If you are in the US, and unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, you’ve probably heard about Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.  I mentioned his mission a little bit before in a previous post, but today want to talk about it a bit more.  While [...]]]>

If you are in the US, and unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, you’ve probably heard about Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.  I mentioned his mission a little bit before in a previous post, but today want to talk about it a bit more.  While I’m not going to get into the politics of American food policy, I do think that everyone can benefit from learning to enjoy fresh quality food that came from real ingredients.  Providing ways to eat real foods has always been what my cooking has been about – if for no other reason than quality homemade food tastes good!

Though for the yet uninitiated, the entire process of converting from processed to fresh foods can seem extremely daunting.  Produce is expensive, and so is local grass feed beef.  Not to mention the “withdrawal time” it takes to readjust the body and taste buds away from the salt.   And what’s with all those crazy ingredients?  For ex. celery root?  How in the world am I supposed to eat something that ugly?? Ok ok, celeriac, or celery root, is intimidating to a lot of people, but it’s alright!  However, you’d never know this vegetable has the most delicate taste and makes for a fantastic mash!

Switching to fresh produce and cooking for the first time is about as daunting as learning that my husband was gluten free and I could no longer cook with conventional bread, flour, pasta, oats, beer, etc. etc….  To make such a drastic switch, one has to reteach themselves their way around the kitchen.  But it’s alright.  You can do it.  It may take a little time, but one can learn the routine again, and the benefits of cooking present themselves in so many great ways besides the health.   Cooking can be a family activity.  It can definitely be a tasty activity.  And my favorite, cooking is a form of communication, a way to share friendship and love.

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I had a post ready for you all.  I was so moved by Shauna‘s recent post where she poured out her heart and soul about her life; it was exactly the wake-up call that I needed.  I immediately wanted to share with you all [...]]]>

I had a post ready for you all.  I was so moved by Shauna‘s recent post where she poured out her heart and soul about her life; it was exactly the wake-up call that I needed.  I immediately wanted to share with you all my story, and my struggles with my own body.  For, while not nearly to the same magnitude of hardship as Shauna went through, over the past few years I have had extremely valid reasons for maybe finding a little too much comfort in food.

I let two of my best friends read it first.  I wanted to make sure it was still relevant for you all.  And I think it is.  But, I’m not ready, not just yet, to share all the gory details.  It’s a story for sure, but one for another time, a different day.  Not this day.  For now, I give you the brief version.

There was a time when very suddenly, several instances of tendinitis in my legs all at once rendered me unable to walk, let alone even stand on my own.   It was not so long ago.  Eventually, after some harrowing and some fantastic experiences, the problem was fixed – only a momentary disturbance in my well-being.  Though I remember that summer, not just for the experience I went through, but also for how those events marked the time when food became my comfort.  I remember the strawberries at the farmer’s market were heaven that year.  My mother and I gorged on them every weekend because they were as sweet as candy.  As time went on I could stand and walk a little, and after several months found the strength to stand and make a quiche for my darling now-husband.  I watched a lot of TV that summer, and taught myself to make risotto by watching Gordon Ramsay.  Cooking became an outlet.  This was something I could do, when so many things were so far out of my reach.  While I was cooking I got excited about the possibilities that presented themselves, and for a few moments each day, the pain went away.  Cooking, creating, and eating, took away pain for me, and gave me hope that things would return to normal.  Maybe too much so, and it continued to be this way with each major life-changing event that occurred from then on.  Even now, the role food plays in the status of my emotional well being is a bit out of whack.

(we interrupt this regularly scheduled program for a Technorati claim token – wooo Technorati!) SMEAARW4R7P4 – I promise this will be removed once verified….For now please keep reading the rest of this post for some delicious shrimp & avocado salad

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As much as I love my vegetables and fruits, when it comes down to it, I am an all-out omnivore, and some of my favorite ways to prepare meats are by roasting them.  Roasting is not hard, but it requires time.  If you are coming home after a long [...]]]>

As much as I love my vegetables and fruits, when it comes down to it, I am an all-out omnivore, and some of my favorite ways to prepare meats are by roasting them.  Roasting is not hard, but it requires time.  If you are coming home after a long day of work and want food on the table in 10 minutes or less, roasting probably is not going to be your cooking method of choice.  However, if you have even a little time, roasting meat is incredibly stress free and painless – only minor babysitting required, and you can add pretty much whatever flavors you feel like at the moment.

This past weekend, I celebrated a special occasion, my birthday.  Ok, I’m not sure how special that is, but it was a great excuse to purchase a rack d’agneau.  However, in doing so, I committed an eco-sin.  The lamb was from New Zealand, halfway around the world. I really do feel guilty about the fact that the meat I cooked traveled over 10,000 miles to get to my plate, but I did not feel so guilty as to deter me from buying it.  Why?  One, when I was in New Zealand I tasted some of the best lamb I have ever eaten in my life and two, it was the only lamb available in the store – not that those are good excuses I am sure.  It did cost me a dear sum, but well, it was my birthday.

This was my first time roasting lamb, and it was extremely simple to do – I didn’t want to have to freak out that my own birthday dinner wasn’t going to turn out right.  It pretty much went like this – bring meat up to room temp, pan-sear, rub pistachio coating onto lamb, pop in oven, relax.  Take out of oven, eat.  Relax some more  There was so much flavor emanating from this dish that each bite was savoured individually, not wanting to accept the fact that at some point, the meal would be over and the flavors would have to end.  One of my favorite things about food is that it is an always ephemeral work of art.  Just as a mandala is ritualistically destroyed to be created anew, so it is with food – each meal is consumed, the flavors lasting for an instant in time, and then they are gone, only to leave us waiting until the next delectable experience.  Sometimes flavors work to bring comfort, sometimes they work to bring art.  There are other parts of this dish too, they are coming next.  When each flavor comes together as a color in a painting, contrasting and blending, causing the taste buds to find new dimensions of taste sensations, that is when art can happen with food.  Now I’m certainly not going to go around calling myself the next Ferran Adrià or anything, but sometimes there are those rare instances where a dish made in such a humble setting (I think 2 burners and a glorified toaster oven qualify my kitchen as “humble”) can have a transformative quality to it.  And then again, it may just be that my husband and I have a taste for flavorful and yet simply created food and are easily pleased.  Speaking of him, I think he enjoyed my birthday present to myself more than I did

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