This is how I cook – This is how I live!!

I was talking with a friend the other day and she mentioned she is going on a Leadership Retreat in France sometime in 2019. The Retreat Leader is a chef and they will be doing cooking lessons and relating how they cook to their management style. It made me reflect, as cooking is a huge passion of mine and a really big part of my life and connecting with people. Those of you who have come to my events and workshops, know what pleasure I take in preparing a festive, soulful and beautiful meal. It is part of my offering. A Ritual Food Celebration! That simple ritual of breaking bread together, moves me to my core.

I love everything food…….from grocery shopping, cooking, presenting and sharing the meal! I really began to see the similarities in how I cook and how I choose to live my life! Isn’t it fascinating what a little self-reflection will uncover? You see, I have never been a person who lives my life according to a plan. Let me back track a bit. I was a person who thought I had a plan for my life. When that blew up in my face over 20 years ago, I ditched the planning! As I reflect on my cooking, stand in the truth of what a fabulous cook I am, how much I love to feed and nurture people through my food, it dawns on me that it is also how I now live my life.

When I am cooking, I don’t follow recipes. Rather cooking for me is a passionate, creative expression that plummets me into the NOW like nothing else, well maybe sex!  I look at what I have for ingredients and then I go to town and create! Many of you know I am writing a cook book. It proves a difficult project because I’m so in the NOW when I cook, that I can’t duplicate what I did because I can’t remember as I was so in the moment while creating!  (I need an assistant!)

In my life, I also am not a planner which really pisses some people off. It’s not that I’m trying to piss anyone off, but rather I do what moves me in the NOW. Don’t misunderstand me, I can and do show up for appointments and commitments that I make. But what I do not do, is plan months or years into the future. I have spent years and thousands upon thousands of dollars on cultivating being in the moment, being present for my life. Not living in the past and not living in the future, but rather being HERE in the NOW.

This self-reflection on my cooking and living has really shown me that I am more present than not in my life these days. I’ll take it!! Our life is happening in the moment, not the past or future!! How much of your life are you missing? How many of you spend hours planning and scheduling every minute of your life? Usually we make all these plans and then life happens. LIFE happens on its own terms. It is bigger than us, something we can’t control. We are meant to experience, not control LIFE.

Trust me, I’m still a work in progress; I always will be! Most of our control issues are attempts at keeping ourselves safe. In my training at Hartford Family Institute in Body-Centered Psychotherapy, I learned to cultivate a relationship with my fear rather than negate it. Fear is part of being human. I know I was more scared than I ever consciously knew. But knowing that, now gives me the power to create internal safety. When I feel safe inside and connected to my life force, I can live and create with wreckless abandon!

I’m going to share a recent meal I prepared! I had 2 gorgeous pieces of swordfish. I opened my refrigerator and looked at what was in there. This is what I created!

Grilled Swordfish with Tina’s Green Sauce
2 pieces of swordfish
Olive oil
½ Onion finely chopped
3 cloves of Garlic finely minced
½ Jalapeno pepper finely minced

2 limes juiced
Honey
Handful of Cilantro
Salt and Pepper

Rub your swordfish with olive oil. Sprinkle with Salt and Pepper. Cook on a hot grill – about 7 minutes
total. (cooking time will depend on the thickness of your fish)
While your fish is grilling:
In a skillet over medium-high heat, pour about a tablespoon of olive oil, heat and add onions, stir and let
cook about a minute, add garlic and jalapeno, stir and cook for a couple of minutes.

In a blender, add cilantro, lime juice and about ¼ c water, blend.

Add about a tablespoon of honey and the contents of the blender to the skillet. Let cook for about 2-3
minutes.

Add your grilled fish to the skillet, top with sauce, let simmer for about 2 minutes! Enjoy!!
Here’s to cooking and living in the NOW!!

Love,

Tina