Inspired Eating

When you have the best and tastiest ingredients, you can cook very simply and the food will be extraordinary because it tastes like what it is.

Alice Waters

Here is my guilty secret. I don’t like to cook. When my sons were still at home, I prepared meals seven days a week. Just basic everyday menus. Desserts were more my lane. Cream Puffs, Jell Rolls, Four Layer Cakes, made from scratch pastry for pies. It was never ending.

Of course, eventually, it did end. The boys grew up and left home. I divorced and until I remarried I only had to feed myself. I was fine with microwave popcorn for dinner. I worked full-time until I was seventy and cooking, when I got home, was not a big priority. We ate out a lot. When you live in the city, there are an abundance of excellent restaurants to choose from.

I was, recently, inspired by Alice Waters book, Coming To My Senses. It made me look at food differently. Her focus is simple meals made with the best ingredients available. Using what is in season. This hit home to me when I went to the grocery store and every piece of fruit I looked at was imported from Chile. What a lightening bulb moment! Of course, they weren’t grown locally. Peaches, apples, berries are not in season. Where did I imagine they came from?

When I was growing up, we ate what was available at the time. In the summer we picked wild berries and had sweet corn from a neighborhood farm. Winter was more of a challenge and we had to resort to frozen, or canned ingredients. My grandparents bought milk in glass bottles from the local dairy store. When the bottle was opened there was a layer of cream floating on top.

This summer, I have resolved to do more shopping locally. Visiting farmer’s markets and neighborhood bakeries. My sister, knowing my obsession with everything French, gave me a gift card to a French bakery for my birthday. The bread was so good, it’s all I wanted to eat. Unfortunately, it’s too far away to shop daily, but there is a small French pastry shop in our little town center. The pear cake is the best ever.

This summer, I’m looking forward to locally grown peaches, cantaloup, apples, and corn. This winter will present more of a challenge, but I’ll worry about that when the time comes. Right now, I’m going to enjoy summer’s bounty.