OK...so here we go...
When I was a little girl, my parents always gave us canned vegetables. They were young parents and did what they thought was best. I remember looking at my little bowl of canned peas; olive in colour, floating lifelessly in their grey, toxic water...still turns my stomach when I think of it. I would be given a time limit, "on the 7, those peas had better be gone!". I always used several napkins for those nights (they would get full so quickly). Thankfully we got a dog, shortly thereafter.
I remember watching Popeye on TV and thinking how delicious the spinach looked and how he would just gulp it down. I imagined it would taste, like fresh grass smelled and the idea of just "gulping it down" was so intriguing. When we bought a can, I could not believe that something was worse than peas! I was totally turned off of vegetables. My sweet mother would beg me to "please...just eat 5 peas" as if those 5 peas would provide me with just enough vitamins to keep me healthy.
When I turned around 13-14 years old, I would religiously read Vogue magazines. They would always show what the Supermodels would have in their grocery bags. I would save my babysitting money and make my mini-list according to what they bought. Paulina Porizkova buys honeydew melon and Evian water? So will I! Turns out I hate Honeydew Melon and Evian (unless its for spritzing my face). But, it got me out of the canned vegetable aisle and actually trying real food. (Thanks Paulina!)
As an adult on my own, I try to eat natural foods as much as possible. It is a conscious decision every single day. Being very busy in my career it would be very easy to just get some take-out, fast food or frozen meals--but I seriously have an internal dialogue...sometimes argument on what is more important. Junk food...or good health?
It's always a struggle when I go to the food store; I always become lost. I know what is considered "good food" and what is considered "bad food". But convenience is always the most difficult thing to give up.
I had seen the movie "Julie & Julia" and the idea of cooking through a cookbook was inspiring. I mentioned the idea on my business blog and started to get all these amazing people coming in, with cookbooks, to help me out. With a stack of cookbooks over my head, I didn't know where to begin. Some cookbooks are too big, you know? They have recipes for just...too much. I was looking for cookbooks for good simple food, that was delicious. No foam. No liquid nitrogen. I don't need my mangos to look like eggs or my wine to look like pasta. As brilliant as those Chefs are, those are just not recipes to pass down to future generations.
So, I sit with my stack of books and will pull from the ones that I think can offer me basic, delicious, natural cooking and will share my honest successes and failures with y'all. There will be no recipe bashing here. I am not a food critic. I'm just a girl who wants to cook without the fire alarms going off. A girl who wants to be asked to bring more than just the salad to future dinner parties. And come out on the other side...a good cook. Thas'all. :o)
xox
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