Gardening & Cooking Thoughts

How did I become "domestic" as my friend Aubrey likes to call it? One day I'm snuggling up to my combat boots, blue wigs, school girl skirts, listening to Pink, and the next I'm thinking about the quality of the food I buy from the grocery store, and how to make better food than I can buy going out.

1. I found that  most food you can buy out unless you pay a LOT of money is, in essence.. CRAP! It made me angry. At first I started just trying to make things I liked out at home like *gasp* the Taco Bell Enchirito(hey they stopped making them for a while there and I WANTED ONE!) I discovered I could make one BETTER than Taco Bell that didn't make me ill afterwards (not hard). This got me to thinking I could probably make everything better at home than buying it out if I put some effort into learning how. So I moved on to trying to make truly excellent meals with cuisines from all over the world.
2. I'm greatly disturbed about how many people I know who have been struck by cancer. I started thinking about all the nasty chemicals we consume every day. In our drinking water, in the "healthy veggies" we buy fresh at the grocery store, in the canned goods I was using to make things. At first I started growing veggies at home because honestly, have you ever compared a home grown tomato to one you get in the store? The store bought one is likely gas ripened and started out green. It still tastes green when you buy it. and because it's awesome to be able to go outside, pick your veggies, cook a meal, and say "I made that" and mean it from beginning to end. Not only did I cook the meal I created what went into it in an organic garden!
3. My grandfather was a very smart man, I wish he had lived long enough for me to be his "apprentice". He grew an avocado tree in the cold winters and hot summers in Fresno, CA, he grew corsage orchids, he had bee hives, he turned part of his front lawn into a garden and grew the most amazing things! He also enjoyed cooking, and made some fantastic meals. I believe I was only 10 when he passed, but he made his mark on me. He gave me my very first cookbook (which while it's battered I still have) and gave me a love for fresh fruits and vegetables. I hate to think about him, he was a not so nice person but my first boyfriend also inspired me. I was with him when he went to culinary school, I helped him with his homework, read his textbooks, helped him cook, and realized with a little work I could cook amazing things. I doubt he's cooking anymore, last I heard he took computer science classes from my friend Erik at ITT.
4. I believe we should ALL know how to produce food, if times get really tough we will all need to step up and help out ourselves and our neighbors. What if one day we wake up and the grocery store is empty? It could happen, you never know. Wouldn't it be nice to say to your neighbor "I'll trade you some of my tomatoes for your collard greens" or something of the like?
5. When I was little I would steal spices from my mother's kitchen and take them in the backyard, turn the little red bench my grandfather made me upside down, pour water into it (it was wood but it was watertight!! he should have built boats!), then pour the stolen spices into it. I always told anyone who asked, and myself I was a chemist trying to create something special. Now that I know how much spices cost... I'm thankful my mother didn't kill me. But, today I look at cooking as a kind of chemistry. If you get all the right things together in the right way, they do make something special.

I'm babbling...  Enough of this domestic crap for one day, time to snuggle up to my faux fur mink throw and sniff my leather jacket to relax :-) maybe I'll even listen to some Pink!

(the cookbook my grandfather gave me over 30 years ago)