The last couple of months have been a trying time for me personally. Something unpleasant happened which made me question my love, dedication and overall knowledge of food and my passion for cooking. You know things are not right when you don’t buy a single cookbook in over two months (P sensed this and got me Nigella’s At My Table), stop watching cookery shows, stop visiting your favourite blogs and food websites and, most importantly, stop cooking altogether. Luckily, we are a terribly un-fussy family when it comes to food and the last 60 odd days saw an atrocious amount of bread, butter, cheese and deli meat go down our systems.
And then a few things happened one by one that brought me back on my feet and pushed me to take wiser decisions.
- Masterchef Australia started. And even though I am somewhat underwhelmed by this year’s contestants so far, watching an hour-long food show 5 days a week is bound to bring about some change in a food-lover-at-the-core-now-turned-sour’s psyche. I started frequenting the kitchen again, this time not just to assemble sandwiches but to actually cook the food I love.
- We changed houses, and a new apartment meant a clean refrigerator which I could stock from scratch. So instead of focusing my attention on 5 different kinds of cold cuts, I bought fruits and vegetables in bulk. We always have an insane amount of chicken and salmon in the freezer, and these, along with my pantry staples, pushed me to cook healthier food that are both good for my body and my soul.
- I opened the dashboard of my blog last weekend. Trust me, in the last 2.5 months that I haven’t come up with a post, I haven’t checked my numbers either. A cursory glance through my statistics told me that so many of you have visited the space and probably haven’t found anything new. I was overwhelmed that people from a whopping 42 countries have dropped by at Guilt Free in the last 30 days. Surely, this is the least I can do for them. And for myself.
All these incidents made me revisit my relationship with food. The question this time was not “whether to blog or not”. The issue was far deeper: I had started doubting my commitment towards food, and this was the time I needed answers. I asked these questions to myself.
- Was I happy during the time I stayed away from cooking?
No, I felt miserable. - Do I feel the same searing rage when I see my cookbooks as I felt two months back?
No. In fact, when I was packing and unpacking them for my shifting, I was extra cautious. I arranged them on my bookcase with the same love and care as I had done the first time round. I also ordered a couple of Adam Liaw’s books that I spotted on Amazon for the first time. (It’s either very tough or very expensive to get Australian cookbooks here) - Do I look forward to cooking everyday?
Not everyday. But I do look forward to menu-planning, cookbook/blog sifting, trying out new things all the time. - Do I want to start working on my blog again?
I think so. I haven’t held the camera since February, but I do have a dozen or so edited recipes in my folder which I can start posting till I find my groove back. - Would I give up food in favour of something else?
Yes, travel. However, I can’t travel every day of the year, but I can cook. There’s nothing that can top the feeling of discovering a new place (on foot, if I may add), but discovering a new taste is pretty close, and cheaper too!
With the answers now under my belt, I choose to embrace food once again. As the saying goes, “If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it is yours. If it doesn’t, it never was.” I hope sincerely that the love of my life has come back to me.
Cheat's Pepperoni Pizza
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Ingredients
- Pizza bread/dough (homemade or store-bought): 1 (I used Stoneware pizza base from QFC. If you're in India, I'd strongly recommend you to use Afghan bread or any Middle-Eastern flatbread)
- Marinara sauce (homemade or store bought): 3/4th of a cup
- Pepperoni: 15-18 slices
- Mozzarella cheese, sliced in rounds: 120 gm
METHOD
1.Make the marinara sauce as per the recipe here.
2. Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF and keep a baking tray ready.
3. Spread the marinara sauce evenly on the pizza base. Place the pepperoni slices evenly throughout the surface of the crust and dot the top with slices of mozzarella. Keep half an inch room from the edges while you top your pizza.
4. Now place the pizza base on your baking tray and put the tray in the the preheated oven in the last but one rack from the bottom. Bake for 12-13 minutes until the sides of the base is golden and the cheese is bubbling. Add a minute or two if you feel the crust hasn’t browned or the cheese hasn’t melted enough.
5. Let it sit on the wire rack for 5 minutes before cutting it into messy slices. A glass of coke on the side and your Pizza night is sorted!
