Let us become Acquainted

August 21, 2007 at 5:38 pm (Personal History)

Hello Dear Reader,

 

Welcome to the first day of my Blog.  My name is Mimi.  Cooking is something I am passionate about.  When I was young, I would look through the 1950’s edition of the Joy of Cooking that my mother had purchased at a garage sale and come up with such culinary delights as glazed carrots or peanut butter cookies. I was always very proud of myself when I recreated these recipes.  There is a joy in creation even if one is following instructions.  Later on, during my first attempt at College, I had a roommate who was a wonderful cook who taught me how to make Filipino Lumpia and fed me wonderful, exotic things that came from the land she grew up in. She gave me the gift of an adventurous palate.   I went through a vegetarian phase shortly after that.  During the eighties, vegetarian food was not difficult to find in California restaurants but needing to feed myself on a regular basis took me down the path of needing to fully learn how to make my way in the kitchen if I wanted to eat well on a regular basis.  During that time, as my palate developed, I matured from drinking sweet white wine to fully appreciating fine red wine.  As time marched on, I learned to love all kinds food including meat and began to enjoy cooking a variety of food.

 

 As I read over that first paragraph again, I sound to myself like some unapologetic Foodie.  The dark and horrible truth about my life is that during the nineties, I got a job that was stressful and required me to sit for eight hours a day.  They fed us junk food to keep us happy and reward us for selling their products.  I was stressed out and ate fast food every day.  I had no energy and stopped exercising.  I still liked good food and went to good restaurants as well as maintaining my junk food habit.  I gained seventy pounds during this time. Cooking became something I did infrequently because eating out was so rewarding and so much less stressful.  I am now in my early forties and I am trying to save my life.  I have stopped eating fast food.  I now limit my restaurant dining and when I do allow a splurge, I try to order healthier food and I try to take some of it home in an effort to limit my portions.  In the days of my vegetarianism, I ate what I ate for environmental reasons.  I am now finding my way back to eating for political, environmental, and health reasons.  I have slowly lost around thirty pounds since I have changed my habits, and I am now exercising again and hope to become healthy and active the way I was so many years ago.  I have slowly begun to realize that what is good for me is good for the planet too.

 

 Let’s step back in time a moment.  When I was young, my family had an odd relationship with food.  My Dad had health problems.  He was actually a little nuts.  Because of his health problems, we were a little poor.  We would buy really bad food with coupons.  My parents were the coupon King and Queen.  It was the seventies and my Dad was trying to fix himself with diet and exercise but we could only afford to fix him with diet as far as our food dollars would stretch.  As a consequence, we might be eating brown rice or peanut butter on whole grain bread but we would also have Velveeta and boxes of Kraft macaroni and cheese made with whatever margarine was on sale.  My Dad would be eating a Spartan diet one day and gorging on sweets the next if the food budget would allow it.  In some ways, I am my Father’s daughter.  I have a conflicting relationship with food.  One thing you can count on is that I cook things from scratch and I will ask you to follow me in using the best ingredients you can find.

 

So there you have it.  If you are not ready to run away from this strange woman and her novice attempt at food writing, I heartily invite you to stay and discover what will be in store for us.  I am a bit cynical but I can also be fun.  Together we will embark on a food journey.  I don’t exactly know what this Blog will be like an hour from now, a week from now or six months from now.  I’ll try not to step up on a soapbox to often, but you may have to put up with some lecturing.  I am getting older and I tend to pontificate.  I’ll try to include many recipes, but things could get a little crazy.  I cook by the book most of the time but when I do run away with things and experiment, I have a difficult time recreating what I have done down to the proper measurement.  I will need to learn to help you follow along so please forgive me as I learn to measure things out.  

Enjoy!

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