F-O-O-D spells Food.

Food.

This is a blog post all about food.

Why?

Because I think about it far, far too much.  I LOVE food. 

This love for food/cooking goes back to when I used to make "dinner" for my family in middle school.  I wanted to start making dinner so my mom handed me a box of Hamburger Helper and said, "go at it girlfriend".  Well...maybe not those words exactly.  :)  When cooking up the ground beef I used to pull chunks out and experiment with our seasonings...chili powder, garlic powder, pepper...you name it.  I'd sprinkle different combos on it and eat it up...judging whether I had created something successful or something that was a flop.  Good times.  I have now graduated out of Hamburger Helper meals but I feel like that was the beginning for me.  I have spread my wings and fully embraced organic, whole foods, and yet also love to cook something fried, unhealthy, and oh so yummy.  It's all good in my book.

Dinner cooking is not a chore I dislike or begrudgingly do.  I love it (usually).  :) ... I thoroughly and completely and most utterly deplore dishes.  Terrible combo.  Cooking creates dishes.  It's sorta like loving to surf but hating to rinse your wetsuit...oh wait, yeah, I don't like to do that either.  So, it's like...loving to mountain bike but hating to clean your bike...yep, can't stand that either.  (Apparently I just have issues with cleaning in general :)  )

So here are some random thoughts I've had in regard to food lately...divided into categories.

Cost:  I feel like in general we should be paying more for our food.  Like super discounted meat and vegetables sorta creep me out...especially meat.  I would rather NOT eat meat then eat meat that is pumped full of junk.  Because of this I only get the good expensive stuff, and because of THIS we don't eat meat often.  Keeps the cholesterol down I guess.  :)  If I could, I would raise our food budget.  But I can't.  Oh well.  Maybe one day.  'Till then we will be nominal vegetarians.

My "Tastes": So, as I said, I love food.  With that comes a very heightened level of what I call snobbery.  Some people like to call it being a "foodie".  I call it snobbery :).  Two things though.  If I pay money for the food i.e. restaurants...I'm a serious snob.  BUT if food is made personally for me (by my mom, Jason's mom, anyone's mom, neighbor, brother, stranger) it tastes so much better than anything I make or go out to buy.  Not sure why.  My own food preparation seems to diminish the flavor for me...slightly.  I've heard of people that totally have no appetite to eat what they prepare.  Not me.  But it does rob a little of the joy.  Not sure why.  Maybe the surprise element is gone since I know exactly what I put into it.  If I don't make it and go to someone's house for dinner...those are some of the best meals ever.  yum.

I have food dreams.

Dreams about food.  When I'm asleep and when I'm awake.  The sleep one's usually involve me cooking something weird and eating it.  The latest?  The leaves from my tomato plants.  Jason convinced me that we were supposed to eat them and I believed him.  Oh that sneaky instigator.   When I'm awake, I kinda sometimes dream about opening a cafe' of sorts.  Oooh.  Deep dark confession.  I don't usually share my dreams...at least the one's I aspire to attain (ie. NOT cooking with tomato leaves) :)  Feel privileged.  I know you do.

Warring Factions Within: I feel torn though about the fact that we live in a world of plenty and yet there are those who barely have enough to survive/do not have enough to survive.  That breaks my heart.  I often feel guilty turning my nose up at something.  Really guilty.  Every.single.time I ever throw something out that's old...usually something we just didn't "feel like" eating I think about someone who needs that very unwanted food to SURVIVE.  ugh.  I want to make a difference...some how...and have it involve food.  I've had some grand, lofty ideas.  Maybe one will come to fruition one day ;).

And a completely random thing.  How do you like your cookies?  Soft or crunchy?  I like mine chewy I think.  Chewy in the middle with a slight thin, outer rim of crunch.  There you have it.  Anyways, made cookies tonight and I found a recipe that actually attained such a texture.  Amazing.  The difference?  It has you add corn syrup and water...just a bit.  Interesting.

And there you have it.  Random thoughts on food.  Not sure why the heck I just wasted a half hour of my dear precious life enlightening you on something that it probably NOT up your alley buuuut...take it or leave it.  And I mean, it IS my blog so I can write whatever I darn well please.  :)

Come back next time for recipes with "Tomato Leaves".

"Saaaave the Liver!!!"

Seriously, you should check out some old Julia Childs videos from the library.  Hillarious!  She's sort of a disaster/genius in the kitchen and it makes me laugh.

All right.  I'm really done.  Adios amigos bonitos.