Entry-level locavore
I feel like a real grown-up when I’m more excited about the Cuisinart food processor/blender combo that I bought this weekend than my new pair of Sevens.
Setting up my kitchen has been one of my favorite parts of having my own apartment. No more roommates to leave tuna cans and dirty dishes in the sink. No more freezer stocked with drunk munchies, no more countertop full of carbs. No more using red cups for my morning juice. After four years of roommmates (including a house with no dishwasher or garbage disposal and nine girls and a sorority house of 21 girls with a cook and personal shopper), I’m blissfully alone with my Ikea kitchenware and farmers market finds.
That means that I’ve had the time, space and willpower to change my eating habits. I read “Animal Vegetable Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver shortly before moving to Sunnyvale. While I haven’t been able to become a complete locavore (someone who eats only locally-grown and locally-produced products), it did inspire me to start learning what was in season and what was grown in my area. I’ve been trying to reduce my food miles by buying my produce and fish primarily at the farmers market. I haven’t been buying things that have tons of unnecessary packaging- such as the 100-calorie snack packs and pre-cut veggies that I used to rely on for a study snack or quick dinner.
I’ve always enjoyed cooking, but for the first time, cooking is a part of my everyday life. I’ve experimented with recipes from Julia Child, Kraft, Rachael Ray. I’ve added my own twists, substituted ingredients, made some mistakes and discovered some amazing meals. I make a point to buy things I’ve never had before at farmers market, like swiss chard and guava. I’m still fairly vegetarian at home (after a reading of Skinny Bitch a few years ago) which means that I don’t really buy or cook my own meat, but I eat chicken and fish at restaurants. And I won’t turn down a Squeeze-Inn burger.
My cooking adventures have made me wonder why America is so addicted to overly processed fast food full of artificial ingredients. I tend to be impatient while cooking- let’s just say that I take plenty of samples during the process. But the feeling of completion, of enjoying that first taste of whatever I myself have created is a type of satisfaction that can’t be found in an In & Out Burger. I’m no saint- I indulge in far too much candy at work and I broke down for some KFC a few weeks back. But my kitchen is devoid of its old staples: frozen raviolis, Cheez-its, Lean Cuisines. Instead, there are fresh green tomatoes, organically grown brown rice, herbal tea.
Maybe someday I’ll be able to go completely local (once I have my own house and vegetable garden!) or completely vegetarian. Until then I’ll be undertaking my own “Julie & Julia” project: try as many new recipes as possible that stay as local/organic/vegetarian as possible while letting me play with my new food processor/blender.
Katelyn said,
December 5, 2009 at 7:17 pm
You’re my inspiration! And as a previous roommate in a house of 21 women, I can totally relate to how nice it is to NOT have to deal with all of that. I can’t wait to have my own place and cook what I want to cook. And, just throwing it out there, I know for a fact that Spain has wonderful farmers markets…..:)