amateur plat du jour

It’s fun to get together and have something good to eat at least once a day.  That’s what human life is all about - enjoying things.  – Julia Child

Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.  – Hippocrates


I love these two quotes and have them hanging in my kitchen.  I was thrilled when I came across the JC quote while flipping through a Room&Board catalog.  I tore it out and taped it up on the fridge – and wondered to myself if that after 40 years I might be turning into my Mom.  (Her fridge is always covered with photos and quotes and newspaper clippings.)  I think that Julia Child is about as lovable as they come, don’t you?  The Hippocrates quote came with much less self-realization - - one day I just decided that I could use the reminder, so I printed it off and hung it on a cupboard door.  I find it fascinating that Hippocrates is considered to be the father of western medicine – and is one of the first to argue that disease is caused by diet, lifestyle and environmental factors.  Don’t you think that’s fascinating?  The father of our western medical system arguing that a healthy – and real – diet is essential to our well-being.  So fascinating!  Has anybody reading this ever had their general practitioners tell you to eat full-fat yogurt and butter because they are better for you than their alternatives sitting next to them all pretty on the grocery store shelf?  Aren’t you wondering now, like I am, what that old Greek would have to say about the McDonald’s inside of Abbott Northwestern?  (though to be fair - it does say on the  hospital website that "this McDonald's also features a number of heart-healthy menu items."  Righhhhht.) 

Julia Child's kitchen, from the Smithsonian's
National Museum of American Hisory.
Taken on a June 2010 trip to Washington DC
with my Dad to visit my sister and niece.

It’s a combo of these two quotes that is really key for me, though.  You’ll feel better by choosing to eat better – and also, eating yummy food is fun!  What’s better than noshing on good eats with people you love?  Not much!

I am enamored with food culture.  I’m in love with the ideas people have created in regards to culture and religion dictating what they consume.  People across the globe breaking bread together are a beautiful thing.  I make a point to check out grocery stores and markets when I travel – either around these states or out of the country.  I find them captivating.  For years we had a small tin of ground mustard sitting in the kitchen that I brought home from a trip to Ireland.  We only brought back a few souvenirs, and it was my favorite.  Every time I saw it I would remember that little market in the south of Ireland and it made me happy.  We bought a ton of dried chili last time we were in New Mexico – and whenever I make enchiladas I am transported back to that amazing vacation we had with some of our really great friends.  One of my favorite memories from a different trip to Ireland revolves around a funny restaurant meal, and I realized this summer that a ton of my photos from Paris were of food in the outdoor markets.  It doesn’t matter where you are – but for me, laughing and sharing stories while eating together is what cooking tasty food is all about. 

It was Chinese New Year yesterday – and I was going to cook a dinner to honor that.  (but instead I made a butternut lasagna – and boy howdy was it good!)  I might still try to get to it this week (or at the very least see if I can sweet-talk a dinner invite out of Jim).  I’m going to mark up my calendar with all the holidays I can find that occur through out the year – and then do my own little Minnesotan version of honoring them through traditional meals.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?  And a little challenging, too – considering I don’t even cook a traditional Thanksgiving meal.  Our fridge is always chock-a-block full of leftovers because I never fail to end up cooking way more than Jimmi and I can eat.  So consider this an invitation to come join us for dinner sometime – either for what will be my take on a Chinese New Year dinner or a simple soup night. . .

. . .or you can come over at 3:00 in the morning when we get home and the car unloaded from a gig – and we are hungry and awake but tired and don’t want to deal with the mountain of leftovers - and decide to just pop a frozen Tombstone in the oven . . . (hey, no judging!)

And because I still have some room in my binders - - let me know a recipe you’re currently grooving on, okay?

Bon appétit!

- bert