"Good painting is like good cooking; it can be tasted, but not explained" Maurice de Vlaminck

Not only does food conveys pleasure through eating but also through cooking. I'd go as far as saying that cooking is my favourite part in a dinner. It is such a great feeling to gather many ingredients and see what we are able to make with them. Of course cooking requires patience and determination: sometimes, no matter how hard you try to follow a recipe, the result is not what you expected and you have to try many times before succeeding. It is like a challenge., an adventure unless you are a professional or used to cook a special dish.

However it is interesting to see that cooking is not always a pleasure. My mother would totally disagree if she heard me saying that cooking is enjoyable. It is more a fatigue than a pleasure for her and it is understandable because making two or three meals a day for a whole family requires skills, time and imagination to cook different dishes everyday. Indeed, I am sure most of you have read Harry Potter, and you must know that those who cook the meals for the Hogwarts pupils are the house-elves, that is to say, slaves. Making food is a task left to those who are supposed to do the housekeeping and everything the others do not want to do.

I found a blog (http://shampasadhya.hubpages.com/hub/Five-Tips-To-Make-Cooking-a-Pleasure) where a woman writes that cooking is "unavoidable" and she gives a list of ideas to "make cooking a pleasure". Here is what she suggests :

- add a special touch to a dish, which means change something to the original or usual recipe.

- remember what people you love love eating, in order to cook the dishes they like the most.

- take as much time as needed to cook, not to be pressed for time.

- choose what you will cook in advance, in order to be sure you have all the ingredients required and be prepared when you begin to cook.

- have a real will to make it good in order to make it as a goal to reach. You'll be even prouder of yourself and happier to succeed.

I especially agree with the first tip she gives because I do love adding my personal touch to recipes, for instance peanut butter in my cookie dough, sauce béchamel to my croque-monsieurs (the sauce béchamel is actually part of the croque-monsieurs recipe but my mother never cooked them with sauce béchamel, which is why I consider it as a personal touch from me) or a green icing on my lemon cake.

This idea of personal touch makes me think about a book I read entitled 211 things a bright girl can do. There is a chapter where the author Bunty Cutler explains what to do to pretend a ready meal is homemade and this is everything about personal touches, like frying a onion - the smell will make your guests think you spent your day cooking and the onion adds a special taste to the dish -, take off all packaging and serve the food in your  nice crockery, add herbs, add little extras like cherry tomatoes, cheese or olives, these little things that give personality and singlarity to the dish, which will make your gests think you cooked it yourself.

This is a way to avoid cooking and not really a solution to enjoy it, but I found this excerpt funny and original and I enjoy so mch the idea of personal touch that I wanted to share it.

By the way, I was talking about croque-monsieurs and I don't know if it's something you are familiar with, which is why I want to give you my recipe :

for 6 croque-monsieurs

Take twelve pieces of toast. Spread a thin layer of butter on each.

Prepare the sauce béchamel: mix 80-100 grammes of melted butter in a saucepan with flour, add flour until you get a thick texture. Then put the saucepan on fire at low heat and add milk and whip until getting a creamy substance. Add salt and pepper.

Pour the sauce on each piece of toast. Then, put a slice of ham on six pieces of toast and grated cheese on the other six. Put a piece of toast with grated cheese on it on each piece of toast with ham. You obtain six sandwiches.

Put them on a tray and bake them in the oven until they look golden.

 This is delicious and one of my favourite recipes when I have to feed many people. Because most of time, and as for me, cooking is a pleasure when I cook for the others.