1. I Like Food

Christmas Day 2013 in the kitchen

As can be deduced from the accompanying photos, I do enjoy my tucker.  I also get a buzz from cooking, particularly for the Misses.  In fact, at the moment, I am the chief cook and bottle washer!

But the biggest bugbear for me is figuring out what to have for dinner on a daily basis.  Being creative and trying to remember past recipe successes results in procrastination and wandering around the house in frustration, until I do something simple and slothful like rip open a packet of pasta and heat a jar of sauce!

The properties and health benefits of foods which includes the way they were grown and processed also interests me.  I am a notorious label reader and it often takes me ages to select a product from the supermarket shelf.  In some respects, I consider myself a bit of a food activist and proselytizing on behalf of organic, spray free and sustainable agriculture is frequently my downfall in social gatherings.  Factory farming and synthetic food are an anathema to me!  If I know I wouldn't be able to see it in the field or if I can't pronounce it, I won't eat it, or at least try not to.  And don't talk to me about numbers!

Poser

One of the great things about cooking is the sharing of a meal that you have made with friends and family.  A glass or two of wine and great conversation, particularly regarding the benefits of cooking from the ground up with pure ingredients, generates requests for recipes and food sources.


I have tried to keep recipe books, and product and ingredient property lists, without much success.  Even digital counterparts!  They are not always accessible and regularly get lost or forgotten among the piles of accumulated stuff that a life accumulates.

Thus this blog.  Available everywhere, accessible to everyone and tagged/labeled for easy search and referencing; regarding recipes, cooking style, ingredients, health properties and miscellaneous tips; I hope to find this blog a good memory adjunct and fun, as I descend into my senior years.

A note regarding measurements.  If you haven't gathered from the syntax, I am an Ozzie.  All measurements are in Australian and New Zealand standards, which does differ to the British and American standards.  I will include actual metric measures with the standard cup and teaspoon descriptions.  A good conversion site for weights and measurements can be found here.

Enjoy..

Pea and ham soup in the slow cooker and kefir in the jar.