"Noncooks think it's silly to invest two hours' work in two minutes' enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet."
Julia Child
Ok so I can cook. I rely on Betty Crocker to serve my family 3 square meals a day, almost all of them healthy. They taste like traditional American food except for the stir fry that in an emergency comes out of a bag. I hardly ever burn things and I can make wonderful pies and cookies. BUT, I am a noncook. I have always though it silly to put in 2 hours and rarely do even though the results are memorable.
My definition of a good meal centered around: 1. budget 2. health 3. how little time it took 4. taste. I think it all ended up tasting fairly good, but there's definitely something lacking. I avoided cookbooks because approaching the cookbook aisle was daunting - I want the recipes to be tested and taste awesome and there's just so many cookbooks in the world. I chose Julia Child's book because it has 180 five star ratings on Amazon, lol.
I never do things the easy way... when I learned to sew, I picked the most difficult sewing pattern I could find and completely destroyed a dress, but after failure comes success. That is my new goal with cooking. I don't want to just serve decent meals at a reasonable price. I want to want to eat at home because my food is better than a restaurant. Why is this important? Well... everything is food. Every major event in our lives, every get together, every normal work day revolves around food.
So I was thinking about this and I thought... why am I eating chili when I could be eating French food? Why am I not eating deliberately?! My new priorities are 1. taste 2. health 3. bring people together. I don't subscribe to the four food groups anyway because I lean towards the philosophy of eating seasonally and having plenty of healthy fats.
My meals usually look like this:
When they should look more like this:
I think in North America we too often hurry through the ritual or distract ourselves with movies and TV. My goal is to set my table like this....and sit there and eat good food. :)
Coming Next Year!
I think a pretty setting helps the enjoyment element of dining.
There's nothing wrong with baked fish... just serve it onto (warmed) dinner plates (vs. plopping a big pan in the middle of the table) and arrange the greens and starch in a pretty way (greens gracing over the meat and starch, for example) (heh, unless you have kids who don't allow their foods to "touch"!).
For "seconds", you might consider putting the pan on a side-table or counter if you have an eat-in-kitchen.
ALSO.. while that picture is pretty, washing two different glasses and three different kinds of forks isn't fun for the dish-doer. Seasonal placemats, pretty serving bowls (you can even find these at the dollar store!) folded napkins and nicely placed silverware do the trick :)
Soft, slow dinner music is another way to create the mood and encourage slower, appreciative eating.
Great post!
Much love,
Sarah Joy :)
What a great philosophy to wake up and read. I'm with you on the healthy fats, too.
Thanks for the lovely advice. There ARE a lot of glasses in that picture, lol. I won't be that formal but it will be nicer than it has been. I think I too often feel so tired and busy I just don't take the time but I think I need it.
I love this inspiration. Thank you! We've been trying to "plate" our foods, ever since watching Top Chef. Ha ha!
But I love the idea of having an actual tablecloth and place settings and all that. I'm considering retrieving my inherited Finnish china from my parents' house so I can actually use it.