My sister and boyfriend have long been in competition with one another to find me the perfect Christmas gift. After years of bead sets, paints, a sewing machine and a membership to the Art Institute of Chicago, and many years later, my boyfriend finally triumphed over my sister.
He got me a Kitchenaid stand mixer. My love for the object was timid at first (I hate the color red...God bless my boyfriend's colorblind soul), but I was eager to experiment with the tiny machine. Since then, it has transformed my relationship with food and invigorated my own sense of creativity.
My sister, however, did not walk away empty handed. She, like many others, had succumbed to the cupcake obsession sweeping the contemporary food scene. And in her honor, armed with my newly installed mixer, I made my first batch of pumpkin cupcakes. Each cupcake was iced to pearly perfection with a decadent cream cheese frosting then topped with a flower-shaped sprinkle.
These cupcakes, which my friends affectionately coined "crack cupcakes" due to their addictive nature, spawned my dangerous love affair with baking, cooking and all things culinary. I found myself poring over food blogs for hours and had successfully made the Food Network the only acceptable TV channel in the apartment. Paying attention during Ancient Slavic Civilization lectures took a backseat to planning my next meal.
As I began churning out batches of cupcakes, I turned to the potluck as a medium for exhibiting my creations. Breakfast get-togethers gave way to more formal dinner potlucks and, eventually, to weekly gatherings, sandwiched between classes and held on a dingy art studio table. These spaces had now become situations crafted for discussion.
The food created a platform for debates, story-telling, brainstorming and any other kind of exchange. I cherished these meetings for the way they transformed my friendships and views of how to engage and mobilize groups of people.
I see the potluck as a form of art: It is mobile, spontaneous and distinctly different each time it is performed.
Or maybe it's all just an excuse to bake. I mean, who doesn't like to lick a wooden spoon clean? Plus, let's be honest, I'm still a broke college student. It's really about adapting, pushing my creativity and stretching the ingredients. And at the end of the day, from the moment that frosting touches my lips until the last crumb has been swept clean off the plate, I am grateful for some seriously tasty and wonderfully creative eating.
-TRACY CHOU
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