VIDELICET

January 29, 2010

Videlicet
\ve-‘de-le-‘set\ adv : that is to say : namely*

I hate cooking. Within the past year, I have had to cook my meals myself and even though I am proud of my yearning to be self-sufficient, the satisfaction of creating an edible masterpiece has still not engulfed me despite how delectable the meal is (and believe me, that is not often). I think where my problem lays is in prepping the necessary ingredients, time management and patience to make sure the food is properly cooked, (ok, so I have a problem with the whole process). I remember in one episode of Dawson’s Creek, Dawson said about his father that he loved movies in the purest sense, to watch them. That analogy suits my obsession with food perfectly; I hate producing meals, I just love eating them!
My mother was kind enough to make a recipe book for me to ensure my ability to feed myself successfully. I opened that little spiral notebook and the all the different ingredients overwhelmed me, videlicet the complicated ones, spices whose names I still cannot pronounce. I was told that to experiment was ok and even encouraged so as to be a little more flexible with each dish I manifested. So, I took my mom and aunt’s advice and decided to “have fun with it”! Let’s just say, some were enjoyable, some were not. I relegated myself to my little trusty recipe book once again and instead of having a burned dish whose components I didn’t recognize, I dulled my knife cutting chicken, charred but familiar!

* first and third letter “e” are upside down creating sound of “uh.”