For a large part of my life, I felt like there were two types of people in the world: people who do things like mull cider and cook lovely full meals for themselves and their loved ones-and the rest of us. For the longest time, I felt myself to be squarely in “the rest of us.”
There were lots of reasons for this: that I had only learned a little in the kitchen growing up (mostly baking around holidays), that I was a workaholic of sorts who felt like it was almost a badge of honor to be too busy to cook and need to grab takeout again, that I was living in sketchy apartments without great kitchens or group houses with too many roommates vying for finite counter space.
I’ve been consciously trying to shift this the last couple of years, realizing that even infrequent cooking feels creative and calming to me-but sometimes my old conditioning can rear its head again in amusing ways.
For example, I spent this past weekend in upstate NY with my partner and our friends at a cabin my friend J’s family owns-a really breathtaking way to ring in October, at the peak of the changing trees. Grateful to have been invited and wanting to provide something to share, I asked for suggestions and J suggested we bring mulled cider.
I felt a little daunted by this, concerned that I didn’t know how and that it wouldn’t turn out, and then-once my partner and I gathered the ingredients and actually set out to prepare it-I let out an audible “Wait, that’s IT?” This thing that I had built up in my head as something real adults do in their state of the art kitchens because they’re good at this stuff- was actually as simple as simmering some liquid on the stove and adding spices and orange slices.
The level of pleasure and enjoyment that we all got from the mulled cider was greater than the sum of its parts, a highlight of the weekend-despite being one of the cheapest and easiest recipes I’ve tried in a long time. I can’t wait to mull cider again soon.
I wonder how often things like this happen to all of us. How often are we held back from trying something new or expanding in our lives, not because of some tangible obstacle, but because we’ve internalized that we “aren’t the type of person” who can?
Maybe one ingredient to a more abundant life (in addition to the mulled cider below) is letting go of our preconceived ideas of our own limitations-and daring to find out how easy it all might be when we try.
When was the last time you surprised yourself by expanding outside of your comfort zone?
MULLED APPLE CIDER
Ingredients:
1 gallon fresh apple cider
1 orange, sliced with peel still on
1 small package cinnamon sticks
⅓ small package nutmeg
½ small package whole allspice
½ small package whole cloves
Instructions:
Heat the apple cider on medium-low in a soup kettle or large saucepan on the stove. Add orange slices, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.
Reduce heat to lowest setting once hot and dish out with a ladle, careful to avoid the spices (or strain into mugs.) The longer you let sit, the more infused and delicious it becomes.
For a TRULY delightful and dangerous boozy version, add a splash of spiced rum. With or without alcohol though: this was a hit, it warmed us all up and we kept going back to refill our mugs.
P.S. A few other choice shots from the beautiful weekend...)
