The Joy of Cooking for Others.

Hello, friends! We’ve made it! It’s Friday! I’m SO ready to put on some cozy clothes and relax. Maybe figure out what I want to cook for lunch. Speaking of lunch…

I was lucky enough in life to be born into a family of fantastic cooks. I’ve been fed so many delicious meals in my life. And gosh, homemade cooking certainly is filled to the brim with love. In my experience, the secret ingredient is always love. My family always jokes around, “The secret ingredient is love!” “Oh! That’s why it tastes so good!”.

In our hectic lives, it sure can be a challenge to find the gumption to make a meal from scratch. We typically will opt for something a little easier, a drive-thru or pizza delivery, or perhaps a frozen meal. And believe me, I have utilized all of those and with zest. Especially as a busy college student.

I’ve been making the biggest of efforts lately to make more food at home. As I said in my last blog post, I was making my first-ever homemade batch of banana bread. For those curious, it turned out wonderful. Bobby said it was one of the best pieces of banana bread he ever had! I’ll take it!

I absolutely love that I’ve been getting more into cooking lately. It’s so fun looking for different recipes online, utilizing cookbooks, and, my personal favorite, trying out family recipes. Bobby’s favorite is my Aunt Nonie’s white chicken chili. I kid around with him saying it’s the only reason he proposed to me, hehe.

To me, it’s so exciting being able to give someone a handmade dessert to make their life a little sweeter. Or maybe bring them a little container full of soup when they’re too busy to cook for themselves. It’s a way to nurture those you love. I love when I have days off to spend cooking and baking for Bobby and myself. He is a very gracious eater, he will tell me my cooking tastes good even though I know, 100%, that it is a little too burnt. Or when I overcook rice, he swears up and down that he likes when rice is crunchy. Isn’t he wonderful?

I have many fond memories of cooking and baking with my Aunt Nonie. We made brownies, cookies, goofballs, potpies, deviled eggs, and so much more. Yesterday, she stopped by to bring me some goofballs and I was able to give her some banana bread. I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to be able to gift her something handmade, as she has done for me my entire life.

I feel like one can use cooking to fulfill each and every love language! Let me explain…

It is a gift you can give to your loved ones, making someone’s favorite meal shows that you listen to their likes and dislikes. People whose love language is receiving gifts, I think, like to know that people are listening to them. If they talk about how they hate the raisins in oatmeal cookies and you give them a batch, despite your best intentions, they probably won’t feel loved. BUT, if you make them a batch of oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips instead, they will appreciate that you were not only listening to them, but also gifted them with something so thoughtful.

You can spend time together cooking, for those whose love language is quality time. Cooking can be done together, which is such a fun thing to do. Decorating cookies can be a fun and silly way to be in the kitchen, even if both parties aren’t very good at cooking.  Another way that you can spend time with each other is to eat the food together! You could have a little tea party with coffee and tea with some yummy sweets or cute little sandwiches. On a side note: why don’t we have more tea parties? All my practice as a little girl was for naught, I have been to ZERO tea parties as a young adult.

You can compliment each other on your cooking, for someone whose love language is words of affirmation. (Me! Me! Me!) Or if you’re cooking for someone else, you can compliment them by saying, “I know that you’ve been working so hard lately, I thought you might enjoy a home-cooked meal. You deserve it!” Or maybe even a nice little pasta dish with a cute note attached. Just showing them that not only were you thinking of them, but you were also appreciating them.

Some people’s love language is physical touch. Bringing someone a fresh batch of cookies with a hug can be a really powerful thing as well. I can’t think of anything cozier than a batch of cookies AND a nice hug! Sometimes life gets complicated, and something so simple can fix it, even for just a moment.

And for the one that fits the absolute best, acts of service! Cooking for someone is such a great idea if this is their love language. Cooking can be quite labor intensive and is certainly an amazing fit. Or, if you have a loved one who cooks for you, doing the dishes for them would be a great act of service to do as a thank you! Bobby does really well at doing the dishes if I make a big meal. Acts of service is Bobby’s love language. I find it so cute, because making a dish for us is like saying, “I love you!” and when he does the dishes, it’s like him saying, “I love you, too!”.

There are so many wonderful ways we can tell each other that we love one another, but today I wanted to focus on cooking. I’m such a sensitive and sentimental person that writing this blog post has made my little heart ache with all the love I have for those close to me! I’m thankful for all the new ways I’m learning to show people my love, and cooking is my new favorite!

Have a great day!

XOXO,

Mattie Mae