I just read through the entire list of blogs participating in the Eat Real Food challenge at Not Dabbling in Normal, and found only 2 people who appear to have full time jobs, and none whom I could identify as older empty-nesters like me. (Granted, this information is not readily gleanable from the info available on many blogs, but I saw an awful lot of pictures of adorable youngsters planting things.)
While the challenge is expanding my definition of home cooking, I've always cooked from scratch for my family, and had a garden since my own kids were adorable youngsters planting things (they actually remember it as "forced labor"). I still recall the disbelief I encountered at the entry interview for the private school my kids attended, when we said that we ate home-cooked meals at home, together as a family, with both parents present, 5 to 6 days a week. (I've asked the kids to reconstruct a family food timeline, with special instructions to help me remember when I fell off the wagon and started feeding them Kraft Mac n Cheese.)
It is my former, young mother self that I am seeing on the Real Food blogs. Maybe us old women just don't blog, or maybe we feel it's pointless because we've always cooked like this, why make a fuss? (Remember Michael Pollan "don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize?" Basically, that's me, a decade or so too young.) I also am not seeing the working women doing this. Or the dads. I'm not sure I'd be doing this myself if my own job hadn't been cut in half in November, giving me an extra 20 or so hours per week, and a huge cut in salary, which is highly motivating in trying to cut costs. (Surely it was when I went back to work that I started slipping on the home cooking thing.)
So where are you, people with no time? How do you, or do you at all, manage to feed your family locally sourced, home-cooked meals?
Recipes today, 140 character "recitweets" (my coinage, I think)
from Gilfeather (who came up with the idea): Mix 2 T.Frangelica w/1/2 lb.hulled and sliced strawberries+1&1/2Tsugar & allow to macerate.Mix 1/2C yogurt & 2tsp.honey. Layer w/ Poundcake
from MarieMonDieu: Oyster crackers baked on 250 for 15-20 mins. Covered in oil, Hidden Val Ranch pwdr, garlic pwdr, dillweed. Awesome snackiness!
And mine: Saute brussels, grn onions in olive oil w 1.5 c orzo. Add 3 c veg stock simmer til orzo done, 1/4 c cream, simmer; srve w grated romano.
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18 hours ago
Loved your comment at Gina's today. Smile and nod is an expression I use myself... And True Believers is very apt. I've discovered this phenomenon in many different groups I'm in. It's sad. I'm grateful I'm blessed witht he ability to see multiple sides to issues (even if it is a burden sometimes, too!) Und meint Mahlzeit vielleicht auch deutsch-stammung?
ReplyDeleteGerman in a former life, I'm convinced. Why else would my Greek genes have made me blond-haired, green-eyed and fair skinned? I actually went to art school in Austria, though, hence the expression.
ReplyDeleteI was born in Germany, but lived int he US from a young age. Interned in Stuttgart, where everyone says Mahlzeit. Where in Austria? My dad was Austrian and I've got a lot of relatives there. :) (P.S. I think I was English in a former life.)
ReplyDeleteVienna. Actually lived in little spa town suburb called Baden. E shpreech' Wienerdeitch! (Also, I once met a parakeet in Stuttgart who spoke with a Schwabische accent. Hilarious. The family had never noticed until I pointed it out.)
ReplyDeleteMy mom's parakeets spoke with a Hamburger accent! Some of my cousins live in Vienna, an aunt and uncle live in Gaenserndorf, very near. I haven't been back in over 20 years. Wien, Wien, kennst michup kennst mich down. I have fond memories of eating fresh tomatoes (Paradeisers) and green peppers (forget what they called them) right out of the garden with my aunt and uncle.
ReplyDeletePaprika, maybe? (That would be the Hungarian term, but lots of Hungarian in Wienerdeutsch)
ReplyDelete