conscientious consumption

Just finished noshing on a Monterey jack & ham cornmeal muffin. I decided to use up a few things that were close to walking out of the fridge and it turned into a cooking spree. The muffins, mushroom bulgur, rutabaga & potato mash, asparagus spears, cheesy risotto... It took a surprisingly minimal amount of time to cook all this stuff. Partial meals for the rest of the week.

While out around Nanaimo today with Jill, I picked up some fruit and we had lunch and a drink at Oscars. I went on again about people not willing to learn how to cook (it's one of my soapboxing topics). I know this is a generalisation, but there must be something to it when both Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay are soapboxing about teaching people how to cook from scratch after years of reliance on prepared meals. Not that I cook every meal, but it's become a lot easier to convince myself to cook than it used to be. I like knowing what I'm eating. I'm much more relaxed when I cook than when I do almost anything else. And I tend to get obsessive about stuff, so there are worse things for me to get obsessive about. This year the number of meals out has dropped significantly and I don't feel like I'm missing out. (This is part of the decision I made that I wouldn't eat out unless it was for either a good reason, like socialising with friends, or for a really good meal. No more fast food or crap consumption if I can help it.) My belly tells me I'm eating a little too well at home.

This afternoon I talked to my friend Mark about the bacon he's curing right now. It has inspired me to look into making some of my own. He's become quite interested in where his food is coming from and is taking a more conscientious approach to, specifically, his meat consumption. If he doesn't know where the meat came from he won't eat it. It's a good approach. River Cottage was what got me interested; he's been reading it, too, along with a few other books. I've been meaning to visit Windsor Meats on Main to get some chicken for roasting and perhaps a few pork chops for the freezer because their meat is local. Mark got his pork belly from Windsor and talked me through the bacon process as he showed off the cut. It sounds easy and the idea of having prosciutto at the ready is tempting.

Last night at the party I talked to someone who has been making his own bacon as well. It's funny to have a similar conversation in less than 24 hours. That person also made the bacon explosion that Eileen wants me to make, but I just don't think it's doable. He wasn't as jazzed about it as one who eats latticed bacon surrounding sausage and more cooked bacon should be.

And now I can think of nothing but aprons.