NaBloPoMo - Cooking

I love to cook. My Mum and Dad both taught me how. They had very different styles. Dad taught me to cook in the style of Floyd, with a glass of wine on the go. Mum was a little more practical. I baked with Mum when I was small and taste tested chilli for my Dad when I was older. Throughout university I worked a full time job as well as a full time degree. Once a month I would spend  day cooking huge pans of stir fry and curry then freeze it into portions that could be microwaved. They may only have been bought sauces but it meant I ate much better than most of my contemporaries.

All this changed after leaving uni though. I was cooking mostly just for myself and I had decided to become vegetarian. This was for religious reasons and was a terrible mistake. I had no idea how to cook good vegetarian food and pretty much replaced meat with cheese. To say I was fat and unhealthy would be a huge understatement. Once I moved out of that house I got back into the habit of mass cooking and was back on stirfry. Much better but still bought sauces. It wasn't until meeting Black Pig that I learnt how to cook again. He was able to make really good meals on a tiny budget and he encouraged me to experiment with food. The fact that he would eat pretty much anything I put in front of him helped immensly. I stopped owrring about wasting food and started branching out.

So once again I love to cook.

I love nothing more than preparing a meal for several people. The act of feeding people is very primal I think. It gives me great satisfaction to have people leave my table satieated and happy. We have a couple of our friends round quite regularly for dinner and its usually at least a 2 course meal. It takes time to make and time to eat and it is time well spent.

Too often I see parents and children walking to school in a morning with a Greggs sausage roll in hand. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad food as such. It's the eating on the go that bothers me. All you are teaching your children there is that eating is not important. That time management is not important. get up earlier, prep stuff the night before, whatever it takes. Sit down and eat with your family. Make time to eat good food and to connect with both your family/friends and the day itself. Rushing from one thing to the next with only half eaten, barely enjoyed meals to sustain you is not a recipe for goodness.

Right I'm off to continue with tonight's meal of lasagne with leeks rather than pasta. I hope you are all going to have at least one slow meal today. Savour your food and savour your life!