happiness

Recently I was looking through some pictures I’d taken last year and the year before at around the same time of year and I noticed that in previous years, I’d done a lot more cooking and baking than I have this year. This got me thinking – “Why wasn’t I doing that this year? What about the previous years facilitated so much more intensive food-making?”

Of course I came up with a bunch of quick excuse-answers – I had more time back then (fat chance, time is the same); I wasn’t as financially burdened (bullcrap, finances have next to nothing to do with it); I enjoy cooking for other people and lately I’ve been the only person around (a more reasonable answer but still can be fixed rather easily).

Cooking for other people is something that makes me happy, whipping up more than a simple, easy meal provides more satisfaction and, as I’ve mentioned here recently, this year I aim to take better care of myself and that includes my mental state. If it makes me happy, I should do more of it.

The other week I bought a butternut squash, chopped it up, cooked it down, pureed the bits in my wonderful-totally-worth-every-penny food processor, and layered it up with some home-made sauces, easy bake noodles and delivered a lasagna to two very deserving people (three, including myself).