Creative Beading

My Grandmother’s Sharp Solution To Stress

Each person has their own way of coping with the everyday problems and stresses that life is inclined to throw in front of them. ‘The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’, as Shakespeare said. Some people find that music relaxes them best of all. Others play a sport or go to the gym.

In many, particularly eastern countries, meditation, in some of its many forms is very popular for relaxation. Often different kinds of beans are used to assist in relieving stress. Indeed, traditional Roman Catholics use rosary beads, though this is mainly about praying. No doubt it is also relaxing. My grandmother frequently told me, when I was a child, that her two knife sets were what relaxed her.

Since, as a kid, I did not understand the concept of stress in the first place, I really had no idea what she was talking about. Now, I know exactly what she meant. Indeed, as somebody who spent, what seems like her whole life, in the kitchen, having de-stressing gadgets nearby, made complete sense.

Perhaps, many of them did. But mine was addicted to cooking and baking. In one corner of her kitchen, at the furthest end away from the cooker, she had a not insubstantial freestanding bookshelf. It was a considerable, personal, library for her alone. It was stuffed with every conceivable kind of cook book. Some where so old, that I imagine she got them when she was not much more than a teenager.

As a child, of course, I had no idea whether this was normal for all grandmothers or whether mine was unique. One thing was sure, I didn’t realize how lucky I was to have produced for me each day what amounted to haute cuisine food. She emphasized the knives so much and their importance to her stress-free life in the kitchen, that it makes me wonder now if she would have been able to be such a prolific chef without at least one knife set on hand.

It was only when I became sort of obsessed myself with the kitchen and experimenting with new recipes, that I really understood where my grandma was coming from. Having said that, I have never been quite a passionate as she was about knives. So I concede that I have three or four favorite ones myself.

I’m very proud of my kitchen and it’s appliances. Indeed I love to show off to my friends my new Induction Hob. They are quite fascinated when I place a sheet of kitchen paper on one of the rings, then a saucepan of water on top of it. When I switch on the power, they expect the paper to go up in flames. I feel chuffed when it is not even scorched. But I must admit that it is the countertop microwave that has really made my life easy in the kitchen. Not for producing culinary marvels, but for relieving my own little personal stresses . I use it for quickly making coffee, sometimes tea and to cook one of the instant frozen meals I secretly eat, when I’m on my own and too tired to prepare a proper meal. For one .

Big and Chunky Paper Bead Necklace.wmv

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