I don't believe I have ever had an original thought. I might say something out loud that other people are also thinking at the time, but most of the time that just makes me the first to put my foot in my mouth. There are times, though, when I do feel validated, or even vindicated when a topic of recent rumination shows up somewhere really cool - say, The New York Times. Well this week it happened TWICE.
We here at Chez Crowsfeet are up to our eyebrows in salad greens this time of year. Salad purples, oranges, yellows and reds, too. The garden is in full production. I was very very close to making this just a salad blog; making a different salad every night, taking a photo, posting the photo with the list of ingredients (wait a sec, isn't that called a recipe?). I decided it was too seasonal and too limiting. I knew I'd want to talk about a lot more food than salads. (I happen to have some strong opinions about cookies, and intend to share them here at a later date.) No sooner had I abandoned the 'Salad Chronicles' idea than I came across 101 Simple Salads for the Season in the NYT. No photos, but a lot of great salad ideas. I was tuned in to the cosmic salad frequency, and I was not alone. Maybe I'll still make a lot of salads and post them here. I won't be eating alone.
So I name my blog, write my first post and then discover Michael Pollan's most recent article in the NYT, Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch. Great article, go read it - in a minute. But the very last bit is a quote from a food marketing researcher named Harry Balzer (! - 4th grade humor flashback right here, with all due apologies to Mr. Balzer) who said, "I have the diet for you. It’s short, and it’s simple. Here’s my diet plan: Cook it yourself. That’s it. Eat anything you want — just as long as you’re willing to cook it yourself." Knock me over with a feather.
Am I just unwittingly part of a new trend? Run over by the Zeitgeist bus and never saw it coming? There are other trends that we are a part of that we didn't realize were trends at the time. We've had a vegetable garden for as long as we've had this house - 10 years. We have chickens. One of our dogs is of a breed that was quite obscure for a long time, and now it seems like we see them everywhere. But none of this was prompted by a desire to be trendy, or even an awareness that a trend existed. I certainly don't intend to start any trends. Like I said, I remain certain that by the time I have thought of something a lot of other people have, too. Michael Pollan's article suggests that home preparation of our food may be a cultural ritual in irreversible decline. I hope not. When I realized how much I miss making food I was not thinking of any cultural rituals or foodie lit or diet plans or any of that; it is something I enjoy that I've let slip out of my routine. Pollan's article made me feel like I might have an idea that other people might enjoy, too.
The image of a good knife and a glass of wine is so concrete for me; I am always happy when I have these two things in the kitchen and I am making food. I can be alone or have company, I might be listening to music or just the sound of my knife on the cutting board, the mixer, onions in olive oil, a wire wisk against a pot or a bowl. I might be cooking for guests or just my immediate family. I think I enjoy the food more because I've had that much more time to enjoy it; the process and the product. The act and gesture of preparing food for other people, and the family and social rituals of sharing good food are old and dear and transcend trends and hype and food on the TV. I hope I am not the only one who thinks so.
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