Round table...

Food, even if you aren't a foodie, is such a defining part of our universe. From the day we are born to the day we die we think about it, we smell it, we hear it, we feel it, and best of all we taste it. We can define cultures by their food, pasta - Italy, noodle - China, beef and potatos - Ireland, Herring and root vegetables - Scandinavia.  We can tell a persons social status by their food, caviar,  escargot,  and others.

The thing is food today is more of a prepackaged deal, it cost just as much to by the froozen dinners as it does to buy the materials to make it. I have found though with my very little budget I am buying more fresh and expermenting more. You see for the longest time I didn't like cooking but living on my own I am liking trying new creations from what I have. I grew up in a home surrounded by amazing smells of cooking and baking.  So much my mom made from scratch when she could. When our family gets together usually all the girls would end up in the kitchen making different dishes.

At work it is one of the first comments as visitors come into my house, "something smells good/amazing/wonderful." At my day job I make potages with margrim, sage, thyme, mints, lovage and other pot herbs and it fills the house with almost a peaceful smell. Laying the board was essential to everyday life. A meal was cooked using things from the garden, the fields and the woods. It was made with time and love. The chicken bellow alone took me three hours to roast using 17th century methods. Will tell though it smelled as good as it looked and tasted even better. So worth the wait.

At home though cooking means something else it isn't about smells or the history of it but the memories.  I can count on one hand how many times we went out as a family that wasn't McDonalds or pizza. For my family even on vacation my mom made us supper. I would go to school and my friends would complain about their mom's meat loaf or other dishes. I on the other hand looked foward to my mom's cooking and even my Grandmothers'. There is nothing like my mom's chicken ala king or my Gk's pie or GG's Lobster. Now as I sign off and go use my GK's cooking tools, plates and silverwear to make some supper I hope you enjoyed my oen little dip into memories.

My GK's stand mixer I used to make cake. Sunbeam date unknown.