I mentioned last week that I had something new to share with you, and here goes… It’s my other blog, Raising Foodies. I’ve been a bit obsessed with food of late – buying it, cooking it, eating it, reading about it, so I wanted a single place to keep all of my sundry gastro-ramblings.
As you may have gleaned from the title, the blog’s primary focus is our family’s food “adventures” as we get the girlies to expand their palates beyond Annie’s Mac & Cheese, but you know I couldn’t stop there (I’m not that good at staying on task), so there’s more…
I’ve been fixated on the sad, sad state of food in our country of late. And (not unlike the bubble I occupied during my college years in Austin when it was inconceivable to me that W could unseat Ann Richards as Governor of Texas), I’ve found myself naively believing that in matters of food, things are much better than reality based on my friends in the blogosphere.
So many of us already buy local + organic, are members of CSAs, have little gardens in our backyard, even have hens… We cook, we share recipes, we take lovely food photos, but in reality it’s a bad food scene friends. Just walk into any major chain grocery store in America and take in the sheer amount of (prepare for a bad word, sorry) Shit on the shelves… Bagle-fuls anyone? There’s actually a box of those in the freezer at my office right now, belonging to an otherwise highly educated, informed, conscientious, tasteful co-worker. Seriously, Bagle-fuls??? It’s mind blowing.
So there’s that.
I also want to use this new blog to debunk the idea that you have to be a stellar cook to prepare and enjoy great food. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a great cook. I make a handful of things really well, another handful of items in my repertoire are average but improving, and then there are a slew of dishes that I’m, well, let’s just say attempting with enthusiasm.
I loved to cook in college and cooked well, I even worked a summer stint as a baker at a camp in Canada, churning out literally hundreds of loaves of bread a day. Then there was a huge cooking break and with it a major “rusting” of my culinary skills… Newly married, we subsisted on restaurant meals and take-out, and when we did eat at home, I left the cooking to my hubby, who is a rather stellar cook. After having the girlies there was (much) more take out, lots of rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods and lots of pasta… basically whatever was quick and easy. But now, the cooking bug’s back with a vengeance, and I’m determined to show the girlies how important food is on every level.
I’m guessing there are others out there like me, and what I’m hoping is that we can learn and share together. I think the more we talk about food -- with each other, with our kids -- the more we vote with our wallets at the grocery store and farmer's market and fully understand what we’re eating, where it came from, the impact of our choices on our health, on the earth, the more we share ideas, the better off we’ll all be.
So…You in?
