Finding Yourself in the Kitchen: Kitchen Meditations and Inspired Recipes from a Mindful Cook [Hardcover]

Many books teach the mechanics of cooking and even inspire us to cook; not many dwell on the kitchen's ability to be a place of awakening and joy. In Finding Yourself in the Kitchen, Dana Velden asks you to seek deeper meaning in this space and explores what cooking can teach about intimacy, failure, curiosity, and beauty.

Finding Yourself in the Kitchen is a book of essays, each focused on a cooking theme that explores how to practice mindfulness in the kitchen--and beyond--to discover a more deeply experienced life. It also offers meditation techniques and practical kitchen tips, including 15 of Velden's own favorite recipes.

What happens when we find ourselves in the kitchen? What vitalizes, challenges, and delights us there? An extension of her popular Weekend Meditation column on TheKitchn.com, this book offers you the chance to step back and examine your life in a more inspired way. The result is a reading experience that satisfies, nourishes and inspires.“Finding Yourself in the Kitchen is a treasure, a wisdom treasure, a book to be savored, a book to be shared. Whether you prefer to enjoy it in little sips or in big bites, this collection of discrete, concise pieces are sure to enter your life again and again. It's a beautiful book, one to be kept nearby, and it's a book that will sustain you through the rough patches and the good times alike.” —Deborah Madison, author of The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and Vegetable Literacy

“A quietly brilliant ode to the myriad pleasures-both mundane and sublime-to be discovered in the daily ritual of cooking. Dana Velden's words read like a deliciously warm hug to cooks of all ilks; her charming stories, appealing recipes, meditative reflections, and honest encouragement will lure hesitant newbies to the stove and remind seasonedlS2