Actually, I have an okay amount of control in my life. That’s why I made pudding.
There are a lot of good reasons to learn to cook. Really, everyone should at least have basic skills for how to feed themselves and the people around them. Everyone needs to eat! Becoming a good, thrifty cook can be cheaper than eating out.1 Cooking can be a way to impress a date (or your future in-laws). Sometimes cooking can even be fun!
A truly underrated reason to learn to cook - and not just cook, but cook well - is the thrill of achievement.
Maybe it’s my queer audacity, but I truly believe I can cook a good enough version of most things I want to eat, even if I’ve never made it before. I have the Internet, I have the ingredients, and I have just enough skill to basically achieve all my dreams.
…Well, not all my dreams. Not even all my culinary dreams. I’m still working on my pastry skills so I don’t think I could make a beef wellington, and I can’t decorate a cake for shit, but most things I want to eat, I can make.
Eclairs? I can make that. The Boston Market creamed spinach from my childhood2? I can make that. Fried chicken and pizza? I could go to KFC and Pizza Hut, but if I want to spend the time brining my chicken and making pizza dough, yeah, I can make that!
I haven’t had banana pudding in years. The banana pudding I grew up with in Texas wasn’t fancy, but it has two key things I can’t easily find here - Nilla wafers and Jello vanilla pudding packs. It seems silly to miss something that’s just made out of convenience items, but I do.
Anyway, this week I realised we had a surplus of eggs, and that it was probably really easy to make pudding from scratch. So I did.
I don’t know if it tastes like my childhood. To be honest, I don’t really remember what it tasted like. But it tastes like a successful dessert.
There are only so many things we have control over in our lives. Most of the dreams we think of take a lot of time, effort and resources, but there’s a lot of mundane dreams we have too. I make a lot of mine come true all the time. I make myself aesthetic little breakfasts that I dream of the night before. I dress the way 13 year old me wanted to dress. I see a part of my house I want to change, and to an extent, I can do it - I can make a pin display board, I can put skateboards on the wall, I can cover my home office in art I love.
I often find I get discouraged thinking about all the work I’m doing to make the big dreams come true, so I’m trying to hold on to the little dreams tighter. Notice the room I’m in. Savour the food I’ve made. Take the time to not just rush and push and try but also just live this one weird life I’m building.
What mundane dream will you make come true today?
Thanks for reading! Have a treat.
I don’t consider myself a K-pop OR jazz stan, but I have been very into these jazz renditions of New Jeans songs. Put it on in the background while you work!
Obviously it’s harder when you’re in a cost of living crisis and your grocery bills are ridiculous
Having not had Boston Market in over a decade I assume it’s not actually that good, but I can make it taste the way nostalgia reminds me it does.