I'm a magician. What are you?

To quote a lovely friend of mine "I love cooking with a burning passion."

Which... I also do. It's rather magical, haven't you noticed? For example, chocolate chip cookies: you take gritty sugar, mix it with a gross solid lipid, put in some slimy raw eggs, mix up some flour (which is pretty unpleasant if you eat it solo), some baking soda (which is even more unpleasant when eaten by itself), and some salt (which you also put on your green beans), mix that in, then put in some chocolate chips. Stick a couple tablespoons on a flat metal pan, put that in the oven for 8 minutes, take it out and BAM! You have a cookie. Something that is not only edible, but it also addicting and delicious. All from a combination of rather gross individual items and chocolate.

That's pretty cool, if you ask me. The same idea goes with almost anything else that you might eat. So, in my opinion cooking = magic. It's magic that improves your life, gives you more control over your diet, and helps you make healthy choices (or just empowers you to eat a half cup of brownie batter). Also, it's way cheaper,  helps you avoid consuming high amounts of sodium, trans fats, and processed foods. Plus, you can always learn how to substitute unhealthy ingredients for less unhealthy ingredients. Like applesauce for vegetable oil in baking... or yogurt for sour cream or mayonnaise.  And guess what? No one will ever know.

Because it's magic.