You are what you eat
"A meal for western people is nothing but food. When it came to the food of China they had their own version, a limited number of dishes that always had to be made the same way with the sauces they would recognize from other restaurants. Sameness was what they wanted." from The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones
I love to cook. I have not always loved to cook but ever since I have tried to implement a more whole foods plant based lifestyle the world of cuisine has opened up to me. You may not believe this but you can do a heck of a lot more with plants than you can ever do with meat. There is only so much you can do with meat because there are only so many flavors. But oh...plants...yes, Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when he commanded Adam to eat of every herb and every plant bearing seed. There are virtually limitless possibilities of flavors to be had here. But I digress.
I am always on the lookout for good cookbooks. I don't think that I look for the same things in cookbooks that people usually look for. I often read reviews of cookbooks that say something like "they use ingredients that I have never heard of before and have trouble finding" and I think to myself how rediculous it is that you would want a cookbook to tell you how to cook the things you already know about. I also read things like "the flavor combinations were just weird" which is also code for "I want to taste something that tastes like stuff I already know how to make". When I am looking for a cookbook my number one priority is to look for recipes that seem to combine things I never before considered combining and my number two priority is to look for ingredients I don't recognize. I also look for as little baking as possible. This is because I have this innate need to never go by a recipe exactly. I just can't seem to do it. Brad will attest to the fact that I am not a very good baker at all and I now know this is because I refuse to go by a recipe. Baking is much more of a science than cooking. Cookbooks to me should be more like muses and less like dictators. I simply can't enjoy my creative needs when I feel forced into following directions exactly.
Food is a big deal to me. I don't neccessarily like to eat, but I do like to experience new tastes, and I love to feed people, especially people who are open to trying new things. It's the best when you feed someone something and they are amazed that they like it. I do that to Brad a lot I think. I try to never tell him what's in something because I don't want his taste buds to be prejudiced from the start. In any case, I wish that people were more open to new food but let's face it, the natural man is an enemy to change. This is too bad especially in the case of food because you really are missing out. I realize that you are allowed to dislike certain things but I think for most people that list is way too long and when someone says they don't like this or that, it is usually that they don't like how it was prepared rather than that they don't like the ingredient itself. Take mushrooms for instance. I have heard many people say they don't like mushrooms but there are sooo many ways to prepare a mushroom that I take offense to an overarching statement like "I don't like mushrooms". I actually abhor eating fresh uncooked mushrooms, the taste is just offensive to me. I also dislike large peices of or whole cooked mushrooms. The texture just then becomes too much to handle. BUT chopped up in not too big of a peice and cooked in any way and mushrooms are my best friend and a favorite ingredient.
Well my point is, never judge an ingredient by first experience and trying new things says something about you. It says you want to improve and experience new things. If you are what you eat then I want to be a person of many flavors, colors, and textures, not just pasta with red sauce and breadsticks or lettuce with ranch dressing, or *gasp* chicken nuggets and french fries. Jicima, quinoa, parsnip, bean curd, adzuki, and seitan, I am not afraid!
I love to cook. I have not always loved to cook but ever since I have tried to implement a more whole foods plant based lifestyle the world of cuisine has opened up to me. You may not believe this but you can do a heck of a lot more with plants than you can ever do with meat. There is only so much you can do with meat because there are only so many flavors. But oh...plants...yes, Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when he commanded Adam to eat of every herb and every plant bearing seed. There are virtually limitless possibilities of flavors to be had here. But I digress.
I am always on the lookout for good cookbooks. I don't think that I look for the same things in cookbooks that people usually look for. I often read reviews of cookbooks that say something like "they use ingredients that I have never heard of before and have trouble finding" and I think to myself how rediculous it is that you would want a cookbook to tell you how to cook the things you already know about. I also read things like "the flavor combinations were just weird" which is also code for "I want to taste something that tastes like stuff I already know how to make". When I am looking for a cookbook my number one priority is to look for recipes that seem to combine things I never before considered combining and my number two priority is to look for ingredients I don't recognize. I also look for as little baking as possible. This is because I have this innate need to never go by a recipe exactly. I just can't seem to do it. Brad will attest to the fact that I am not a very good baker at all and I now know this is because I refuse to go by a recipe. Baking is much more of a science than cooking. Cookbooks to me should be more like muses and less like dictators. I simply can't enjoy my creative needs when I feel forced into following directions exactly.
Food is a big deal to me. I don't neccessarily like to eat, but I do like to experience new tastes, and I love to feed people, especially people who are open to trying new things. It's the best when you feed someone something and they are amazed that they like it. I do that to Brad a lot I think. I try to never tell him what's in something because I don't want his taste buds to be prejudiced from the start. In any case, I wish that people were more open to new food but let's face it, the natural man is an enemy to change. This is too bad especially in the case of food because you really are missing out. I realize that you are allowed to dislike certain things but I think for most people that list is way too long and when someone says they don't like this or that, it is usually that they don't like how it was prepared rather than that they don't like the ingredient itself. Take mushrooms for instance. I have heard many people say they don't like mushrooms but there are sooo many ways to prepare a mushroom that I take offense to an overarching statement like "I don't like mushrooms". I actually abhor eating fresh uncooked mushrooms, the taste is just offensive to me. I also dislike large peices of or whole cooked mushrooms. The texture just then becomes too much to handle. BUT chopped up in not too big of a peice and cooked in any way and mushrooms are my best friend and a favorite ingredient.
Well my point is, never judge an ingredient by first experience and trying new things says something about you. It says you want to improve and experience new things. If you are what you eat then I want to be a person of many flavors, colors, and textures, not just pasta with red sauce and breadsticks or lettuce with ranch dressing, or *gasp* chicken nuggets and french fries. Jicima, quinoa, parsnip, bean curd, adzuki, and seitan, I am not afraid!
you really should join Madelines cooking blog and share some of your new recipes with plants!
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