Interrupting your favorite television show and making you hungry, or should I say HUNGRY you will find those pesky commercials. Dang things drive me crazy! I was perfectly content with my water, snuggled up with my husband (IF he is home before bedtime) watching our favorite show UNTIL the commercial for some fabulous looking food decides to appear and tempt me. Be honest, how often do you see a commercial for food and end up getting a snack? Most of the time I am able to resist but every once in a while I succumb to the temptation and eat a snack. No, we're not going to talk about diets, temptation or advertising today. Today, it's all about the food.
Belittling the struggles we have with food is not my intent as I like millions of others struggle with weight/food/healthier lifestyle. These are genuine issues and deserve time and attention. Yet, because we are constantly bombarded by these our whole approach to food has changed. Food in some cases is now seen as the enemy. Food has a don't eat this, eat this battle that wages. At the same time food remains the center of our social life and life in general. So there is no way to avoid the battle. Many of us don't want to avoid it.
Several of my friends are self-professed foodies. I'm okay with being a foodie, but PLEASE don't make me be a gourmet. Eww. What is the difference? Wikipedia to the rescue!
Foodie (sometimes spelled foody) is an informal term for a particular class of aficionado of food and drink. The word was coined in 1981 by Paul Levy and Ann Barr, who used it in the title of their 1984 book The Official Foodie Handbook. Although the two terms were sometimes used interchangeably, foodies used to differ from gourmets in that gourmets were epicures of refined taste, whereas foodies were amateurs who simply loved food for consumption, study, preparation, and news.[1] Gourmets simply want to eat the best food, whereas foodies want to learn everything about food, both the best and the ordinary, and about the science, industry, and personalities surrounding food.[2] After some time of differentiating between the two, the term Foodie is now considered the term for food exploration and enjoyment, whether gourmet or not, thus superseding the term Gourmet. Taken from Wikipedia
I would add one thing to the Wikipedia definition of gourmet, they tend to eat food that is in my opinion "fru fru" (Fru Fru, derived from the phrase spelled "frou-frou" meaning fancy, elegant or very elaborate. ) To me fru fru food is the stuff that wealthy people eat, where you get one or two bites of food that look amazing but cost a month's salary and has food in it that I don't recognize or can't find in a regular grocery store. When I talk about food, I'm talking about normal people food as in stuff you know what it is when you order/eat it.
New foods, flavors, preparation techniques? Bring it on! I just like to know what I'm eating and I prefer my new dishes to be made from stuff I recognize. I know it isn't as exciting but I'm okay with that kind of boring. Flavors, on the other hand, should be anything except boring! So, in the land of a simpler life in Kansas how are we making that happen? We've gone old school! Yes, Daniel, I know old school is boring to teenagers but mine have NOT been complaining about the old school food.
The move to Kansas has brought a certain revival to our cooking and approach to food. One of the things we didn't have access to in Georgia was a CSA. CSA is a term that means Community Supported Agriculture. In other words, a local farm (or group of farms) offer a determined number of shares to local people/families. We prepay an amount in exchange for a share of the farm's produce/products for that season. So, once a week I go to the farm and fill my basket of the seasonal produce harvested each week throughout the farming season. The cost of your share is determined by the size of the basket (or amount) of food you will want/need each week. We did this in New England when the girls were little and it was AMAZING. No grocery store can beat the freshness. The prices are even better than the local farmer's markets. Joining the CSA has produced a wide variety of changes in what we are eating, how we are preparing it and how we are keeping it simple. There are too many changes to deal with in just one blog so ... that's right, we're talking about food for the next few days. Tasty, delicious, healthy food (no enemy food allowed!) Don't worry, I promise to include recipes and pictures.
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