When growing up, I remember watching certain shows. I remember watching shows from the Disney Channel like Liv and Maddie, A.N.T. Farm, Wizards of Waverly Place, and many more. I also remember watching cartoon shows like Tom and Jerry, My Little Pony, Ever After High, Scooby-Doo, and many more.
Now, as a young adult, I believe that I have grown out of some of the shows that I used to watch. But there are shows from one network that I will not stop watching. That network is the Food Network.
Growing up, I was always watching shows on the Food Network. The shows that I would watch constantly were Triple D (Dinner, Dive-ins, and Dives), Cutthroat Kitchen, Chopped, Cake Wars, Cupcake Wars, Iron Chef, and Iron Chef: America.
Those were the shows that, in a way, were my childhood. I grew up watching some of the best chefs compete for a title, for money, or for fun. I have recently rediscovered my love for the Food Network, and it made me realize something.
Other than my dad cooking and my mom baking, I have learned how to cook and how to bake from the network, making cooking and baking two of my favorite hobbies and making the kitchen a safe and fun place to be in.
In a way, I was raised in the kitchen. My mom always had me in the kitchen when she was baking when I was a kid. We were always eating the raw dough for the cookies, brownies, or cakes that she made. There were times when I helped my dad when he was cooking, whether that be cooking stuffing while he was getting the pork chops ready, or prepping the rice. (There is a proper way to cook rice.)
I remember when I was a kid, I pretended that I made up meals, and I had my parents pretend to try it and tell me what needed to be added. Over the past few years, I began asking if I could make dinner for my parents, and that changed everything. I can cook food from Asian cuisine to Italian cuisine to American cuisine.
For those who know me, they know that I can cook and that I love to cook. When I recently cooked for a few of my friends, I made andouille and shrimp gumbo with rice. That is a meal that I never thought that I would be able to make. But being able to make a complicated dish like that was so fulfilling, especially when they said that it was delicious.
Cooking and baking have always brought me comfort. It brings back memories of when I was a child, when my parents were always in the kitchen. It brings me back to stealing uncooked homemade stuffing from my Nana at Thanksgiving. The kitchen brings me comfort and joy and opens up a world of possibilities for me.