Cooking can cure the blues

One of the things I have missed over the last 7 months or so is cooking. When friends started bringing meals I was just so thankful not to have to even worry about what to feed my family. I had so much else to deal with that it was a blessing to have dinner taken care of. After a while I was just thankful that we were able to have a good meal because I was physically unable to cook. I was working on lifting my arms above my head (a slow process) and I wasn't able to really lift anything. All of my dishes are in the upper cabinets and the food is in the pantry some of it on high shelves and even a pot of water was heavier than I could carry. So even when I tried it just became a painful and frustrating endeavor for me. Thankfully I didn't need to try very often because we had friends stopping by every other night with dinner for maybe a month and a half. A group of my mommy friends also worked a deal with a local make & take place to fill my freezer with enough dinners for months to come so all I really need to do is decide what to have for dinner and put it in the oven. The company allowed them to pay for one months of meals and get one month free. The next month they let people come in and for every meal they made for themselves the company gave them the same meal for my family - so generous. I really need to write them a thank you note. I have definately been telling everyone I know about it because there are a few of these types of businesses around and the other one wasn't willing to even waive the preassembly fee. I was a regular customer at that business I might add so that was disappointing. So, my huge upright freezer is completely full and I really probably wouldn't need to "cook" a meal until the end of October sometime if I didn't want to. So that brings me to the point of this post (I know I am long winded - you should have seen my phonebills back in the days before the flatrate). Even though I don't have to cook right now I am finding myself wanting to cook and for me that's a good thing. It is helping to get me out of this funk I have found myself in. It is giving me a purpose for the day. I have something that I am going to do with each day other than wallow in how much I've been through and how much I am afraid something else is going to happen. I think it is bringing me closer to my new normal. I have always loved to cook and in recent years I have been sticking to tried and true favorites - things I know we'll all eat and things that I feel comfortable making. Now I'm feeling a little inspired to try some new things - maybe they'll be good or maybe we'll be tossing them in the trash and ordering pizza but so what. We could end up with a new family favorite. I know, I know - how sad. I've faced cancer and the biggest risk I am going to take is with a new recipe. For me for now that's where I'm at - who knows maybe I'll be sky diving next year this time (I highly doubt that). I must say that I was inspired to cook by reading blogs. There's a mom of one of my daughter's classmates that has a cooking blog about the different recipes she has tried and I've been reading that and linking to other blogs about cooking and it has really reminded me that I do love to cook. I don't look at it as a chore but rather I get a little excited about cooking something potentially great. I love the planning involved and thinking about what I could pair different dishes with and the parties I could serve the food at if it's great. I love the pictures all of those blogs have of their food too. I don't know that I will actually be doing that here but I may take some photos and make a recipe book out of the keepers. So cooking may be the way to a man's heart but it just might also be a way to cure the blues (of course if we gain a ton of weight from all these delicious meals I may be posting about the blues again)!