You all know I don’t cook, right? This actually isn’t quite true. I was raised with a few core dinner meals (Stallings family tacos! Stallings family pasta ‘n’ salad! Stallings family baked potatoes! Stallings family lentil soup!) and the fancy stuff saved for breakfast. The infamous David Stallings pancakes, a recipe honed over the decades. The waffles. The french toast. Oh god, the french toast. Still my favorite breakfast dish to prepare.

Here’s the thing, though: Andreas doesn’t eat breakfast. Almost ever. And when he does, it’s a savory thing: tofu scrambles, hash browns, etc. There aren’t a lot of vegan breakfasts.

The result is that I almost never cook. Andreas does most of the cooking, vacillating between elaborate terrines and simple stir-fries. We also eat a lot of Thai food. But whatever we eat, chances are very good that I had nothing to do with preparing it.

Last night, however, I cooked. Well, that’s the thing: I didn’t really cook. I prepared. Most of my cooking involves melting stuff or boiling stuff. Last night I actually baked stuff Yes, I poked three potatoes with a fork, and put them in the oven. FOR AN HOUR! Thanks to my excellent fork-poking, the potatoes did not explode their skins in the oven.

Then, I diced half a tomato, some green pepper, and green onion. Then I boiled two pieces of corn. Then I put the potatoes on a plate, cut them open and put margarine and the veggies on them (+grated cheese on mine). Corn went on plates, and just to make it fancy, I sliced a couple thin spikes of green pepper and arranged it carefully. Oh, and we each got half a pear sprinkled withcinnamon.

And that was it. Potato, corn, pear. But with some artful green pepper arranged on top! Unlike my parents (the people who tried to entice a child by calling lentil stew “poop soup”) or Andreas (”it all looks the same in your stomach”) I’m a big fan of the food always looking good. When it’s pretty, it conveys the love.

This worries me that I’ll become one of those mothers who will arrange plates of food in happy faces and flowers. Oh god. By saying it I’m totally bringing it to life and I can now guarantee you that I’m going to be like that. Realistically, I already am. Way to manifest your future, Ariel.