Food and F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

When I was a little girl, I was fascinated by the speed and efficiency with which my mom cooked delicious and healthy meals at home. As kids, I remember my brother and I being raised on a nutritious vegetarian diet with some eggs thrown in for the 'extra' protein. Never once do I remember going to sleep feeling hungry or bloated. Sometimes, I did complain about the 'eating daals everyday' routine but overall I loved my mom's home cooked food.

As I grew older, like most Indian households, my mom started teaching me easy recipes and then things like Rotis and Khichdis that you can have almost everyday. Suddenly, my fascination turned to dislike as I vehemently opposed the idea of making food every single day (albeit the opposition occured only in my mind!)

Then came college, higher education and so many extracurricular activities that my parents joked about me just coming home to sleep and eat. And cooking took a back seat.

Everything dramatically and drastically changed when I moved to the USA. Four ugly looking electric stoves, loads of veggies in the fridge and 7 Indian recipes cookbooks stared me in the face everytime I ventured in the kitchen. Eating out wasn't healthy, wasn't cheap and wasn't fun (everyday).

And, that is how I started cooking regularly- starting out with baby steps (a simple veggie with rotis brought over from the indian store) to the more elaborate (sabji, daal, salads, buttermilk and rotis brought over from the indian store). Ok, so I didn't cook everyday with my hectic work schedule but I managed to do it atleast thrice a week and in about a month, it started getting less of a 'chore that gets on my nerves' to a 'task that relaxes me'.

I've now ventured into Italian cooking with a gusto- Surrounded by thyme, rosemary and basil I cooked up quite a pasta storm in the kitchen yesterday!

Now, I look forward to reaching home from work exhausted, freshen up, quickly decide a menu, take out the ingredients from the fridge, turn the TV around to face the kitchen and watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S while I cook. It's relaxing in a different sort of way.

Walking relaxes me because it gives me the time to look at things that I miss when I am driving my car. Dancing relaxes me by the enormous amount of exercise involved, Music relaxes me like no other thing and cooking, well yes, cooking relaxes me by being repetitive, its almost therapautic for me.

So while I chop up the fresh yellow and green bell peppers, tomatoes and walnuts for my salad, Joey comes in to say 'How u doin' and I also laugh out aloud with the whole gang- Yep including Chandler ;-)