For posterity: my thoughts on COOKING

Not baking, cooking.  'Cause there's TOTALLY a difference.  :)

Valentine's Day pancakes (just a touch of food coloring and some heart-shaped cookie cutters make all the difference!)

I have a love-hate relationship with cooking, and, like so many things, I think it's best demonstrated by a list.

REASONS I LOVE COOKING:

1. I enjoy eating.  :)

2. I get tired of food fast (rarely eating leftovers, I give them to Paul), so I enjoy trying new recipes.  And I'm usually not too bad at it.

3. I have two very appreciative eaters at home...Paul, who likes everything I make, and Obi, who would eat it whether she liked it or not.

4. Sometimes it's fun to try and create something new, or especially colorful, or to copy something we've had at a restaurant. 

5. It's cheaper (usually) than eating out.  And I get a say in what goes into my food.

6. In our house, whoever cooks the meal gets a BIG kiss on the cheek after we eat.  It's my favorite part of every meal.  We are totally doing it even if we have 80 million kids.  :)

7. SOMETIMES, I'm lucky enough to cook WITH Paul.  That's always fun.  We can talk, sing, teach each other things, and then we BOTH get kisses afterwards.  :)

REASONS I HATE COOKING:

1. The clean up!

2. The time some dishes require...if I have to chop or actually WORK for more than a half-hour for a meal (this doesn't include baking/simmering time), then I probably won't even try cooking it.  Not that I have a lot to do right now, but I don't enjoy cooking enough to devote an entire evening to it.  Especially when all that work lasts 15 minutes before it's completely devoured, anyway.

3. I fear and hate failure, especially in the kitchen.  This goes for baking, too.  When I waste food because I burn it, over- or under-cook it, forget an important ingredient, or it just tastes really bad...I'm not the person you want to be around!  Unfortunately, because of my limited skills, this happens more often than I'd care to admit (especially in baking...even classics like fudge or no-bakes!).

4. The cost.  While it's cheaper than eating out, it's not always cheaper than black beans and rice.  So too often, mac-and-cheese supreme wins out over anything truly tasty or healthy because we lack the funds (or the space) for all the ingredients for every dish I want to make.

5.  THE BIG ONE: You have to do it, like, every day!  I wish we were camels and could make our food LAST, or were bears and could hibernate, especially in the winter...or anytime I'm super busy and wish the cooking fairies would come do it for me.  I feel the same way about dishes and laundry.  I tire of the tedium.  We are such inefficient creatures!

IN BALANCE, the pros outweigh the cons, so I do cook most every day (even if it's just storebought pasta) and I don't totally hate it.  But my dishes do pile up.  It's a compromise.  :) 

(For the record: I heart baking...mostly.  Except for those dishes and the calories.  But what can you do?)