baked beans

08/06/07
As I sit here, eating cold baked beans directly from a can, I come to realize how culinarly inept I am, or rather, allow myself to become. Even with my own earlier efforts at creativity, as I added Ginger and even cinnamon bark to my rice, the latter to no effect, I have somehow allowed dormant baking skills, present from the days of my first adding cinnamon to chocolate cookies or mint to my brownies to remain status quo: dormant. These past few days as I have been contemplating my choice between living in Oregon as a youth minister, or teaching English in france, I had decided on france for its opportunity to improve my language skills and reconnect with the French family. I even contemplated that with a little discipline, I could explore the vast world of francophone theology. Perhaps there is an even more pressing need, which will require perhaps even more discipline: learning how to actually cook. It is only fitting that I do this in france, as it remains, iconically, the center of the occidental culinary world.