I’m a little food obsessed. I always have been. It’s not just about the flavours, but also about the textures, the colours, the heat, the sweet, the salty, the creamy, and the crunchy. The way all these characteristics play with each other is what makes food such an enjoyable experience. I don’t eat to live; I live to eat. I’m not a professional chef. At best I’m an interested amateur, a home cook with some knowledge and skills. What I am, though, is a planner. I like to know what’s happening, what’s coming up, and what might happen, so I can plan accordingly. That need to plan is, along with a passion for food, what drew me to writing this blog.
Spontaneity is Great (if you have a good plan to back it up)
For years I had the good fortune to be a stay-at-home mom. In that role, it was part of my job to be involved with the kids at home, at school, and with their extra-curricular activities. I also volunteered in various capacities, as a classroom helper, Parent Council member, and as a child-minding volunteer at a local gym. So even though I didn’t have a 9-to-5 job, my schedule was busy. A lot of things would get done on the fly between other obligations, especially grocery shopping. I would run into the store, buy a bunch of things that looked good in the moment, and then get them home and have no idea what to do with them or how to use them with the other things I had in my fridge or pantry. Worst of all, though, was the amount of food (and money) that ended up wasted.
About 10 years ago, in order to get a handle on the shameful amount of food waste our family was creating, I started planning a week’s worth of dinners in advance, based on what was on sale every week at the local grocery stores. This would help out two-fold in the budgeting department: buy what’s on sale, plus stop throwing money into the compost bucket. Because we had a plan, we were able to optimize the use of the freezer in our basement and the cold storage room as well.
Since a lot of people knew about this plan (obsession?) I made every week, I’d have friends (okay, a friend) call me up and ask what they were feeding their family this week. Let’s face it, planning for a family is a lot of work and it’s time consuming, and not everyone wants to do it or has the time or the energy at the end of a long week. It’s a lot easier to have it handed to you. One of my goals with this blog is to take that task right off your To Do List, and share with you what I’m already doing for my family anyway.
Change is Good
Another thing about me that will inform this blog is that I like change. I embrace the new. So while we eat a lot of chicken, just like most people these days, it’s a variety of chicken recipes. Sure, sometimes we go a little crazy for a recipe and it gets put in heavy rotation, but I’m definitely not one of those people with 30 recipes that go in a monthly cycle. I like to experiment with new flavour profiles, new products, and new ingredients, and that will be reflected in the recipes I share. A lot of the recipes will be my own, but if I have found something I like from another source, it will always be clearly cited.
Finally, when I really like a product, you will know about it. The same will happen if I really dislike a product. I do not have any sponsors, so if I am excited about something, you can trust it is genuine. You will probably hear a lot about President’s Choice and The Pampered Chef, because I genuinely use a lot of their merchandise.
Food is Love
I hope you will join me on my blogging journey, and follow my growth as I develop my voice and my style here. But even more than that, I hope you will find my blog helpful in your everyday life, that my work here helps alleviate the stress that can surround mealtimes and give you more time to enjoy dining with your family. Because food is love.
X-Rated Food 