Everybody has a connection to food, after all it’s what keeps most of us alive. But not everyone is in touch with that connection. I am. I can remember being a very young age and wanting to be a food critic when I grew up. Even then, I knew I was too picky an eater for such a profession. But I knew I wanted to be around food. Good food and lots of it.
I was one of those kids blessed with a high metabolism. Always eating, no need to pay attention to what I was eating or how much. I ended up in the hospitality industry for quite some time and aside from cooking class in college, I pretty well learned to cook at the Holiday Inn. Although I knew how to cook all these great dishes, most were very rich in flavour, and who wants to eat like you’re at the Holiday Inn every day?
Being a single mom threw another aspect into the whole mix of things. I started to plan our meals, and budget, and try to make better food choices. As our lives became busier and busier with sports, social lives, and work, cooking became more of a chore, and who had time or desire anymore?
Somewhere in there, I started teaching a friend how to cook with the aspiration of having her own place one day. Being opened up to her challenges and obstacles started the real “food thing” for me. For me, as a young mom, meal planning was an alternative to standing at the open refrigerator door, waiting for dinner to jump out at me. For my friend, meal planning would be essential. Without planning, she wouldn’t know what to buy, and random purchasing would only use up her food budget too soon.
Who knew that what I would learn about my friend would set off this chain of events that would put food back in the forefront of my life? I’m food obsessed again. I’ve become interested in food like never before. I’ve gotten back to basics – more out of concern with what’s happening to our food, than anything else. All the fat, salt, sugar, chemicals, pesticides – yuk. I’m not an over-the-top health nut, but I don’t want stuff in my food, that I don’t put there myself.
Which brings us to right here, right now. I spend all day, every day, looking for recipes and learning about food. I make menus for people who are living semi-independently. The more I learn about different people and their food issues, the more I want to learn about food, and how to make it an enjoyable part of life.
