Creativity escapes me in the kitchen lately. Not because I can't cook. I have been told quite the contrary. I love to cook, bake and "design" in the kitchen. It is the another art form that I love! However playing a muck the spice rack and designing just the right taste to savor can leave you flat in a house full of picky eaters where a dash of flavors is NOT desired. The "chef" in me can get exhausted from being a short order cook. Truth be told - I haven't been cooking much lately with the wind down of the school year, design work and blogging - yet even when time permits I can't find the motivation. No motivation for something I love to do. Go figure. What doesn't help is, much to my chagrin, somewhere in the last decade I wound up surrounded by non food adventurers. I just don't understand! As far as I am concern you should have a love affair with food. It's a relationship that never needs an ending. One must have food to live and survive. Living should be about so much more then surviving. Thus, food should be about so much more then which way to serve chicken tonight. And, if my nine year old is there - don't bother unless it's a breaded nugget of sorts. UGH! How did I help to create those lacking taste buds?!
Food is an art. It is a drug of sorts. Having used it far too long to self medicate - I know the repercussions. I also know - in that cycle you don't taste or appreciate. I have moved on! Fought long and hard to be in recovery from that abusive addiction. However - that doesn't mean that the love affair or intoxicating effects are over. I do believe in EVERYTHING IN MODERATION. I have learned to live it quite successfully in that venue for the last two years. Embracing a relationship that is meant to be! Meant to be honored and valued not abused. You have to love what you eat! Or you won't eat it. I know it, I embrace it. I cook and create really delectable healthy means around this fact. (Seriously!!!) I've created pesto from chicken broth rather then EVOO and served to dinner guests with nothing but requests for more. Often the biggest problem of treating the kitchen like a gallery and making works in progress is the reproduction when it's something you love. I'm longing to do this again. To play with the palette of flavors and invite them to come together in a new and exciting masterpiece. With summer approaching and sightly more "down time" to be had - I will devote time to this ignored passion of mine. The challenge will be to try and get the family and it's carb-a-holic on board. I long to do what I love. And, I long for my family to love it too. There is a battle to be born to rid the cookery of the short order chef. (I know my mom & other's cringe! "If I served it, they eat it!" I'm not even going to attempt to go there now with reasons of working mother's guilt and or exhaustion complicated by sensory issues or any other "reasons"...) It will take slow introductions and repeat meetings. It will have painful and forceful moments at times. I will not start this war until I am ready to enforce the "rules" - everyone tries and eats some. It will be a phase out of sorts. Filled with blood sweat and tears... certainly, mine and theirs! I am ready! I want my kitchen on fire with flavor again and I want my kids asking for seconds. Home cooked from scratch non processed seconds! Although my adversaries will wager hostility at the onset. This war can be won. HELL, I looked morbid obesity in the face and took my life back... how hard can it be to get four people to enjoy the same meal a few times a week?!?!
You are nicer than me :) I make one meal for everyone, sometimes my 2 and 4 year old eat it, sometimes not. Over the last year they have gotten really good about trying new flavor the more that I have been cooking different dishes. Good luck getting everyone to eat the same dish, my hardest was my husband :)
ReplyDeletesame goes on in this house...I cook EVERY NIGHT! I have been in such a rut with the same old same old, it makes me sad!
ReplyDeleteI am going to do something about it...I think I am going to run out and get ribs - I haven't made those in a while <3 GREAT POST LOVE!
Food is not the enemy, it's the relationship one may have with it that is. Meals with my family are some of the best moments of the day. Having a small child does complicate it and sometimes I feel that I spend more time fighting about eating than actually enjoying it. I've found that having her help out with the preparation has increased her interest in what she eats. We talk about where food comes from and the difference between healthy choices and not-so-healthy ones. It's made a difference.
ReplyDeleteMy husband was the hero of our mealtime war. From the time our kids were babies, the rule was "this is dinner, eat it or don't but there is nothing else unless you do." Very rarely were my kids willing to miss dessert or snacks , so they ate. They learned to try new things.I must say though, I always give them their choice of any healthy breakfast!
ReplyDeleteAgreed, There was contribution to creating the many meals monster. Reasons matter not - it lives.
ReplyDeleteAfter Carb-Kid, the man of the house is the next in line for pickiest. Although he adores my cooking, adventurous he is not - big lover of the old standards and most anything Italian. I'd like to tour the world via my taste buds and love the challenge of new cooking "styles"... the artist in me gets restless... I suppose that's why it's time for a new movement! There is to be a Renaissance in my house this summer!