Food and Drink
Finding the Joy of Home Cooking
There was a time when I barely set foot in my own kitchen. Whenever I wanted to eat something, I would pick up the phone and order a pizza. Or I would hop in my car and go to a drive-thru restaurant for a burger and fries. I never enjoyed cooking, and I thought it was a waste of time.
Obviously if you have the same type of eating patterns, it will eventually catch up to you. None of my meals consisted of anything healthy, and my doctor told me I had high cholesterol. It was time to change things and to start cooking more meals at home. This was the only way I could incorporate healthy recipes without getting all that added fat that comes from a takeout food. I didn’t think I would enjoy it at first, but I quickly learned that home cooking was a lot of fun.
The biggest reason why I never really cooked before was general laziness. It took a lot of work to prepare everything I needed to make delicious food. But once I reconfigured my schedule, I was able to be more efficient with my time. I would prepare certain foods ahead of time while employing methods that were more efficient. I also ate a lot more raw foods that obviously don’t need any cooking at all.
The thing about cooking is that you eventually get better at it with time. Even if you are new to cooking, there are lots of foods that are easy to prepare. For example, I never thought that I would be making delicious desserts all by myself. But I recently purchased the best ice cream machine for around $60, and now I’m able to make my own ice cream from scratch. With the help of other appliances I’m also able to cook roast chicken, tortillas, prime rib, and I can even make my own bread. I’ve enjoyed the process thoroughly and best of all, my health has improved to the point where my cholesterol isn’t giving me problems anymore.
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Where To Find A Source For Your Emergency Food Supply
It is ideal to always be prepared for anything that can possibly happen, especially natural calamities and other emergencies that can occur at any given time. In fact, the most destructive calamities always seem to occur when people least expect it, which only makes it more important to prepare for such an eventuality. That being said, it isn’t surprising that a lot of people are looking for ways to prepare for such events. One of the best things to do is to stock up emergency supplies should it become impossible to get out of the house. It is also important to build an emergency food supply in the form of rations. One should also keep fresh water on hand at all times because it can quickly become very scarce in such situations. A flashlight with batteries is another invaluable item you should have ready should the power go out while dealing with whatever emergency is at hand.
Read More10 Years After Fast Food Nation
Fast Food Nation is easily one of the most successful and scary accounts of the food industry that you’ll ever read. Personally speaking it made me change my eating habits, as well as changing the way I set up my luxury gift baskets at work.
I can hardly believe that the food was originally published 10 years ago. The author was recently quoted that he wished the book was out of date. Unfortunately, it is far from out of date.
Every day over 65 million people around the world eat at McDonald’s alone. Is that an alarming number of anyone else? Personally, I’ve seen more and more Americans making better choices when it comes to food (one only needs to walk to their local farmer’s market for proof) but people living internationally are falling into the same deadly patterns that Americans did 40 years ago.
I wonder, how can we help to break the cycle?
Read MoreA Wine Gift from California
When the average consumer thinks of California wine, they think of one thing and only one thing. Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
If you are giving a wine gift from California though, there are a number of other regions you should be aware of to get the best value for your money.
Paso Robles: A center of great value in the $40 range. Stick to Syrah, Grenache, Mouvedre and their blends from the west side of Paso and you’ll be stunned by the quality of wine being produced.
Santa Barbara: Look at Los Olivos and break yourself of the habit of thinking that SB is only about Pinot Noir. Great Syrah is being made here. We have a lot of hope for their Roussane production in the future.
Sonoma: Cool climates produce great wine, if they get sun. Sonoma is along the coast, has plenty of rivers and is sunny close to 300 days a year. Enough said right?
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