The Invisible Guest

Much about cooking is about movement and the direct opposite is true for taking photographs. Taking photographs is all about stillness. Holding your breath while trying to photograph a bird, hoping it will keep still long enough to capture its coloring so you can identify it later. Looking at a loved one in just the perfect light, with the perfect tilt of their head that allows the light to play on their facial features just the right way... The moment you say, "Hold it." They move. The moment where "stillness" was required has passed, the image gone.

Cooking requires movement. Yeast must grow. Dough must rise and expand. As I always say, Dear Readers, "Cooking is dynamic." The fact cooking is dynamic is why I find it so intriguing and enjoyable. As you know, I have written a cookbook that is due for release soon. Essentially the book is complete and ready to publish. Through the process of writing my cookbook, I have discovered that writing is also dynamic. Words may be written on a page and seem "still" but they are anything but "still." The reader takes the words on the page into their life and from there, the words take flight. In the case of a cookbook, the words on the page form a recipe which is then used by the reader to create food for a meal; thus, the author becomes the invisible guest at the meal. In the case of a novel, the author may make the reader laugh, cry, smile or be afraid. (Hopefully a cookbook will NOT elicit crying or fear!) Writing, like photographs and cooking, is powerful!

The next time you try some of the recipes on my Recipes Page, remember to set a place for me, the invisible guest,  at the table... Metaphorically speaking...

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