「enjoy」の使い方

When I got home this evening, I was pretty hungry. I put my bag down and went straight to the kitchen to cook something to eat. I'm getting fast at cooking soup for noodles, so that's what I made. After chopping some vegetables and putting them in boiling water with seasonings, I started to stir-fry a topping for my bowl of noodles. That's what you can see in the picture.

× I was really enjoying.

"Enjoy" is a verb that needs to be used with an object.

• 目的語 (もくてきご) (n) (ling) object;

That's why the sentence above is wrong. One common pattern is "enjoy oneself".

• enjoy oneself 楽しむ、楽しく過ごす We could enjoy ourselves at the party. : パーティーを楽しみました。I enjoyed myself. : 本当に楽しかったです。／ああ楽しかった。(definition from Eijiro on the Web)
  

Otherwise, you can use an object to say what you enjoyed.

• I enjoyed listening to crickets when I took a walk earlier. <- "listening" is a gerund, basically a noun
• 蟋蟀 (こおろぎ) (n) (1) (uk) cricket (Gryllidae); (2) (arch) any insect that chirps in autumn;

I was really enjoying myself, and I decided to take a picture to share with you all. From all of my pictures of food, you must know that I enjoy cooking. I also enjoy teaching, which is lucky for me (and hopefully you, too)!

I hope you enjoy the weekend. Take care!