How much are you willing to pay?

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Well, it is official, we are in a recession. Oh no, don’t call me a pessimist, I heard it on CNN. No really...you know everything you hear on CNN is try? :-) Well, let's just say I'm a realist and have lived long enough to know that if you do not take responsibility for your actions, you are doomed to pay a costly price. Lesson learned…all good things come to an end. Now with that said let me Blog on.

Cooks and bakers, this is where the rubber meets the road and for many of us we are being forced to answer the question how much are we willing to pay? As I stroll down the grocery store isles and look at the price of food creeping higher and higher I have to wonder how much folks are willing to pay for the convenience of fast food; you know the stuff we make, quick, fast and in a hurry. You know those foods in the refrigerator and freezer section of the grocery that can be popped in the microwave to provide instant gratification.

I have been telling the students in my cooking and baking classes for years that they must learn to cook and bake, well; instant food is expensive and a dinosaur that will one day become extinct. Why you ask? Because it addresses the needs of millions, who have no time, no time, no time? In fact, for the first time in the lifetime of many Americans “time” will no longer be an issue, money will. The painful, honest truth is that when you cannot afford to buy convenience you buy the basics; rice that must be cooked, beans that must be cooked, meat that must be cooked and vegetables that must be steamed.

For those who are married to convenience foods, what would it take for you to begin to look at preparing food the good old fashioned way? Before I go on I should probably ask for your definition of convenience food. Some folks will say its fast food (restaurants only); others will say it is anything that makes life easy, like canned biscuits, frozen breakfasts boxes in the freezer selections and cold cuts. The dilemma is this, it takes a lot more effort and money to make thousands of frozen breakfast boxes than for you to scramble an egg, fry a couple slices of bacon and toast a slice of bread. Okay, I hear ya! It all takes too much time, but think about it this way, you probably won’t have a job in the next six to eight months so why not learn to eat real food? No, seriously, on the real, this whole economic disaster is going to cause millions of people to reexamine how they live, what they eat, where they work and what their future will look like.

It’s not all about “you”, it about how we all fit into the world and learn to survive with what the world has to offer. Now, with that said…how much are you willing to pay? Still not willing to give up those microwave sausages?

All recipes are not the same

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Recently, I started organizing my cookbooks and setting them up like a library. I love cookbooks and I, like many foodies and cooking fanatics can read them like a novel. I had a little time on my hands before Thanksgiving this year and decided to look at the cookbooks I have from a number of different countries. I won’t go through all of them but I share some info about three. There is a Japanese cookbook( my ex purchased for me while we were living in Japan), an Ethiopian Cookbook(I purchased from the Blue Nile Restaurant in Ferndale, Michigan) and a Jamaican cookbook given to me by my niece.

There’s one thing that I noticed each of these cookbooks have in common. Each cookbook assumes that the cook has a rather intense background in cooking; speaking specifically to the seasoned cook. None of these books are for a novice. These are not your ordinary Betty Crocker Cookbooks and you must already know who to braise, chop fine and handle Scotch Bonnet peppers.

I think the lack of experience in the kitchen is one reason why people do not cook more creatively and stick to making the same foods day after day. I am forcing myself to use my creative juices these days because I find myself becoming bored with food. I never thought I would say that and I’m sure no one reading this Blog shares my view? Right?

What can be done to keep food from becoming a bore? Should we turn to a new cultural experience? Should we put some pep in our step and add curry and hot sweet paprika? I’d like to know what folks are doing to spice up their culinary love life.

Cookbooks with No Photos

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

I just returned from a visit to a used bookstore and sat on this hard floor for more than an hour looking through cookbooks dated pre-1950s. I was specifically looking for books that do not have photographs. I know we have moved into a time when we now eat with our eyes and not our mind, okay so some of you don’t know what I mean, but believe it or not there was a time when I could just write about the food and it would get you drooling. Does anybody out there remember those times? Oh, okay.

Well after teaching cooking classes off and on for more than twenty years, I now know that folks in the U.S. have come to a point where they no longer have an imagination. Where did it go? I think when these colorful, frilly cookbooks and cooking magazines came into being; we started to eat with our eyes. I guest you could say we did what you folks are doing today with video games and television. Instead of going out to play, using your imagination, popsicles sticks and good old fashioned dirt, they twiddle their thumbs, text and play.

What would happen if we went the way of yesterday and removed many photos from our texts? Could you live in a world without food photographs in newspapers, magazines and books? What words could describe this Sweet Potato Pie?