Pumpkin: Roast Your Own or Buy a Can at the Store? You Decide.

The summer is coming to an end in about nine days.  Wah.  There was no real summer season in Rochester but ah well.  One thing I love about the fall season is pumpkins!  I have an annual ritual to buy some pumpkins to make my own pumpkin purees for some amazing pumpkin dishes.   I often swear that my homemade pumpkin puree makes the dish taste much better than the store-bought can of pumpkin puree.

Here's why: http://www.myrecipes.com/menus/i-just-found-out-canned-pumpkin-isnt-pumpkin-at-all-and-my-whole-life-is-a-lie

Good to know, eh? I am pretty religious about reading the food labels but sometime it's easy to forget if I believe it's the real stuff.  This served as a reminder that reading labels is key because you don't know what is really contained inside that can or package.

It's All in the Scent

At a recent dinner gathering, someone commented that she is usually unsure when something is done cooking.  I told her it's all in the scent.  I can smell when something is done baking in the oven or cooking on the stovetop.   The food changes smell.  I can't describe it.  I just know when it's time to take it out of the oven or turn off the stove.  Unfortunately... sometime I would be too busy doing something else when I smell it and I figured, "Just another couple of minutes wouldn't hurt," to finish up what I was doing and I find that I had overcooked something.  Dang!  When I smell and know, I have to rush to the kitchen to remove it from the heat source.

I am truly blessed with a great olfactory ability.  If I walk down the street with my dog, I can smell what each house is cooking.  Unfortunately, I live in an area where there are many college students so I smell a lot of frozen pizzas, frozen chicken nuggets, and frozen french fries.  Yech.  I usually can smell Subway a few blocks away.  I hate the smell of their bread.  My "Subway" alert goes off when I recognize that familiar nasty odor.

Funny, that 'someone' was asking her husband at a later time if something was done cooking.  He said that perhaps they should have me come by to do the 'scent test' to let them know it was done.  I laughed when he shared this account with me.

I have heard that mindfulness practices do help improve one's ability to smell.  Cooking is a practice of mindfulness.  Did I always have that ability to detect when food is done cooking?  Nope.  I have to be in a good place to have that ability-- meaning a healthy home environment and in tune with my mindfulness practice.  Sometime when my mind goes into a million directions, I am detached from my ability to smell.  Thus, it is often good to be grounded when you're cooking and smelling to avoid setting the kitchen on fire, so to speak.

Cooking with Love

For a recent holiday meal, I brought some oven-roasted butternut squash.  It was really a simple dish...  it had olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh thyme.  The others were oohhing and ahhing over this dish and asked me what the secret was.  I said it was really easy to make and very simple.  One commented she hasn't tasted butternut squash like that before.  I thought about this experience the next few days before I reached a conclusion.  In the past, I would share recipes with others only to hear their attempts did not taste quite the same.  It boils down to metaphysics.

When I cook, I do it with love.  I make a point of never cooking when I am angry or frustrated.  How did I learn this?  Growing up, I have tasted the food cooked by happy and angry adults.  I always enjoyed the dishes cooked by happy adults.  Based on this learning experience, I have come to believe that our feelings are manifested through  the taste of food.  The same is true for people who complain about having to cook.  Many people do see cooking as a chore and a necessary evil.  When I taste the food from those who see cooking as an obligation rather than a gift, the food doesn't taste well.

I perceive cooking as an art form.  It is fun.  It's spiritual.  It's an adventure.  It's a form of meditation.  It's soothing.  It's healing.  It gives me the space to be creative.  Whenever I have hard days, I like to go into my kitchen and cook a lot of different things.  I do not take my feelings out on the food but allow the cooking process make me forget that I had a hard day.  I see cooking as my expression of love for others.  Through cooking, I am giving my love.  My car has a bumper sticker: "Love people.  Cook them tasty food."  Very true.  Some people have insisted that I didn't have to cook for them after I said I would because they see it as an obligation when I do not.  I see it as a gift.  Some people are not open to receiving gifts.  That does not stop me from continuing to give.

While researching online about this topic, I have seen discussions here and there about how those who cook with passion deeply care about the presence and taste of food.  I smiled after my research because this blog's description is worded as: "We cook and eat to live.  Why not live to cook and eat with passion?"  How fitting.  Go and be passionate in the kitchen!  I assure you...there will be many beautiful rewards as a result.

Salad in a Jar

There's a lot of buzz going on this week about being and eating healthy again.  Whatever your goal is, I do highly recommend salad in a jar party. When I arrived in Rochester last year, I was invited to a salad in a jar party by a friend, Tammi.  I thought the concept was awesome.  I attended the first one and have been hooked since then.

People gather to create salad in jars for their meals for the week.  Each person brings a salad topping.  All the salad toppings are lined up so with my jars, I fill up each jar.  I start with the dressing then I follow with salad toppings.  When I am ready to eat, I take any dark leafy greens and then pour out the jar's contents.  Sometime I add animal protein to my salad such as chicken or fish.

Truthfully, it's the easiest and healthiest way to get five meals all lined up.  Plus it's nice to be around others who want to eat healthy as well.