Cutting Class👩🏻‍🍳

Check this out; a few weeks ago ya Gurl taught a cooking class. The class was a surprise bachelorette party for an adorable bride to be. I happen to be friends with her mother so that made it even more of a labor of love. Truthfully I’ve never done anything like that before, but I welcomed the challenge with excitement. I figured I can cook and yenta it up with pretty much any inanimate object, so why not?!

At this point in the Blaga journey my attitude is flowing with whatever Now is offering me. Allow for the Now is a favorite mantra. Being receptive to my atmosphere. That ranges from honestly viewing the reality of tough emotional situations to embracing new opportunities, and everything else in between. What time is it? It’s always Now. So to be fully present we need to give ourselves over to our surroundings. That’s how we flow with them, by agreeing with them. This is especially good advice when it comes to the really hard stuff life is sending you. Don’t fight the Divine, you’ll lose. Rather, work with it and let it teach you what you need to learn, and take you to where you ultimately belong. Think less, Be more. In the past when presented with a new undertaking I’d have accepted the offer but stressed about it. I’d have been fraught with anxiety and tried to control the outcome by mapping out each and every detail. I’m soooooo much more chill about newness now. It’s liberating to just enjoy and trust that things will work out, even if there are unexpected hiccups. It’s really so crazy to start listing hypothetically negative outcomes. Like, it’s actually nuts in that we are literally making shit up. If it’s not happening yet, it’s pure fabrication. And if it is happening then it’s meant to happen for a reason. It’s that simple. Our minds complicate this notion but it’s really a clean concept.         

I approached this task with a mix of extreme organization and a loose attitude of just making this fun for the girls. This would not be some uptight lecture of a cooking class. Cooking is such a joy for me. It’s fun, experimental, fully sensory, creative, and of course involves mistakes. Food is love and love should not be scary. That being said, I clearly remember the excited intimidation I felt at being a new bride who immediately wanted to cook for her family. All part of playing house, and I’ve always had a strong pull towards domestic nurturing. I had no idea how to boil water before I got married. This was pre internet (anything prior to 2016 is pre internet as far as I’m concerned) but my first apartment was across the street from a huge Barnes and Noble. I’d go there and eagerly peruse the cookbooks, then go home and get cracking. I got certain things down pretty fast, but it took years to become fluent. I’m still fascinated by cooking; taking raw ingredients and turning them into an actual meal. It’s like any creative process that begins with intention and ideas, topped off with love. What better recipe is there?                       

I prepped five recipes that I printed out off the blog into these really cute recipe booklets (when I say “I” I mean Shira). Singles today seem more savvy than my friends and I were. Young adults are just way more attuned to everything now days. They are more stylish, have cooler hair, better bodies, have more sophisticated palettes, and are just generally more with it. I know this makes me sound like a dinosaur, but with phones and social media, there’s this awareness that even orthodox ducklings have today that my generation lacked. We were just so in our carefully constructed bubble. I was impressed at how many of the girls seemed to have an inkling as to what I was talking about. They legit knew what was up, and my recipes were pretty sophisticated for 20 somethings. Everything my peers and I first learned was mostly likely brown and involved onion soup mix or that gross bottled apricot sauce (why tho?). I wanted to teach recipes that were really gourmet and impressive but uncomplicated. Beautiful, fresh, colorful ingredients that anyone can assemble. I divided the recipes into crates, with each crate containing the ingredients and tools needed to make it. I then divided the girls into groups, giving each group instructions. They really did it! Sure,  I guided and gave tips I only wish I’d known about 20 years ago, but props to this crew. I taught the bride how to toast nuts and seeds, make biscotti, and roast fish with a Mediterranean style sauce, among other things. We made salads, zested lemons, whisked vinaigrette’s. I even made a playlist to bring my DJ component into the mix. They all sat down to a full meal they prepared themselves, which made the food extra delicious.

But here’s the unplanned kicker. As I was saying goodbye and thank you, I kind of gave a little speech about how as important as it for a Jewish wife to know how to cook and make a beautiful home (listen, I’m old fashioned this way and proud of that), it’s by no means everything. We must not resign ourselves to an existence in the kitchen only. We are allowed and obligated to explore ourselves and become fully actualized women. Women before and after becoming wives and mothers. No one should be stuck making thousands of batches of chicken soup and that’s it. Be proud of your home but venture out too. This is not selfish or neglectful of your family. I think they were maybe slightly taken aback by my diatribe, as was I, but I felt like a camp counselor/big sister giving advice. I wish someone had said that to me, just like I wish I knew what kalamata olives were when I got married. No one told me, and it took too many years and tremendous struggle to teach myself that I had a right to do things other than cook. I love putting on my apron and I love taking it off too. Nothing tastes better than a life fully lived in all ways. Taste everything you can while you’re here. The bitter, the sweet, the regrets, and the delicious parts. It’s all on the menu of Life for a reason.