029: Little Pieces Of My Heart

no recipes, just words

Hello! Thanks so much for reading this week. Things have been wildly busy over here. Fall always seems to be the busiest time of year and somehow my one free week turned into days and nights of ice cream churning. Let’s talk about why.

---

Ice Cream Week Thoughts:

I always get a certain itch to do a fun food project (like my Ice Cream Drops) but halfway through the week you’ll find me in the kitchen at 1:00am swearing “I’ll absolutely never do this again” only to crave it a couple weeks later. It must be the adrenaline rush. You start confident “I’ve done this before”, then the chaos hits and you fear the worst, that you’ll have invested all this time & money and “what if it doesn’t even turn out, the flavors go wrong, it crystalizes in the freezer, or melts on the drive over”. Only that doesn’t happen, you prove yourself wrong. You finish off your ice cream week sitting back, drinking a coffee, basking in the beautiful little army of pints you worked so hard to create. The little pieces of your heart to pass out to friends & strangers on a Friday afternoon. Perfection.

Something about the art of cooking feels very specific. We (chefs, home cooks) take the pieces of a puzzle and in a mess of speed, rhythm, precision, care, and the ability to intentionally follow directions all while listening to our instincts, create a meal of harmony. Overheated, overstimulated, and proud we set down our creations to be devoured by hungry guests. Our art gone, once again, in only a moment. Satisfaction and emptiness hold hands.

But we all have our art forms. They’re all very specific — wild but intentional. And in our respective crafts I think we all hit a wall, asking ourselves “why do I do this”? I’ve discussed this topic plenty in the past but this week opened a new door in my mind.

It’s all about Personal Conviction. I’ll elaborate.

It doesn’t matter what your medium is, but to stay committed to that medium, you must have personal conviction. This is what creates your artistic identity. We see it all the time in brands, big and small. Personal conviction is why people make sourdough bread or grow their own food. It’s why Josiah shoots film instead of digital or why we buy locally instead of off Amazon. It’s why my friends make their own clothes and jewelry. It’s why we pay our friends what they’re worth for their skills and hire the right designer over the cheap one. Do you see where I’m going?

When we allow our personal conviction into our art, we become one with our art. We aren’t creating what we think others want, we create what we believe NEEDS to exist in this world.

So in those moments when I want to quit, I remind myself that (and it may sound silly but) I make this ice cream because I believe in it. I believe we all deserve to eat ice cream made in small batches at home, with happy eggs laid nearby, churned with milk from happy cows that graze grass freely, with flavors that come from Indiana grown pumpkins roasted in my oven with pie spices and carefully browned butter, all mixed together and put in a satisfying, hand-stamped package to take home. I simply cannot physically make anything less glorious. It goes against my conviction.

And that’s why I hope you eat something good today,

Amelia