I'm going to try and write a food blog. There are a few reasons.
First, I'm having trouble writing. So I hope that having a focus might make it easier. I like writing about food but I'm not exactly sure how to focus. I don't really use recipes. I'm not that interested in obscure ingredients or whacked out cooking methods. Maybe the second reason has to do with the uptick in obesity epidemic talk and how it makes me feel. The Jaime Oliver show, for example.
The show is fodder for an entire post. I watched a preview last week and he's been on numerous talk shows. Two things that I feel very strongly have a head on collision in the show. I share his horror over the crap food. And ... I get tired of the fear and loathing of obesity as a motivator. I think I will write more about this later. For the purposes of this post I just need to say that when I'm watching shows that generalize about how fat people eat I get cranky. It's just not true for me.
I've been cooking again. I have the time. I have things to say about food, much of which is just musing. And I've been having fun taking pictures of food. The picture above was inspired by a post I'd written. I think about how the food looks when I'm making a meal. I think more about it when I'm cooking for other people but I'm always aware of it. I love the moment when the food is all on the plate and it looks ... pretty. I am annoyed when I do things badly or in a sloppy manner or when I have an idea and it just doesn't work out.
When I was making dinner tonight I imagined what Jaime might say.


First, I roasted some asparagus. I like roasting because it's fast and brings out the sweetness in most things. I caramelized some shallots and then added the risotto and stock. Cooked all that until it was creamy. I had a few pieces of steak left over so I tossed them in with the asparagus for the last minute just to get it warm. When I pulled the asparagus out of the oven I drizzled a bit of truffle oil on it and put it in a bowl. I put the risotto on top of that with some Grana and then the steak. A small glass of wine and it was dinner. I think Jaime would approve.
My food thinking for any given day organizes around a need for protein, what's in season, what I have the time and energy to do. Nothing unusual. I like to eat seasonally and regionally. The truffle oil and risotto were from Italy so the meal is a fail on regional terms. I decide on risotto because I wanted to eat the asparagus. I didn't have much steak and I knew the stock and Grana would add protein.
I don't really care what Jaime would think. I like him well enough. His cooking shows are fun. He does a lot great community work. People, specifically kids, are fatter and it is about crap food and lack of movement. But people of all ages and sizes are not well served by crap food and lack of movement. So why does it always come back to the fat kids? It worries me.
I'm rambling around here but I'm just going to keep experimenting and see how it goes.