Reflecting

Food Month will be over as of 11:59 tonight....in less than an hour and a half.  Next time I decide to do a whole month of something I should probably plan out my posts ahead of time.  This time I felt like it was something I needed to do and jumped in head first with no thought.  I didn't get to the posts about how to make gourmet coffee at home, and I had a few special recipes to share that I didn't....yet.  I plan on continuing to add these things in as I go along.  

But I enjoyed this month.  I enjoyed writing about something I am insanely passionate about.  I don't eat perfect.  We're having to cut back on our eating out because we realized it was being done out of laziness.  But I do attempt all of the things I wrote about.  It helps that I have a good partner in crime who came home tonight and informed me he would be making dinner.  We ended up having spaghetti squash with leftover turkey and some steamed broccoli mixed in.  You simply mix in butter and lots of salt and pepper into the squash and then add your other ingredients.  It was shockingly good and I am craving more as I type.

I hope that I got my point across without being too harsh or lecturing.  I know that not everyone has a desire to expand their eating habits.  I feel it makes life more difficult, but hey, it's their life.  I just thought that it was important for me to share that I haven't always been like this, in fact it's a newer thing.  And I love the conversations I've had with those who have been attempting different meals because of things I've shared.  It takes baby steps and big leaps of faith sometimes but it does mean a wider variety of options.  

Adrienne asked today if I keep a list of things I want to try.  And to that I say, of course!  I have a surprisingly large list of things I've never tried to make.  And I even have a list of foods I traditionally would not want to eat, much less cook that I will be trying soon (like cabbage).  On my list of things to try and make (and I'm almost embarrased to share because some things get me odd looks, they're supposed to be so simple) are dishes like shepherd's pie, lasagna, and a baked ham.  My goal is to have tried these all over the next year (and I can tell you we're making shepherd's pie very soon with the leftover mashed potatoes from thanksgiving!).  

So, please know I am not the perfect cook.  I simply believe very strongly that everyone can cook, and that they should.  It's a survival thing.  I know that I can now whip up food with whatever is in the pantry.  And while some may think that it's unrealistic that I would have to....I did, last winter, when the snow meant we were all housebound and the grocery store was pretty much bare.  I trudged through blocks of several feet of snow in order to pick up a random roast and some frozen green beans (quickly before the hoards of people grabbed them up) and hope it was going to work out.  I made beef stew, and we ate it for days on end.  Had there been no meat I know I could have done it with veggies alone (we had carrots, celery, frozen peas and onions at home).  

I have always had a zeal for food, but it was limited.  It didn't expand until I was a young adult wife trying to figure out how to feed us.  I got experimental, I got brave, and I got tough with us on making us try new things.  You can too.  And I'll bet that if you do, in a few years you'll be the person people call about what temp. to set the oven for what vegetable.  And it will move forward.  Our ancestors used to treat food more reverently/respectfully.  They used to delight in making small bits work, and not wasting food.  It's in you if you're willing to search it out and give yourself a break if you fail the first time.  I know I'm not inventing electricity or anything, but even Thomas Edison stated that "We now know a thousand ways not to build a lightbulb."  Keep trying and you will quickly find your way.