It has only been a week since I wrote about the nagging feeling that I’m supposed to be accomplishing something in retirement. I vowed to do what feels good and see what happens. I think it’s working!
I made a list of my favorite things:
- Reading
- Writing
- Golf
- Walking
- Cooking
I can sort of feel the drive slipping away and am grateful I have the option of retirement. Why not just focus on what makes me happy? Sure, there are work-related activities that give me pleasure and satisfaction, but I must say it feels pretty good to wake up and not worry about what I’m going to achieve in life. Such a heavy load.
My happy list includes cooking, because we love to eat, and we hate eating bad or mediocre food, and we hate spending money on bad or mediocre food. We are both excellent home cooks and have been obsessed with food since our first date. As I started to think more about the role of food in our lives, I added up the cookbooks and food-related publications we’ve collected over 40 years.
I counted 193 books, 14 years of Gourmet magazines, five notebooks of clipped recipes and stacks of miscellaneous publications, including Cook’s Illustrated and Chile Pepper magazines. The bookcase photographed above is just outside the kitchen, but there’s an annex in the guest bedroom upstairs. Oh, and we converted a downstairs bedroom into a walk-in pantry for a second refrigerator and cooking supplies. One of our neighbors said it looked like Williams Sonoma.
As I get older, I’m concerned about using the things we have or getting rid of them. My sister and I both started wearing old jewelry for no good reason other than you can’t take it with you. If you love it, use it, wear it. Same with good china, crystal, special serving pieces. Use them! I’m starting to feel the same way about all these recipes.
Although I love to read cookbooks just for sport, I know there’s a treasure trove of great recipes dating back to the 70s, 80s and 90s. I want to dust them off and see what has been hiding in plain sight. I believe I would find that fulfilling. We enjoy spicy food, so I’m pretty sure we’ll have to jazz up some of these recipes to suit our current tastes. It just sounds like fun to me.
I’ve been reading up on copyright and how to feature the books on my blog and publish recipes – no illusions about being a food blogger – but I definitely want to share the nuggets and write more about how food and cooking enhances retirement lifestyle. Even if you are among those who just view food as fuel, you have to eat. Eat well!
So, there you have it. I’ll continue to file these articles under Food & Drink until I come up with something better. Even that is progress for me – the old Donna would have waited until everything was perfect and perfectly packaged. I’m evolving! I even gave ugly (but delicious) cupcakes to my neighbor. I think about the tantrum I might have thrown 20 years ago over making ugly cupcakes and am grateful to say it’s easier being me these days.
Which team are you on? Eat-to-live or live-to-eat?
Live to eat, but hate to cook. My late husband was one of those people who read cookbooks like novels. He cooked every weekend and holiday meal during our marriage. I love to eat, and live to eat but take no joy in cooking as such (and yes, I’ve tried) so I use my frugal slow cooker, love baking and am gratefull that really good french restaurants exist and that I have many really good cooks in my family other than I.
Well, at least you know yourself and have found something that works! Although we enjoy cooking, we mostly do it because we make good food.
I think I’m on team live-to-eat for the simple fact that I love tasty food. I do strive to eat nutritiously bumped up with good chocolate, ice cream treats, cookies. I spend time menu planning, shopping and cooking. I read cookbooks and browse recipe sites. I want to go to Italy and eat. When people come home from a trip, I often ask what was the best thing they ate. I seek out the triple D and You Gotta Eat Here restaurants. Eating at 2 restaurants with award-winning chefs was a highlight of a trip to Nova Scotia (we stayed in a hostel to offset the cost). I’m hungry right now.
You sound like us! I will eat treats, cookies, etc., but they’d better be good. I believe you can get away with eating more decadent food if you make it yourself. But I might just be making that up. We watch the Food Network pretty much all the time and have eaten in a couple of Triple D joints. Oh, and thanks for hyphenating live-to-eat. Much better.