"The Young and the Jobless" — Afterward

…are broke when…

The first thing that came to mind was “…you’re buying ingredients that you can’t afford to make incredible dinners.”

I’m not broke. In fact, I just got a promotion. (Wednesday, bossman and I are renegotiating my salary.) But when I read that sentence somewhere on the Internet, that’s what first came to mind. Even if I were broke, I don’t think I could stop cooking.

I’m no connoisseur, but I love how the first taste of a splendid dish is as warming as the gratitude you feel toward the gods of the kitchen. I love the way a combination of strange ingredients can turn into the best taste you’ve ever had. It’s like science turned into art, and art back into science again.

Tonight, I made a heartwarming spicy bean and sausage soup — savory, delicious. Over the weekend, I threw ingredients together into a pot, and watched them take form: They melded into an excellent pasta sauce.

It’s like Sir Isaac Newton put it: “…I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” Though I’m pretty sure he wasn’t referring to cooking, he’s captured exactly how I feel about it.