On Cooking:

This post originally began just to tell people (ok my mom really) about the foods I've started to make from scratch as of late. But thinking about food got me thinking about a growing interest I've had in local food and how I've found spending 9 months living and eating abroad. Consequently, I think this post rambles more than it should and is longer than it should be, but I want to post it really just to, once again, tell my mom about what foods I've been making from scratch. So if the rest of you can bear with me here that would be great.

I never really contemplated my eating patterns until rather recently but between reading some books, spending time abroad, and starting to cook more for myself, my perception of food has been changing as of late. What has happened is this, when we first got here, I found things that I wanted to eat but couldn't find or couldn't find at a price I wanted to pay (OK, so it was really just tortillas), so I started to make them from scratch. And then I started to make other things from scratch. And then I found I enjoyed this whole making-things-from-scratch business. I've known for a while now that I enjoyed cooking, but I can't say that I ever made that much stuff, and we still relied heavily on prepackaged foods for a decent amount of daily caloric intake. However since being here and wanting things that I had to make if I wanted to eat them (at least on our budget), I've found that many things are suddenly more accessible, easier, and better than I had originally thought.

How many people can own cookie cutters in the shape of the state they are from? Not many me thinks...

Read the rest...

Anyway this post isn't an attempt to amaze anyone with my razzle dazzle in the kitchen (which in our case is really just an oversized closet at present), but simply to say, I'm surprised at how much fun I've had cooking things from base ingredients and how freeing I've found it. For example, before moving to the UK, the only time I used flour was in making cookies, and a 3 lb. bag of the white stuff lasted most of a year. Now we go through three pounds of it in about a month and a half. I've also been getting more and more interested in food... local food, real food (as it often gets called, in contrast to processed food), which I didn't ever think I'd get interested in. Maybe I've been listening to and reading Barbara Kingsolver a bit too much as of late. But despite these growing interests, I (we) feel limited based on space and social location. Our budget is rather tight, we are only here for about six more months, and it just seems mildly silly to get involved in local food (at least the joining a co-op version) only to leave the location.

This is the point where I am now supposed to either exposit on the glories of food (of which there are many) or proclaim a specific approach to food (only eat local! Only eat processed! Only eat Vegan, the way God intended!), but I don't really want to do that. I think I really just wanted to say that I miss the food of home, and I miss having access to things that I could find in the states. There are some good foods over here that I can't find at home (the Cheddar part of the cheese section is MASSIVE), but I miss having a choice of salsas... rather than just one (way overpriced) option or being able to buy ice cream that tastes right or Hersey's chocolate syrup. And I wanted to tell someone about what I've started to cook since coming here. Ok, so this last part is really to try and impress my Mom and show her that those times she showed me how to cook some things before I went off to college weren't wasted.

Anyway, as of late I've been making...

- Chapati: I love chapati, didn't know what they were till Bangladesh... but I love them and have enjoyed making them as of late. Who knew flour and water could taste so good. I think I started making these because Naan costs money, but water is free and flour is 34p for a lb. So why not?

- Flour Tortillas, which I like more than any store tortillas I've ever bought. I'm supposed to use "shortening" in the recepie I have... but I couldn't find it and so I use lard (same stuff right?) and Megan swears THAT is reason why they taste so good... I think it's my culinary genius. But they do taste abnormally good... too good to really be healthy.

- Corned beef with diced potatoes: For when I want to start the day with clogged arteries and remember fondly all those small town diners.

- Bagel with egg, cheese, and salsa: This, I think, is a remnant of living in New York. Oddly enough I never had one there, but I've grown to like them here.

- Pumpkin Cheesecake: This is mostly because of Thanksgiving but still...

- Pizza Sauce: We eventually found some but for the first bit I was reducing tomato puree and adding some spices...

- Scones: Didn't know I liked these so much until the first batch came out of the oven, but now I know I do. Also thanks to Beth we can make Michigan shaped scones! Which, while this doesn't change the taste of them, is kind of fun.

- Beer: This is forth coming. We are currently collecting enough bottles to put the stuff in... and a kiddy pool to mix it in. (Thanks, Meg, good Christmas gift)

P.S. This isn't meant to be a negative post about the lack of food choices here (which are abounding) but I think its more about just me thinking about cooking and food. Also, in case anyone needs to know, there is already a sizeable selection of food that I will desperately miss when we leave, digestives and nutella, the cheddar section at the grocer, and cadbury just to name a few.