Embracing the challenge of change in our weekly menu

The fact that I love my kitchen is not newsworthy, well not so much the kitchen itself. I don't love the narrow, cramped galley but do appreciate the counter space after being at Liesl's in New York...each time I return it will seem spacious for a week as I readjust!

What I do love is the fun creativity that happens in the kitchen. As a kid my mom made it so much fun that I remember thinking about how great it would be when I had my very own kitchen! Not a house or a family or a job, just my own kitchen. Obviously cooking was a big part of my childhood, my mother is a genius in the kitchen. She is adept at cooking many different kinds of foods. She was smart, as a young woman each time she made a friend who had lived anywhere but here she would somehow manage to get them to teach them whatever the local cuisine had been where they had lived. She learned to cook some Texan, Chinese, Vietnamese (off the top of my head) all from friends of hers that had spent years cooking for their families in those respective places. Some truly great food came out of her kitchen...it wasn't all that turkey soup that I dreaded! 

When my dads health took a dive, mom had to learn a new way of cooking and she attacked that like she does everything else. Salt, sugar and fat are not easy to leave out of a recipe, especially when you are used to the richness and depth that these ingrediants impart. I think that her attitude has once again been such a good useful example for me. 

If we attack changes in the kitchen as a challenge to learn rather then a sad deprivation sentence I am convinced that the finished product will be much better. 

I didn't used to like quinoa, lets face it it is no risotto! It took me a lot of playing around with it trying to figure out how to richen it up and make it seem like more than it is. In fact until I changed my goal I was never happy with it but once I decided to embrace the texture and be happy with imparting depth and richness, only then did I relax into playing with it. Once we are no longer fighting to make one thing into another and start thinking about how to complement whatever it is we are attempting to cook then things begin to come together. I now love quinoa, for me I found that the trick to teasing great flavor out of it is to toast it first, just as I would sesame seeds in a dry cast iron pan and then I choose what to cook it in from a robust mirepoix to plain old water depending on what I am using it as a bed for or serving it with. It cooks faster than rice, it never sticks, it is not finicky at all and it is packed with protein and iron. If you haven't made quinoa recently give it a try! Make sure that if you want to try toasting it that you buy pre-rinsed quinoa, and heat your broth/water while you are doing the toasting so that you get the joy of seeing the sizzling seeds hit the hot water! 

Even one small change makes a difference. I remember when I read Barbara Kingsolver's book on their experiment of gardening and eating local I came away really loving her attitude of any little change that we can embrace making a difference. (This is when I started gardening). Little differences in the kitchen can help us build a healthier foundation, they provide a platform for us to build on! Our eating habits shouldn't be about all or nothing they should be about making changes that we can be happy with and use over a sustained period of time!