My New Ritual: Self-Satisfaction Through Creative Cooking

My blog this week on this throwback Thursday is about how cooking has become my holistic therapy:

2 years ago today 7/25/22 I was in a small French village just outside of Paris watching a friend's home. It was perfect time to be away alone because I was going through a personal rejuvenation period, and much of my time was spent in solitude to try to rediscover my creativity and get my head back into a better place. It was there that I decided to do what I call "Creative Cooking" when I'd gather whatever ingredients were in the refrigerator and make something out of them. I also focused on still life photography and took photos of food items...some of them are typically thought of as boring (like avocados and zucchini and eggplant) so on this particular day in 2022, I went to the local alimentation store and purchased fresh ingredients to make a traditional Provencal ratatouille. Before cooking, I arranged the ingredients like an art piece and made a still life-photo with the ingredients (garlic is there somewhere). Next step of course was using my hands to chop and combine the ingredients, add the herbs and watch the ratatouille come to its own aromatic delight. Final step in the process to taste and savor the creation. All the senses were involved in cooking this dish, and the therapeutical effect was very fulfilling and calming and I still practice Creative Cooking almost every Sunday. Some may ask why it is holistic therapy?  It helped me focus, follow a regime that involved all the senses, the outcome was always favorable, and I owned it.