Thoughts On Food

Today is April Twenty Ninth in the year Two Thousand Ten. It is also a Thursday, which I am pretty happy about. I always like Thursdays starting in college when it was always a good nite to go out and get plastered. I also liked Thursdays in college because it was the day before my ski races and I always did better early rather than late when I was competitively skiing. I don't want to play favorites but my favorite day of the week is Sunday because people can't yell at you to do something if you are just laying around doing nothing. Sunday is a day of rest and relaxation, God says so. When I was growing up I used to love Sunday nite dinners because there was always something special to eat rather than the usual fare we had during the week. I am blessed with folks who can cook but once in a while they would fail. I remember eating this porky ham like product called a "Daisy Roll". It was a bunch of porky bits rolled up and then sliced. Not good but what was even worse were the lima beans that always seemed to be served with the Daisy Roll. Yuckie.

I just looked up what a daisy roll was and actually it is a pork shoulder thats been deboned and "hammed". So it isn't just a bunch of porky bits ground up and served to kids like I thought it was. I should have known, my mother was good about feeding us good stuff before it was the hip thing to do. We used to have sugared cereal before she read somewhere it wasn't really good for kids so she took it away. We also were made to drink powered milk because it was cheaper and supposedly had more nutrients than regular milk. It was fucking horrid I tell ya, nothing good at all came from that shit. It was a light blue color and the powder smelled nasty. Once in awhile we wouldn't mix it enough so it was lumpy. Just bad all around and I'm not sure what caused my mother to change her mind and feed us the regular stuff but she did. Being able to drink regular milk opened up a whole new world of food possibilities for me. I would eat roughly six bowls of cereal a day and more if I could sneak them.

I will never understand kids who are picky eaters. If they won't eat something, fine, just don't feed them anything else. Probably a good thing that I am not a parent or else I would starve my kids till the got hungry enough to eat. I also wouldn't feed my kids anything that I would not eat myself. The baby won't eat her mashed peas ? Ever tasted that shit ? No wonder your little angel is throwing up peas back at you, they taste like ass. My nephews are a case in point, if my younger nephew doesn't like something he just refuses to eat it till his mother finds him something else to eat. I wouldn't let the little bugger eat anything till he finished what we had put in front of him or at least made a valiant effort in eating whats been provided. I see it as a power struggle between the kid and his parents. Obviously eating is a big deal because mom and dad do it often and seem to be really happy when I eat. How can I have power over these two people ? I know, stop eating ! Unless the child has something medically wrong with them that prohibits them from eating normal food, my child is going to eat whatever the fuck I feed them. If they don't like it then they can't just not eat. Eventually they will be hungry enough to eat even lima beans. I know I was.

Eating has always been an activity that I enjoy. My first word was "Donut" not "Mom" or "Dad" but donut. We used to get a dozen donuts from DD's every Sunday and evidently I had a passion for them as a young boy. Growing up both my mom and dad cooked meals and I was often in the kitchen helping them. When it came time to get a restaurant job I didn't want to be a waiter but I went directly into the kitchen to wash dishes and prep. After a few weeks they started me on salads and some apps when a cook walked off the job, something that happens frequently in the bar biz. The owner asked me if I could pitch in and soon I was on the line at the saute station, I was sixteen at the time. From a social perspective working at a bar was awesome; drugs were plentiful, the booze was flowing, and I made good money. I also learned how to work with people I despise personally but respect professionally. I spent three summers as a fill in cook and I had thoughts about going to culinary school rather than college. I liked cooking because I like food and eating is an elemental part of life.

I don't cook much anymore for a few reasons. The most obvious one is that I don't have anyone else to cook for and I am happy eating really simple shit. Another is that I rarely eat dinner anymore so I just lost the habit of cooking all the time. I've also learned to appreciate what other people cook even if its not the way I would have done it. When I was in college I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for twelve of my friends and freaked out when someone who was helping me wasn't slicing the tomatoes the way I thought they should be sliced. I have learned to calm the fuck down and realize that my way may not always be the correct way to do something in the kitchen. My folks always get a kick out of my cooking when I have the chance to shine but it has been a while since I've cooked for them. I think the main problem is that I am used to cooking with lots of butter, oil, & salt and I need to learn that it is possible to cook without them and its much better for you. Butter was my go to for taste for many years and it is difficult to change the behavior. Butter is pretty awesome however, it makes things taste better and makes sauces nice and shiny. Don't ask me why I think sauces should be shiny, the just should be.