Turn the eye, 2
Over the past few months, I've been on a kind of cooking quest. I have a lot of gaps in my education and understanding of food, and the most used machine in my various living situations has been the microwave. I had pots and pans, but I had them more out of reasoning that I should because other people had them rather than that I should be using them. I spent some hours staring over a friend's shoulder in late summer as he meal prepped for the week for his family. I learned about cutting techniques and spice families, heating principles and preparation fundamentals. The biggest thing was a growing comfort with the preparation of food, personalizing the various procedures. I've ruined a lot of dishes, but in so doing I've learned a great deal.
I'm going to relate this to a recent conversation I had with my cover artist. He sent me the latest version of what he'd been working on and I was, as usual, impressed. However, he expressed to me that he was having difficulty with one specific aspect, which was the element of the supernatural. Since learning a bit more about how covers work, I chose to go with largely contemporary scenes that disclosed a hint of the otherworldly. I wanted readers to double take, and then stare and scrutinize. Because it's important for them to understand what they might be about to read, and I think that for these stories, I focused on the natural before the super. Anyway, without further ado
So something I eat for breakfast regularly now is sausage and eggs. It's the basis for the breakfast burritos my mother makes which I have attempted and failed at miserably. But the sausage and eggs I feel confident about. Typically, I eat it over rice. Yesterday I decided to try to take another step forward and cook hash browns. Honestly, the rice was a cost saving measure, a cheap side dish I was trying to pair with as many things as I could. The breakfast addition was a happy accident. Anyway, I ruined all of the potatoes, but as usual, I learned some things in the offing. Cooking speed and oil and how they're supposed to look in regards to color and how they're supposed to smell in regards to aroma: the elements of a successful hashed potato.
Likewise, my artist decided to go with a night scene after we discussed my thoughts and his feelings about how to incorporate the supernatural elements. Part of me felt a little strange, about not using a perfectly good image like this. But then I had my experiences with cooking to look back on. Not every food item I've purchased has gone into my stomach. Some of them were burned beyond reckoning (the potatoes) or charred to the point of being inedible (quesadillas), gone bad from aging (meat) or become a strange pseudo-liquid because I hadn't used them in time (onions). Something I try to tell my students is that an error does not become a mistake until we fail to learn from it. It could very well all be semantics, but the point, I try to stress, is that we do gain something by losing.
So, some steps forward, and some steps back.
Like learning to dance.
I'm going to relate this to a recent conversation I had with my cover artist. He sent me the latest version of what he'd been working on and I was, as usual, impressed. However, he expressed to me that he was having difficulty with one specific aspect, which was the element of the supernatural. Since learning a bit more about how covers work, I chose to go with largely contemporary scenes that disclosed a hint of the otherworldly. I wanted readers to double take, and then stare and scrutinize. Because it's important for them to understand what they might be about to read, and I think that for these stories, I focused on the natural before the super. Anyway, without further ado
So something I eat for breakfast regularly now is sausage and eggs. It's the basis for the breakfast burritos my mother makes which I have attempted and failed at miserably. But the sausage and eggs I feel confident about. Typically, I eat it over rice. Yesterday I decided to try to take another step forward and cook hash browns. Honestly, the rice was a cost saving measure, a cheap side dish I was trying to pair with as many things as I could. The breakfast addition was a happy accident. Anyway, I ruined all of the potatoes, but as usual, I learned some things in the offing. Cooking speed and oil and how they're supposed to look in regards to color and how they're supposed to smell in regards to aroma: the elements of a successful hashed potato.
Likewise, my artist decided to go with a night scene after we discussed my thoughts and his feelings about how to incorporate the supernatural elements. Part of me felt a little strange, about not using a perfectly good image like this. But then I had my experiences with cooking to look back on. Not every food item I've purchased has gone into my stomach. Some of them were burned beyond reckoning (the potatoes) or charred to the point of being inedible (quesadillas), gone bad from aging (meat) or become a strange pseudo-liquid because I hadn't used them in time (onions). Something I try to tell my students is that an error does not become a mistake until we fail to learn from it. It could very well all be semantics, but the point, I try to stress, is that we do gain something by losing.
So, some steps forward, and some steps back.
Like learning to dance.
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