“Some people like to paint pictures, or do gardening, or build a boat in the basement. Other people get a tremendous pleasure out of the kitchen, because cooking is just as creative and imaginative an activity as drawing, or wood carving, or music.”
— Julia Child
I made a mistake online shopping for groceries last week: I selected ‘1’ for amount of pumpkin requested, when I was really thinking about, oh, one quarter or less. So I ended up with a LOT of Kent pumpkin. And not a lot of plan.
What do you do when you get too much of a good thing? Get creative about it. I love to cook, though I don’t always have a lot of time to do it. But I took the challenge of the giant pumpkin as an excuse to get back in my kitchen…
I roasted up a bunch of the pumpkin to add to a couscous salad.
I added roast pumpkin to a frittata.
I roasted the pumpkin seeds with oil and smoked paprika for a yummy snack.
For the first time in my life I attempted scones (photo at top of page). I had to use twice as much flour as the recipe asked for and I think I rolled the dough too thin so they didn’t rise a lot… But they were tasty and the kids liked them with jam, so win.
Finally, with the mashed pumpkin leftovers I made ‘healthy’ sticky chai pumpkin muffins, modified slightly from a recipe by The Healthy Mummy. These were even more popular. No photo though, because they were gone too quickly.
Perhaps the best thing about being creative in the kitchen, was having the chance to exercise my mind in a different way.
I spent plenty of time being ‘in the moment’, which is a mindfulness thing that I don’t practice enough. You focus on being truly present, to give all your attention to that one thing you are currently doing, and be in tune with yourself. Whenever I have a really good cooking session where I’ve been concentrating like this, I come away feeling so much more relaxed and happy.
A full and happy belly plus an empty happy mind, is a match made in creative heaven. I wrote another chapter, all new content, for the WIP. Yay!
I’m all pumpkined out now, though.
Do you agree that cooking is just as creative an activity as writing, drawing, painting, or music-making?
What do you do to relax and get those creative juices flowing?
I’d love to hear your thoughts!
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EMMA LOUISE GILL 