another way, when I dug them up, they filled a 3 gallon bucket - I know, these are some exact measurements.
  
• Roast vegetables for about 1/2 an hours, until tender and a little browned.
  
• Transfer to a pot, and simmer them in about a gallon of vegetable broth for another half hour or so.
  
• I let it sit overnight, since I was taking it to Raymond for the family to eat the next day. This may or may not have affected the taste (steeping, perhaps), but it certainly made it easier to puree when it wasn't boiling hot.
  
• Use a blender to puree the soup. Thin with more vegetable broth if needed. Warning: it will look like baby diarrhea... but it smells divine.
  
• Warm and serve with yummy crusty whole grain bread. Barry had the idea of cubing ham to put in each bowl, too - for all those guys out there who don't think you've really eaten a meal unless you've had animal protein. I have to hand it to him, though, it was a tasty idea.
• This made a giant pot - about 4 gallons of soup. You'd want to scale it back, unless you too were trying to feed and warm a family crew of 6-10 hungry workers over a couple of days.
  

In all, it was a good Thanksgiving. We spent Saturday and Monday at Mom and Dad's helping them replace the siding on their house. We made some serious progress, despite the cold. It's looking great. At one point, we were able to visit with my uncle from Idaho, who stopped by with Grandma Peterson. On Sunday, we went up to Sylvan Lake to visit extended family on the Schmale side. My uncle from Toronto and cousins from Vancouver were there, and we don't see them often. And the bunch of us who are scattered around Alberta still don't get together that often, either. So, you know, good food + good company = good times.

So I'm thankful. Thankful for sanity activities, like soup-making when I'm knowingly putting off overdue marking and late university work. Thankful for a family that has as much fun working together as playing together. Thankful for harvest and plenty (especially pumpkin pie with whip cream). Thankful to be a Canadian who lives close enough to the border to enjoy two Thanksgivings. And I'm thankful for memories... and the holidays that help us make those memories.