I had wrote this in a previous blog but I liked this idea so much I dug it out of my archives and updated it a little bit.

Over the past couple of years I started to learn to cook. Cooking from scratch is new to me. Even though I am fifty-five years of age and I have raised a houseful of children, I never did learn to cook. I always cooked things that were in a box or meals that were pre-made and frozen from the freezer department at the grocery store. So, when I started dating Paul, I started trying to cook. Which of course was a shock to my children. Their first words when they heard I had cooked a meal was, “what? She never cooked for us”. I have learned that I really love to cook, and of course it shows too. I really enjoy learning about the new spices that I can use to season food with. All these new smells and tastes, it has been incredible. Paul has been introducing me to different kinds of foods from various countries. I must say that I love the taste of lamb and goat as well. I still don’t know how to even go about cooking that, but I will learn, I am sure. To go along with learning to cook meat and vegetables, I have been trying to learn how to bake deserts. That has been real fun. I am always making mistakes with that one, but it has been fun trying. I used to hate going to the grocery store, I would always get so upset that I would more than likely just walk out or be in a bad mood. It was a total dislike for me, I hated it. Now I enjoy going to the store. But before I go, I prepare. I spend time writing lists, looking at recipes and figuring out what I can make to go with this or that. What used to be a nightmare for me is now enjoyable. I love to cook. I also spend time searching for recipes on the internet, and what to my amazement is that there are so many. So, I have a lot of trial and error meals, and of course Paul is my taste tester. He seems to enjoy it. I have only cooked one thing so far that was bad, even I could not stand it hardly, but we ate it, but it was bad. I had started to eat olives right out of the jar to counter act the taste because it was that bad. It was sauerkraut and hot dogs, cooked together. So, I must say from now on they stay on the hot dogs covered with chili. During my time at learning to cook, I have thought of creative ways to look at things in the kitchen. If you look around, you can see things in a whole new light.

 But see Paul and me, we both have aches and pains because of Fibromyalgia and arthritis, plus we have had injuries to our backs and hands. So naturally we hurt like crazy, especially on cold mornings. I have been looking into see what herbs and spices that can be used as an alternative to medicine. I was taking fourteen pills in the morning and eleven pills in the evening, now I am down to like five in the morning and four in the evening, and I have plans to keep on reducing that as well. Plus, we have started to go to the gym to walk, not as much as I would like us to, but when the notion hit us, we do go. I feel much better now that we do that. The ones that know me, know that I had gained a lot of weight, I was right at 200 lbs. I got where I couldn’t get up out of the bed without help from my children especially if I slept on my back. I would become paralyzed and couldn’t move. I had a hard time walking and even doing basic everyday things. I was suffering from depression and bipolar disorder. I had grown up in an abusive environment then lived on the streets as a pregnant teenager. Then when I did get married, he was an abusive person. We finally divorced, but he still hung around and I just couldn’t break from the cycle of the abuse. I had gotten so depressed and I had gotten to the point where I said enough was enough, and I made a decision to get better. I started to lose the weight and I started to change my way of looking at things. But it was a conscious decision to change the way things were. I still have my bad days, but I must say that things are better (much, much better).

When you have hands that have arthritis in them, they hurt, and you have a hard time using them, even the basic things like opening jars or doing things like buttons on clothes is very difficult. But what I do miss was giving foot messages. Then the other day my muscles in my legs were very sore and hurt to touch, so I reached down and rubbed my leg muscles and the pain eased up just a little, so I thought I wish I had something that would help. I started to think; I am the kind of person that people say, “oh no, she is thinking again”. However, I did start to think, and I was looking on the internet for recipes at that moment and I had gotten this email from a cooking course in baking. I saw in this email; someone was rolling out pastry dough. I had a light bulb moment. I thought, what a wonderful idea. The idea was to get a rolling pin, the kind with handles and I could use that to roll out my muscles. I am sure it is on the internet, but it never occurred to me to even look. So, Paul took me to the store last night, just to look around, wasn’t going to buy anything, however, I saw a rolling pin. Naturally, my thoughts went right back to the idea of using a rolling pin to roll out my leg muscles. I got it, and I tried it out on Paul. Of course, now my taste tester is now my Guinea pig. It worked and then he rolled me out like a pastry dough. I loved it, and I thought what an idea, this was awesome, because it was much easier to use the rolling pin. The pain wasn’t anywhere as bad as if I was trying to massage his feet with my hands, plus you really get into the muscles with the pin. What an awesome idea for people with pain disorders. So naturally, I am always looking for new ideals for my newfound hobby, the kitchen. Who knows it might just lead to other new found hobbies?