JUST AN ORANGE

I was excited to ask Linsdey of Cafe Johnsonia to write about her experiences in the kitchen, because she really is a culinary wonder. And even better, Lindsey shares her talent with those around her and they get to benefit from it (especially their taste buds). Art is a good thing to share. And I do believe that cooking and baking are an art. One, that I have yet to really attempt, but that I appreciate. Thanks for sharing, Lindsey!

Sometimes when I read a beautiful poem or look at a spectacular painting, or hear an orchestra playing exquisite music, I get emotional. Cooking and baking conjure those same emotions.

Even as a young child I was interested in food. What I didn’t know was that my environment was limiting my inner creativity. The artist within was being prevented from escaping and flourishing.

Then I moved to New York—the most pivotal, wonderful thing to have ever happened to a girl from a small town in the Mountain West.

Moving to New York was like adding water and sunshine to a seed that lay dormant under a forgotten piece of earth. I was just waiting for the small ray of light and a few molecules of water to feed me so I could grow.

In one fail swoop, I was introduced to ingredients and cuisine from foreign lands. Suddenly there was more to dessert than chocolate chip cookies or cake and ice cream. And dinner was more than meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

When I moved to New York almost seven years ago, I was twenty years old. I was naïve, yet I thought I had the world all figured out. I had traveled abroad. I’d been to a few years of college. I knew it all.

Working as a nanny during my first year in NY taught me more than just how to take care of four small children simultaneously. I was living with a family who truly appreciated fine cooking and the art of cuisine. To a girl who grew up on canned veggies and Hamburger Helper, this was uncharted, but exciting, territory.

During that year, I shopped at Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Citarella, Dean and Deluca, and other gourmet markets. I ate at fun places in Manhattan. I was given my Professional series KitchenAid mixer by the people who employed me. They could see that there was something in me bursting to get out. Sure I could whip up a batch of cookies and cook spaghetti. But there was so much more awaiting me.

When I married my husband during my second year in NY, the union of my new found creativity and his unique sense of taste and smell collided in a wonderful way. I cooked and experimented; he tasted and critiqued. There were failures. There were successes.

All the while, I thought I was just having fun.

One day I was having a pity party—why wasn’t I born creative? Why couldn’t I sing or dance, or paint? Where was all my talent?

My husband told me something I will never forget. It was engraved upon my very soul. He told me that he’d never seen someone who was so creative. And what did I think I was doing in the kitchen all this time? Was that not pure, unadulterated creativity? Was I not an artist?

From that point on, cooking and baking took on new meaning. As did life–I saw myself for who I really was. That part of me that had been hidden and locked away was finally let out all the way.

I had finally found my true self.

Now maybe that seems like a stretch—“finding myself.” Isn’t that what people do when they go on long road trips with their friends or backpack through Europe? Or go through a horrible, debilitating illness?

I never thought of myself as being creative—not in the littlest, tiniest bit. Creativity was something reserved for poets, painters, musicians, vocalists, and photographers. (To name a few…) The thought of being an artist in the kitchen never occurred to me.

I enjoy the process of cooking. It has never become mundane to me.

I pour over recipes and cookbooks as someone might a book of poetry. I can tell by looking at a recipe how it will turn out and how it will taste. I appreciate what lies behind the scenes even more than the actual finished product.

Surely it must be the same with any artist—my medium is just different.

I adore the feel of bread dough between my hands. The smell of searing meat, melted butter, and toasting spices awakens me. I get excited watching butter and sugar whip in my stand mixer. I love to frost and decorate cakes. The joys and possibilities in the kitchen are endless. I’m always finding new ingredients to try. I’m always thinking of a better way to execute a recipe. Sometimes I don’t even need a recipe.

For the first twenty years of life, I was unknowingly stifled. The last seven have been a rebirth of sorts. And I hope the next five, ten, or fifty years bring as much wonder, excitement, and pure exhilaration.

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