Food Philosophy

As the title of this post suggests, I have a lot of my own theories about food. 

Here are the truths of cooking and baking, as I see them*:

Food is sensual.

I have to admit, I have a love affair with food. As I was explaining to my best friend and her mother last night over dinner, I value a brownie and a tomato as equals. The brownie is moist and chocolaty, it is fluffy and soft, its a beautiful deep, rich brown color, it smells divine while baking, and when you bite into its decadence, the crusty exterior gives way to a warm, soft bittersweet interior. In the same way, the tomato is shiny and vibrantly red, it is ready to burst open, it is so ripe - the skin stretching over the juicy flesh within. Cooking plays with all of your senses.

Food, more than anything else I can think of, takes us back to specific times - it is so very wrapped up in our memories. Just the mention of cinnamon or fresh baked bread and I bet you can place not only those smells but a place in your past where they were involved in some very specific memory.

 If you cook, you don't clean up.

I think that this should really be a team effort. If you put the energy into cooking the meal, I think it is only fair that someone else in your household should do their part and clean up. 

Admittedly, this is impossible if you cook for one, as I often do.

Food should be pretty.

You've heard it before: we eat with our eyes. What that means is that if something looks questionable, we are far less likely to eat it. Make an effort to make food that is visually appealing and you're more likely to entice others to try it. 

This explains my aversion to pea soup as a child.

Eat real food.

With so many processed foods in the grocery store, it is easy to eat a lot without actually eating real food. When you go shopping, make an effort to shop the perimeter of the store: produce, poultry, meats and fish, dairy. That should be the majority of your cart. Once you've done that, hit the bread, rice, and pasta but stick to whole grains and multi-grains.
If your great-grandmother would not have recognized it as food, don't eat it. 

"Low fat" does not mean "healthy."
Next time you go to the grocery store, pick up two tubs of yogurt by the same manufacturer. Choose one with full fat and another marked "low fat." Check out the difference in calories and in sugar. What you will notice is this: the container marked as "low fat" is undoubtedly higher in sugar and calories overall. It's probably also pumped full of ingredients that you can't pronounce. In many cases, the whole milk variety is actually better for you than its "low fat" cousin. Why is this? Well, fat doesn't necessarily make you fat. But carbs, those are another story altogether. Carbohydrates turn into glucose - sugar - and too much sugar turns into fat on your body. When you remove the fat from dairy you have to replace it with something. Typically, that is sugar but it can also be those chemicals you can't pronounce. 
Didn't you really just want to eat yogurt?

If you want to eat "junk food," make it yourself!

We all love to pig out on junk food occasionally. Part of healthy eating is indulging from time to time. My favorite junk food is chocolate chip cookies and, while I could run out to the store and pick up a bag of the store-bought variety, it takes a lot more time and effort to make them myself. If you operate by the rule above, you will still indulge but you'll have to put the work in first. It's pretty satisfying when you do this and it also means that you will avoid overindulging because of the time it takes to make your treat.

Invest in good tools.

When you cook, your ingredients all combine to become the star of the show. Your tools, then, are the supporting actors. You can't possibly create a beautiful piece of art if the supporting actors are not performing as well as your star. So spend the money and buy a good chef's knife. Do the research to know what baking dish you will need. Buy good pots and pans. Items like these should be thought of as lifetime purchases. When you spend the money on a really great tool, you will likely only have to buy it once.

For example, my mother has a baking dish she bought before I was born.

Buy tools that do double duty.

Let's be frank: cooking tools can be expensive. When you go to shop for anything cooking-related, buy items that serve more than one purpose. My favorite example of this is a french press. You can make the best cup of coffee you'll ever have, loose leaf tea, and even use it to emulsify salad dressing. 

I promise to demonstrate all of these in a future blog post.

Be adventurous.

Do yourself a favor and get outside of your food bubble. I'm not saying you need to throw away all the things you like.  What I am saying is that if you add one thing to each meal that you've never tried before, you may surprise yourself.  This is particularly easy when it comes to soup and salad. They're both great catch-alls and you can throw pretty much anything into them. Examples may include: adding seeds or nuts to your salads, or adding spinach or beans to your soups. You will likely not even notice the changes and you may even learn to like peas! 

(I did!)

Make every recipe exactly as written - once.

I am all for modifying recipes to your own preferences. I do this all the time, to nearly every recipe. The first time I make anything I follow the directions exactly. Once I've done this, I know if it needs more or less of something. I also know if I want to add completely different ingredients or leave others out entirely. By doing this I also build my own recipes. I may take the chicken from one recipe but the vegetables from another, and the sauce from still another.

Don't be afraid to fail.

I cook and bake all the time. Whenever I cook for others or make something to bring somewhere, I only bring dishes that I've made a hundred times and perfected. There are so many times I make something and determine it is not "a make again." In my house, those are the only labels I give to dishes: "a make again" or "not a make again." So often, people ask how it is that everything I make is always so good. The answer: I don't let the "not a make again" dishes leave the house!

I am sure that I have scads of other rules and truths that I've learned or developed over the years, but these are the major ones. Look for others as we get going with actual recipes.

Happy eating!

*These are listed in no particular order.