Thursday, August 7, 2008

Make me better, Pixar!





I have to admit it: Ratatouille is one of my most inspirational movies of late. A few days ago I was in a funk, so to cheer me up, Marcos put on Ratatouille while we were eating dinner. We rarely do this, but it is a nice treat every once in a while. Pause there, fast forward two days.

Yesterday I was in the kitchen, making lasagna for the first time in a decade or so, and lines from the movie kept coming back into my mind: "Shoulders in! Keep your area clean! The mark of a good chef is clean sleeves and a dirty apron!". My chopping skills weren't nearly as quick as Linguini becomes in the movie, but I was totally inspired to make good food. That "anyone can cook" phrase was my mantra as I pranced around our tiny kitchen, throwing in herbs, chopping onions, mixing spinach and ricotta and seasoning my browning beef. I almost felt the veggies flying in perfect arches through the air, and the aroma was exquisite....

In the end, the lasagna wasn't actually as amazing as I was hoping it would be, but the eaters were heavy on the compliments, and gave suggestions for how to make it better next time. Favorite lesson learned from Ratatouille: Keep your area clean! It was so much easier to clean up in the end, because I had cleaned as I cooked!



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