Got the food blahs

Sometimes food just doesn't interest me.  Eating it, that is.  Or cooking it.  Or storing it.  Or buying it.  As a topic, it never fails.  I haven't found anything interesting enough to blog about in my morning readings, but I certainly found some interesting things to read about.  Like asparagus.  I started with an article about some food movies, watched a 6 minute documentary on asparagus, wandered over to Wikipedia to read more about asparagus, and gave some thought about how to work 12 stalks of asparagus a day into My Prince's diet. (Hint:  not gonna happen.)

*In a salute to George Orwell, I see that Huffington Post has simply disappeared someone's list of favorite food films, so I can't provide link. Who knew that it would all vanish while I was still thinking about the topic?*  *hmph*

Still, today is just one of those days.  I'm not hungry so there is no drive to cook or eat.  Even if I were hungry, I don't think I'd be much interested in cooking.  There is just no inspiration today.  I need to go to the warehouse store, since we are running out of some essentials that are better purchased in bulk and at discount.  I can also get some nuts for snacking there, which is usually my "reward" for going.  Not even that can pull me out of my doldrums.

What does this mean?  Company is coming tonight, and I don't know what to cook.  It must be time for Mystery Casserole!

Spinach Hodgepodge Follow-up

LOL!  I was curious to see how my "hodgepodge" recipe stood up against others and did a Google search on the ingredients:  spinach "yellow squash" tomato.  Here are the results.  They seem to cluster in the realms of curry (serve with rice) and pasta sauce (serve with pasta) and involve lots of seasoning and/or cream.  Since most of my seasoning came from the pre-seasoned canned tomatoes, perhaps I should try some unseasoned ones and then have some fun with my spice rack.  Unfortunately, I'm out of both spinach and yellow squash, so I'll just have to throw something else together to keep playing with my food.

As for my original "recipe," I'm happy to report that it's even better as a leftover.

Rusty

It looks like I'm really rusty at blogging. A few months away from the keyboard and all sorts of errors are going to creep in. The last post (It's a Feast) was supposed to be scheduled for this morning. Instead it popped up yesterday afternoon. Grrr!

I think there may be a lot of that happening as I shake off the rust.

I spent some time yesterday re-reading a lot of what I had written in the past. There are some fairly sizable gaps in the past as well, related to storms and Mama's health and "events." I could also see that there have been quite a few changes in my thinking about food over time. More fresh, less canned. Still more creative than referential, but less experimentation with new foods. Even some of the foods that I had "discovered" in the past have disappeared as I revert to familiar vegetables and staples.

In some ways, I have gotten lazy about food. I still don't know the answers to how to live successfully as a diabetic nor how to keep Mama from wasting away without gaining weight myself. I have limited my shopping to the bare essentials, giving in to the physical limitations that have made it more onerous than fun. Age and infirmity have replaced the visceral fire that pushed me to push for a better world.

Boy, do I have a lot of work to do!

I think I better look at my labels again to remind myself about what's important--and get rid of the rust!

Hi, hi, hi!

Last night I experienced the double goodness of seeing the premiere of this season's The Next Food Network Star and the accidental discovery of the new Cooking Channel. Aside from the fun that both of these events engendered, I also realized that I had, for quite a while now, been thinking of things that I wanted to write about here and "study up on" in the realm of food. This morning I was brazen enough to offer a colleague some advice on blogging and then had to chide myself for not taking my own advice.

Clearly, it's time to blog again.

And there is a little more time for blogging right now. No active storms in the Gulf (thank goodness). Mama seems to be doing pretty well these days (more thanks). There are no pending family events, crises, or other activities to pull me in fifty directions (many many more thanks).

So it's time to get to work again on Foodie 4 Thought and to review (for myself at least) my new food learning and the questions I still need answers for. I am soooo ready.

Yet another discussion of "foodie"

Having owned up to being a foodie, I am now concerned with protecting the brand, so to speak. There really is an ongoing debate (here's another episode) about whether this is a good label for people who are interested in food or whether it is pejorative. I'm starting to think that those who consider it pejorative would rather fancy themselves to be on the "epicure"/"gourmet" end of things, which then leads me to think of them as the very snobs that foodies would not want to be. More precision in definition, however, is still beyond me.

One thing I do know: Mama is not a foodie. Yes, she is interested in food. Yes, she talks (endlessly it seems) about what she has eaten recently. Yes, she spends a lot of time considering where her next meal is coming from. Her interest, however, is in getting something tasty and filling to eat in a timely manner, not in how it was prepared, what its ingredients are, and what variations might make it better. Indeed, Mama is pretty much locked in to the children's menu in most of her food tastes. Chicken fingers. Chicken pot pies. Sausage and biscuit. Cereal. Pigs-in-a-blanket. Hot dogs. That sort of thing.

Since I am staying with Mama more these days, we have had some food wars. Or at least some battles. I need healthier foods. Her menu would (a) kill me in under 10 minutes and (b) make me fatter before it did. She, on the other hand, is wasting away. She's lost another 5 pounds in the past month.

We have reached something of a detente lately. I will fix whatever she wants, if she will have it. Many times she just says she is not hungry. I will fix whatever I want and offer it to her. Most of the time she will refuse it. Oftentimes, however, she will sneak a taste of what I have cooked. If she likes it, she will get a bowl and serve herself. If she doesn't, well, there's always another pot pie in the freezer.

The battles were bad for both of us, so it's not just a matter of giving up on feeding her. I do worry about that weight loss. Indeed, it was one of the things that made me decide that I would spend most of my time at her home rather than my own. At her (great) age, this sort of weight loss is not a good thing.

My solution (aside from hoping she will eat something that I have cooked for myself) is to try to get some of those kiddie foods to carry a little nutritional value. My best success so far is nachos with fresh veggies. It's not much, I admit, but I added diced tomatoes and green onions to the chips and cheese along with some shredded baked chicken. She would so much rather have the gloppy version from Fuddrucker's, but I have managed to con her into my semi-homemade nachos a few times. I'm not sure she'd touch a tomato otherwise.

On the other hand, I had no luck whatsoever in getting her to accept carrot chips instead of corn chips with her grilled cheese sammich. *sigh*

I, Foodie

At lunch with a friend recently, the discussion centered (for a while) around the term "foodie." One of us thought it was a proprietary term, and the other thought not. What we did agree upon is that we are foodies, even though the "official" definition of "foodie" has not caught up with us and how we talk about food. Take out the "gourmet" part and the "epicure" part, eliminating thereby the snobbery of choice and sensuality of eating, and you have us--gals who cook, eat, and shop for food, who talk about it fairly often, who get together to share it whenever we can, and have opinions about everything. Well, I'm the more opinionated one; my friend is a little more circumspect.

Just to settle the "proprietary" issue I did a little research (i.e., I googled "foodie"). What a surprise to find that one Paul Levy both claims to have originated the label and posted a recent article asking "What is a foodie?" I myself tend to side with those of his readers who think the label useful, non-elite, and decidedly non-pejorative. Indeed, the moment I heard the word, I knew that it described me--at this stage of my life, at least.

As a foodie, I am rather late to the kitchen, finding the foodie in me only after semi-retirement allowed time for food preparation that did not depend solely on a microwave. As a new-to-cooking foodie, I am living in a whole new world of possibilities that I am looking forward to sharing with you. If you've seen parts of this world before, no doubt you can help me enjoy it even more.