When you stand on your feet for hours, chopping, washing, peeling, stirring, and measuring, and then you finally "plate up" your creation...and your instructor cuts into it with a knife, and tastes it with her fork...pauses, and then looks up at you and says "Very nice." It is quite the thrill for me.

Creating disastrous food happens as well.  In my food failures in the kitchen at school, my eyes have filled with tears and I have almost lost it in a crying tantrum.  I haven't done that yet though, I've managed to keep it together.  I am normally not the tantrum type, but something about cooking (and prepping food for 3 hours) makes me feel a wide range of extreme emotion.  Which is also thrilling.

But the spectrum between feeling accomplished, proud, and excited about a meal that you have created versus being frustrated, upset and disappointing with how your "meal" turned out (or burned) is why I love cooking.  You never know what kind of day it's going to be- one that goes outstandingly or one where you hold back that burst of tears.

I am really enjoying school for these reasons.  I have never been in school for something that I am so interested in.  When I come home, I get excited about making coffee and reading my text book on how to cut up a chicken.  The only thing that has held me back from experiencing this enthusiasm for school so far has been exhaustion, and even that is exciting.  I like coming home at the end of classes and being tired, because I feel like I have worked hard- and it took a few months of working (not as hard) to appreciate that feeling.

My classes are 5 hours long, and so you really get to know your fellow classmates.  We work in teams, so it is a social experience as well as an artistic creation.  I wouldn't enjoy it half as much if I wasn't engaging in team-work simultaneously.

Sometimes, in the middle of winter, I like to experience things that remind me of warmer and sunnier days.  This may mean using lotion that smells like coconut, listening to the beach boys, or baking a key lime pie.  Something about experiencing things associated with summer through my senses makes me happier as I remember that once upon a time, I was wearing shorts a t-shirt instead of four layers of thermal underwear.  All that to say, here is a recipe for key lime pie that I'm going to make this weekend: 

Recipe by Paula Deen:

KEY LIME PIE

One 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup key lime juice
1 tsp. grated lime zest
3 eggs, separated
one 8 inch home-made graham cracker crust 
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/4 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 325.  In a medium bowl, combine the milk, lime juice, and zest; blend in the egg yolks.  Pour the filling into the crust.  For the meringue, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until soft peaks form.  Gradually beat in the sugar until the mixture is stiff.  Spread the meringue over the filling; spread it to touch the edge of the crust all around.  Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until meringue is golden brown.