Food is Love

I'm not excited about blogging this week. It might be the holiday, or it might be because so many other projects are vying for my attention. So I'll just show you something I cooked up last week out of Denis Cotter's Café Paradiso Seasons, a stew with eggplant, fennel, tomatoes, potatoes, and thyme:  This recipe is a bit labor intensive—you've got to cook the fennel, eggplant, and potatoes (each) separately before adding them to the pot—but the result is deliciously comforting. It reminds me of şakşuka, the eggplant-and-tomato dish we savored as often as possible during our time in Turkey. (The recipe also includes goat's-cheese gougeres, and I might attempt a vegan version at some point.)Last Friday I went to visit Eric at Brandeis, and brought a large Ball jar of the stew with me. The next day he emailed me the loveliest thank-you, and it got me thinking again about why I love to cook for people: it's the most fundamental way to show I care.At some point someone gave me the idea (at Sadhana Forest, probably!) that chanting (e.g., lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu—"may all beings everywhere be happy and free") as you cook infuses the food with your intention. I need to get back to that, even when I'm "only" cooking for myself. I don't want it to be the case that I eat really well only when company comes (and for a day or two afterward—leftovers are the best). A question I want to ask myself before every meal is, am I eating to nourish myself, or am I just eating to feel full?Food is love, people! Ideally, anyway—but as is the better part of this blog's raison d'être, living up to our ideals can be as pleasurable as we want to make it.(And with that, I'm off to cook up some breakfast.)