truthfully, i never really cared to learn how to cook. it wasn’t something that interested me and it’s something i found to be so boring and trite. maybe i also found cooking to be depressing in a way, almost like it was just another thing i wasn’t very good at but i convinced myself i was okay with it.
i always appreciated a good meal. a meal of several taco bell crunchy tacos eaten in the front seat of my car (crumbs and ribbons of iceberg lettuce dusting the floor mats) were equally appreciated as the long, lingering dinner with multiple glasses of wine, slow and vibrant conversation, with something sweet to end the night.
younger me would read articles in cosmpolitan magazine about engagement chicken and i was fascinated by the idea that making a dish with your own hands could be so good that someone would propose to you just a mere weeks after. but i thought about the meals my mom or my brother have made me and how they made me feel comforted and loved when i needed it the most. but it wasn’t until later that i understood how cooking for yourself and others can feel transcendent and incredibly important. i have now come to appreciate cooking as an act of care, a reminder of patience, a plead to slow down.
try a little tenderness is a space where everyone can take a little piece for themselves. it’s a space where you can take a 'slice’ and tuck it away when you need something sweet or comforting. these simple recipes, the diary entries, the rambling q+a’s are all little morsels for you to remind yourself that we’re all here trying our best, forever learning to feel a little more, savor a bit longer, love again and again and to care forever.
i’m so happy you are here with me.
