Creativity Over Break

During this vacation, I expanded my use of culinary abilities and challenged myself with the use of new ingredients. Cooking has been a key part of my life. Growing up and waking up to new scents in the kitchen is a pivotal part of my childhood that I believe contributed to my relationship with cooking today. Not only have I been exposed to traditional Costa Rican foods but growing up in a tourist town I was exposed to different foods from many different cultures, the way food plays such an important role in families all around the world I feel is one of the most important things a culture has to offer.

With that in mind,​ I have been exploring new techniques and a wider range of ingredients to create new dishes that completely changed my outlook on food. My break started with going to the beach with my friends and I was in charge of bringing food; I had the morning to come up with something that was gonna be enough to feed all my friends as well as some family members. Now the convenient thing would have been to reach for the pasta or make sandwiches but as I started thinking I thought why not go for something that I can have fun with so I began to look around my fridge and found a few miscellaneous items that I didn’t really know what to do with until I laid the ingredients out on my table and just started cooking. I ended up coming up with a vegetable and beef but I incorporated fresh ginger and many new spices and flavors that I hadn’t had experience cooking before. After finishing this dish I realized how intriguing it is o cook with ingredients I wasn’t necessarily used to cooking before, I just began to explore and try out new recipes. I made food such as ginger blueberry muffins, dehydrated my own fruit and toasted nuts and oats to make granola…along working with my mom and my family to make tamales for the holidays I really connected and strengthened my relationship with food over this break and through creativity, I could expand and test all types of limits. I look forward to continuing my journey with food and further expanding my culinary skills.