adjective. 1. (especially of a food) having qualities that engender an intense desire for more: All too often, salt, sugar, fat, and “crunch” make a food craveable.
Ever since I can remember, I have had favorite foods. My first memory of falling in love with food was Mongolian Barbecue in Taiwan when I was just five years old. True story! While cooking wasn’t much of an interest in my household growing up, I can remember a few random times when I would cook simply because I was craving some specific dish. One time, I really wanted Artichoke Dip. As far as I was concerned, my mom’s recipe was the best artichoke dip on the planet, so I remember asking her if I could make the recipe to feed my craving. She said yes and confided the list of three ingredients. It was so easy, my head nearly exploded realizing that I could make this so quickly! One cup chopped up artichokes plus one cup mayonnaise and one cup Parmesan cheese. Eureka! We always had these ingredients on hand! I could make this whenever I wanted! What a glorious realization. And so I got to it – straining, chopping, measuring, mixing and baking all to sit down to a dish of warm, bubbly, cheesy, salty, creamy dip! FYI – still to this day, dip is one of my favorite food groups.
All that to say that I cook because I crave! Sometimes, I crave the very definition of comfort food – cheesy, creamy, crunchy, hearty combinations that leave me feeling well fed. Other times, I crave clean, healthy food – vegetables, high-fiber, wholesome ingredients that leave me feeling like my #BestSelf. Often times, I crave the satisfying act of making something from scratch with my hands, like pasta or bread or butter. I might crave a dish I ate at a restaurant and try to recreate it at home. Sometimes I crave steak. Or curry. Or kale and sweet potatoes. And I always, always crave nachos!
Whatever the craving, I am always thinking about food. Imagining, day-dreaming, creating and cooking. As I do, it brings me no greater joy than to make my creations available to all of you. After all, why would I keep all this amazingly craveable food to myself?
So good, it’s got to be shared!