The last four years in my kitchen have been one ridiculous experiment. My senior year of college I moved out of the dorm and into a house with two other girls and a beautiful kitchen. My taste buds only tolerated lean cuisines for so long, but I was terrified of the kitchen. The most I ever helped in the kitchen growing up was making instant gravy (not the instant mashed potatoes, that was always hit or miss for me) or Christmas treats. I kicked ass at box brownies, grilled cheese and heating up a can of soup though. But I soon realized that if I ever wanted a home-cooked meal consistently for the rest of my life, I needed to learn to make it myself. So I bought a cookbook (How to Boil Water, no joke), and I started teaching myself.
Since I was starting from scratch with this whole learning to cook thing, I decided I wanted to start on the right foot by establishing a habit of healthy eating. I ate a lot of chicken. I learned how to handle cooking fish. Recently, through experience I graduated from entree only meals to coordinating side dishes, quite beautifully actually if I do say so myself. In the last 365 days I have figured out how to cook fresh vegetables in a way that doesn’t make me want to gag, and they are still good for you. Reading magazines and blogs on healthy eating has helped me put together a diet that consists mostly of lean meats, fish, a whole lot of veggies and some whole grain.That took four years to figure out.
John is slowly but surely getting on board with me. He has this habit of watching documentaries on Netflix to put himself to sleep, and his favorite documentary subject lately has been food (his favorites are Food, Inc.; Food Matters; and Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead). This has led to some crazy declarations the next day:
“No more potato chips!” says the guy who’s favorite way to relax after work isn’t drinking a beer but eating an entire can of Pringles.
“No more red meat!” says the meat and potatoes boy from Arkansas. “Okay, well maybe we’ll just cut out ground beef.”
“No more milk for me!” says the man who goes through 2-3 gallons a week on his own.
Through all these revelations and all this talk, we’ve decided to pursue a locavore diet, or as close as we can come while still living on a budget. This comes from an idea of avoiding corporate food and eating as fresh food as possible. So eating local is not a strict rule, but rather a goal. I’m not one for obsessing over these things. I would be one of those vegetarians who still eats fish, and will probably be a locavore in the Midwest eating fish. But we do want to eat local when we can. What will this look like? Buying most of our produce, meat and bread from farmers markets, local butchers (if I can find one) and bakers. And this extends to restaurants too, supporting restaurants that get their ingredients from local sources.
Of course being in a new city and trying to navigate a new food world/culture at the same time is a lot, so if anyone out there in Kansas City has any resources for KC locavores, please share! I would love to chat.
