Cauliflower, Gordon Ramsay, and Hobbies

Guess what?

I have a hobby.

And it’s not writing.

Shocker, right? Writing used to be my hobby, back when I was seventeen. I would spend all my extra time writing, and I never wanted to do anything else. I would get all my work done, and then go write and love every minute of it.

Now, I’m twenty-four. Writing is my career. And my passion. But it’s not my hobby.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t love it. I do. I swear. But, to me, a hobby is what you do to rest your brain, to recharge after a tough day or week, and to give yourself a bit of a treat.

And, especially in this last year, I began to realize that I needed something to recharge my brain after I spent all day writing. As much as I love it, as much as I want to do it every day for the rest of my life, I still need a break every now and then. For mental health.

Balance is a good thing. I’m discovering that.

Lately, and especially since I moved into my little house and got my own kitchen, I have discovered a new love for cooking.

Not baking. Cooking. I can’t bake.

For one thing, I don’t have an oven. For another, I am a terrible baker.

As I mentioned in this post, my sister bought me a pass to Gordon Ramsay’s masterclass, and, as I’ve had time, I’ve been going through his lessons. The passion that he puts into everything he does is so inspiring to me, and although I have no intention of ever entering the food industry (because I am a ball of stress and I would die if that many people were yelling at me at once), I have loved learning from such a master.

I’ve also been experimenting with recipes on my own, learning from Pinterest, Youtube, and good old trial and error. One thing that I’ve found I LOVE is cauliflower rice and zucchini noodles. I cook for my mom a lot, and we are both sensitive to white flour and high carbs, so it has been so fun to experiment with alternatives and come up with tasty recipes that are low carb AND delicious.

(Apparently, this is actually possible. Who would have guessed?)

It has been such an adventure for me to delve into a new hobby and try my hand at something that I’m not already good at. (I might have freaked out to a few of my friends the first time I poached an egg properly.) As I develop more as a writer and take my career choices more seriously, it has become important that I have something to rest my brain and recharge a little bit.

What are some new hobbies that you have picked up since the New Year? Tell me in the comments! I’d love to hear about it!