Getting ready for the week ahead: Satsuma Tarragon Chicken, Philomena's Meatballs, Garlic Chicken Thighs
A confession: I am a creature of habit, and also a bit of a homebody. Sure, I enjoy a tasty brunch with friends fairly regularly, but it's not my favorite weekend ritual. Hands down, my preferred way to spend a Sunday is to prep my apartment, especially my kitchen, for the week. There is something enormously calming to me about whipping up all of my proteins for the coming week's meals, and then scrubbing my kitchen back into a faintly lavender scented state of order. I love knowing that I can come home to a spotless kitchen for the rest of the week, and still never have to wait more than a few minutes to eat something tasty, healthy, and economically practical at the end of my workday.
I fell into this Sunday habit for a few reasons, (a mild case of organizational OCD not the least of them,) but mainly this: I am, (and I should hope this point is obvious,) SUPER passionate about food. How it tastes, how it was cooked, where it was made, and where any ingredients came from... I'm into all of it! I like eating GOOD things, and if those good things can in turn be good for me, or at least not BAD for me, all the better. Sustainable, local, organic, pastured, etc. - I dig it. Plus, cooking is my favorite creative outlet and stress release: I am simultaneously relaxed and invigorated by turning basic ingredients into something I can treat myself with. If cooking for myself is good, then cooking for the people around me is even better! I love cooking for my clients, friends, and family the same way I like to feed myself: with GOOD, traceable food. I am largley opposed to the idea of eating processed crap; the fact that my significant other's favorite food remains THIS is the bain of my relationship. At least in part, my aversion to most processed, packaged foods can be traced back to the first time I read Michael Pollan's Unhappy Meals in the NY Times Magazine. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." So simple, and such a revelation for me!
Socially, I'm surrounded by a wide range of people, from the food obsessed and fellow soap box occupants to those who would willingly eat a Seafood Sensation without a second thought. When one of those more food inclined passed along this article, I was immediately intrigued. Michael Pollan, a sexist pig?! Don't blaspheme in my organic mostly plant eating house!!! I had to read it.
The article brings up a number of excellent points. Eating and cooking the way that I do is a choice and, to some extent, a luxury. I don't really agree that things SHOULD be that way, but for many, they just are. Plus, not everyone who has the option to gets as amped as I do about how to brine their pastured turkey at Thanksgiving! (Even my mother still buys a frozen Purdue, but I'm working on her.) And, the best point raised, in my opinion, it's just absurd to blame feminism for the decline of the way we eat as a culture.
I'm still mulling over a final reaction to this article in one direction or another, but I think my equally food obsessed friend Stephanie sums it up best:
"I don’t know that I would go as far as saying he is a sexist pig but I can see where some might take offense. I still want to have my backyard chickens, grow my own food and cook it all from scratch and I don’t think I really care what that makes me!"
Me either, Steph. Call me when it's time to make brunch with the organic eggs from your cage free, pastured, backyard chickens. I'll bring the nitrate free bacon and grass fed butter.
Sunday, May 12, 2013 at 4:52PM 
Simple tricks can boost your salad from boring to bright!As the weather heats up, I tend to opt for colder meals rather than hot; greens rather than grains. A great salad can go with anything - steak, grilled veggies, roasted fish, or even deviled eggs. But, eating the same salad all the time gets a little monotonous... so here are some of my favorite ways to liven things up!
