Food, glorious food!

I'm a very food-centric person.  I love to eat, I love to cook, and I love to try new things.  Well, new food things at least.  When I'm at work, I often eat lunch at my desk.  I know that's usually a pretty big no-no, but honestly it's kind of nice since the other people who work near me are gone and it's quieter.  Or I'll eat while I'm working and take a walk or run errands later on my actual break.  In any case, because everyone can see what I eat should they happen by I'm amazed at how often I hear, 'That looks/smells SO good!' or, 'You always have the best lunches.'  Really?  I'm no chef, gourmand, nutritionist, or anything like that.  I think I might qualify as a cook.  Maybe.  All this being said, it still shocks me when people think my cooking is something they couldn't do.

For example, one of my fallback meals is brauts with pasta and tomatoes.  Whatever brauts I have on hand (last time I made it with Guinness brauts my husband picked up at the store), sliced into, eh about quarter inch bits.  Cook those with whatever veggies I have on hand, usually bell pepper, broccoli, sometimes I throw in the last of a bag of frozen peas, and garlic.  LOVE garlic.  Once that is all mostly sauteed and almost coked through, I'll add a can of diced tomatoes and the juice.  Let it all fully cook through and reduce the sauce a bit.  Add seasonings, maybe a splash of wine, and serve it all over cooked pasta (I like the tri-colored penne or spirals the best) and shred some Parmesan or Romano cheese over it.  Very tasty, and incredibly easy.  It also microwaves well when I take the leftovers to work.

I think there are some people who can't even cook that.  Maybe there are some people reading this who wouldn't know how to cook that.  This is like telling me you don't know how to swim, or how to read.  I couldn't imagine not being able to cook.  How do you eat?  How are you not sick of fast food?  Where do you find the time and money to go get food all the time?

The other thing that concerns me about this whole situation is that you don't even have to cook to brown bag a good lunch.  Today I had tuna (mayo, dill relish, shredded carrots), with slices of avocado and tomato.  I had some crackers with it, as well as yogurt.  No cooking.  Salads don't require cooking.  This, along with the raw food movement and access to everything everywhere via the internet makes me wonder if some people just don't try any more.  If it's not right there to be handed to you, then there's just no time for it.
Which is weird.  You don't want to try with your food?

This subject has been beaten to death.  There are TONS of blogs out there about food, some of them highlighting how to make it, and others that discuss where it comes from, what we should feed our kids, nutritional content, processed vs fresh, local vs world-wide, big corporation vs little guy farmer, if it's the parents' or school's responsibility to teach healthy eating, and on and on until your eyeballs have fallen out of your head.  And you know how the saying goes, 'Opinions are like assholes.'  So here is what works for me.

I bring my lunch probably about 27 days out of a 30 day month, and either go out to grab something or have lunch provided by the office or someone trying to make nice with the office the other 3 days.  Sometimes it's really not that interesting; canned soups, sammiches, once I brought a can of chef boyardee, but after reading the nutritional label I stay away from the entire canned meal section of the grocery.  Usually it's leftovers from last night's dinner, which I pack up while I'm dishing out servings for us.  More often than not I find I struggle a lot more when I can't just grab something and put it in the bag.  Having something ready to go really helps me tremendously, as does having food I'm excited about on hand.  Like avocados.  Mmmmm...
Breakfast is usually cereal of some kind.  I'm not a huge fan of oatmeal; I can never get it to taste like it should.*  If not cereal, then yogurt, or english muffins or toast with peanut butter.  Sometimes I'll make an egg and cheese sandwich, but they don't transport or reheat well (soggy).  The best is when I make a quiche on Sunday and pack it into 4-5 servings.  One pie and breakfast is taken care of for the whole week!  Also a great way to use random leftovers you have in the fridge.

There is something very sad about bad food.  If you don't believe me, check out http://fedupwithlunch.com/. Start at the beginning and flip through the photos of the 'food' served at school.  It will make you want to cry for a salad or a vegetable.  If you take nothing else from this, please give some thought to what you eat.  This is one of the most simple and basic of human needs, and our overwhelming access to food may have blindsided us.  It might just be food, but food is life.  Food is love.  Food is friends and family, and really good food is passionate and fun and sexy as hell.  Eat how you would live.

I choose without restraints.



*Which means, I can never get it to taste as good as the oatmeal we had when we stayed at a B&B in Vancouver, BC.  Best decision ever, and do they make a mean breakfast.  Hi Anne!

The Importance of Bread

There’s a great scene in the Pixar movie Ratatouille wherein Colette (voiced by the delightful Janeane Garofalo) explains to Linguini that good bread can be known not by smell or sight, but by the sound of the crust.  It makes a glorious crackling cripsity (quiet, it’s a word) noise that tells you without a doubt that when you rip into it the insides are doughy and soft with a flaky crust.  It just begs for a dip in olive oil and herbs, or to have a layer of hummus spread over it.  And it’s WONDERFUL. 

Not my image!  I claim nothing!

Bread unifies us in ways that a lot of foods don’t.  We don’t talk about breaking beans together, or being the meat winner of a family, or potatoes and water.  It’s bread.  And I should note that I’m not talking about that flaccid, sugar-laden crap you find at the store.  Yes, there is a time and place for a simple piece of white bread (I’m thinking grilled cheese, which can only be made with American cheese slices, thankyouverymuch), but real bread is the stuff of dreams.  The fact that it now has a bad rap because of the carb crazy infuriates me to no end.  This is bread, people.  This is life. 

The following recipe is not only super-easy, but incredibly delicious.  When I tried it for the first time my husband and I ate about half the loaf before it was an hour out of the oven.  I’ve made five loaves since then, and this is the fastest I’ve ever gone through a bag of flour.  When I brought it into work it had rave reviews and people asking for the recipe.  It’s also sparked discussion about food in general, the best local bakeries, Bosnia groceries I didn’t know existed, French presses and coffee grinders.  Food brings us together, and bread is the center. 

Slightly related, I really need to open a damned bakery.

Enjoy!

http://simplysogood.blogspot.in/2010/03/crusty-bread.html

Beginning Again

I figure every witch goes through this at one point or another, and I bet they come to the same conclusion that I have.  I've been a witch for a long time, but I've lapsed in my craft for even longer.  Pretty sad.  I never lost my faith or stopped believing, but it became more, 'Meh, I don't need to do magic for this.'  I thought if there was no real need, if there was no outcome that I desired everything else was window dressing.

Nope.

Belief and ritual go hand in hand when you commune with your deities.  Creating the sacred space, calling forth elementals, raising energy, and reaching out to the Goddess reminds you why you believe.  It is the most basic of lessons, and the easiest to forget.  You can do spells to help you prosper, to get that promotion at work, to find love, to protect family and friends, and you should.  But don't forget your holidays.  Don't forget your full moons and your sunrises.  Don't forget to meditate, don't forget to exercise.  It's a lot easier to say, 'I believe,' than it is to say, 'I believe because...'.

After this year, which has had some serious downs, I've decided to brush off a few cobwebs (seewhatIdidthere) and reconnect.  I may go so far as back to the very basics - visualization, meditation, basic rites, and relearn what I've lost.  Solid foundations and all that.  Beyond that, well, there's life to live.  I have friends to hang out with, a husband to treasure, a home to nurture, and....and...and life!  So expect not only pagan musings, but also the daily stuff.  Chapters may or may not include Adventures in Learning to Ride a Motorcycle, Kitchen Witchery and Oh Yeah We Cook in There To, Greyhound Madness, the Importance of Baking Bread, I Was Listening to NPR the Other Day, and Stupid Pinterest Addiction.  You can let me know how it goes.

This is purely personal opinion, coming from the mouth of an English major.

Oh, and I cuss sometimes to.  Fair warning.