Some folks go to historic events so they can wear those wonderful outfits they can't wear anywhere else. I go so that I can cook period meals... (Which I have realized is more important to me than shooting cannon...hmm.)
I burned myself on the pizza stone, last night (through the hot pad!), and it made me think of all the other times I have burned myself cooking---and created a flood of pleasant memories. How many folks can say that? Wow, the 1909 gas range that took off my fingerprints in the middle of the fish course... The falling burning log I caught as it tumbled out of the hearth at Petaluma Adobe, and shoved back in, before I even thought about it, iron bales on the cast iron at Civil War events... Even the damned convection oven at French Hospital, where I worked when I was in college. Hmm, is this a pleasure/pain link or what?
What does Tony Bourdain say? "As a cook, tastes and smells are my memories. Yeah, and a few other things, too. I cook, therefore I am...