A paid culinary education.
More gratitude for my job. I am really being challenged in my cooking skills. As implied earlier, this was a pretty tough job at first. I have felt pretty confident in the kitchen previously, and am not shy about cooking for other people. It came as a big disappointment when I realized that R and M were not exactly amazed by my kitchen skills. Cooking is a big way that I like to bless and give to people, so it was hard for me to not take this personally. I don'’t think I was making BAD food, but I do think that we have pretty different taste buds. Then there is the limited diet: no gluten, no grains besides rice (but not too much of that, or it could trigger an allergy,) no dairy, no sugar of any kind, including fruit, no eggs, no soy, and then some random items like mushrooms, kidney beans, etc. I recently decided to start cooking almost strictly from recipes, rather than experience, so that when something bombed it was the recipe that failed, instead of me. That has worked out pretty well, and I am enjoying branching out and trying new things. The other fun part is working with someone else'’s (quite ample) food budget. I am preparing lamb and cornish game hens, buying fresh coconuts and kafir lime leaves. It feels good to learn to cook new things, and to get paid to try them out. I may not cook as enthusiastically at home these days, but, honestly, I probably cook better.