Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Julia vs well, basically, everyone else




            I LOVE food. You probably guessed that. Love to make it, play with it and sometimes remember to eat it. I also LOVE to read. Not surprisingly, reading about food ranks as one of the greatest pleasures I have in the zoobie-crazy days that define my life. I read Diane Mott Davidson mystery novels, cookbooks of all kinds, foodie magazines. heck, I even have a book titled “How to be a Foodie” as if I might not be heading into my 5th decade of foodie-ness! Lately, I’ve had an epiphany of sorts brought on by reading works by and about Julia Child and books by Michael Pollan and others in that realm.
            Of course, I read “Julie & Julia,” and watched the movie more times than we watched Ratatouille! I’ve read Julia’s autobiography and am thoroughly enjoying her memoir “My Life in France” right now. Reading these works, I feel the joy of cooking. Not in the Rombauer style but with Julia’s voice ringing in my ears and the thought that she really thought we all could do this, and she was right! We CAN make wonderful food for ourselves and our families and those we turn into family through sheer love and willpower. Butter is not a demon and life’s too short for anything less than food that feeds body AND soul.
            I am happy when I read these works.
            At other times, I am reading books such as “Food Rules” and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan. These books do not make me feel happy. They are important, to be sure, because they condense vast landscapes into digestible snapshots about how the food we eat gets to us. But they do not bring joy.  Perhaps there is something to the bliss of ignorance.
            Those who know me well will smile and nod as I acknowledge the truth that I am a person of extremes. I’m not known for being a middle-of-the-road kind of thinker.  So, I have this challenge: How to bring together the joy of Julia and the thought that my choices of food affect not only me but YOU?
            Happily, I have our farmer’s markets every week!  That means I can eat well, widely and wisely.  Whew!
            I think this week, we’ll enjoy the pork chops Sean picked up at our newest “regular” market, the Farmers’ Market at the Rim in San Antonio.  They look so lean, I plan to cook them in a combination of veggies I picked up from some of the other markets around, including the New Braunfels Farm to Market and the still-growing Pflugerville market on Tuesday. When I’m done, the vegetables and whatever sauce develops will go on top of Roasted Red Bell Pepper Linguine.  Oooh... maybe I should make extra veggies and get a head-start on an amazing vegetarian lasagna using the Roasted Red Bell Pepper Lasagne staring me in the face.   
            So, what’s cooking in YOUR kitchen?

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