On Cooking and Eating

Like everything else in my life,  my relationship with food has evolved and changed a great variety of times.  During the first stage, I ate the food of my childhood, southern food, mostly fried, and very vegetable oriented.  Meat was more of a side dish.  We had lots of fresh tomatoes, greens and cornbread with the 'pot liquor, ' creamed corn, and the like.

When I became a northerner, I had to learn a new way of cooking and eating.  For much of my adult life, with a sizable family, cooking was on a limited budget, and involved casseroles, pasta, spaghetti, and hot dogs.  Eventually,  I completely lost my taste for such things as black-eyed peas, which I now detest, and fried okra.

There is another layer to all of this, which is not the topic of this blog, and that is my relationship with food and its affect on my weight, a life-long struggle.  I would say that at this time, I understand the limits of what I can eat, and need to eat or not eat in order to be healthy.  That means that I have totally eliminated all fast food, and almost all processed food.  Much of this was in an effort to overcome a two decade long battle with acid.   I have definitely won that battle, an accomplishment of which I am greatly proud.

Another interesting aspect food and life, was my discovery of the Food Channel a few years ago.  This opened up a whole new world.  Up to that point,  I had only watched my own mother cook. I had to unlearn a lot of things associated with that.  Believe it or not, my mother always did her "chopping"  [which we now do on a cutting board]  in her hand!  She would hold the onion in her hand and slice it crosswise both ways, and cut off the diced pieces into the pan or bowl.  I don't think we even owned a cutting board!

In the ideal world, I would practice more of a European approach to cooking and eating. (at least this is my perception).   I understand that in many parts of the world,  where there are no super stores or Wegmans, people go to the market every day to procure their food for the day.   If one eats primarily fruit and vegetables, then going once a week just doesn't work very well.   Maybe I will eventually figure out how to do my shopping in two parts, twice a week.

I just started reading a novel and the main character is a fictional Food Channel star, which is what sparked this blog.  She made a comment:  Food is the new fashion.    I would change that statement  a bit and say that food is the new art form!   I have a daughter and son-in-law who are big "foodies".  (they eat out in fancy restaurants a lot).   And I have learned from her the art connection.  She often posts pictures on Facebook of the food art they consume.

It is interesting to ponder one's relationship with food.  We all have our passions. Everyone's is different,  for better or worse.