cooked

There are times when the problems and obstacles seem so large that it seems easier to give up and learn to live with your own disappointment in yourself. But I am not very good with regrets, so I guess I had better put one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward.

I have just embarked on reading "Cooked," by Michael Pollan. I am hoping that it serves to spur me forward in my culinary pursuits before I stall entirely. It is reassuring and also a bit disheartening to read someone eloquently layout everything you've been thinking and blathering about for the past few years. Mr. Pollan is a professor of Journalism so he knows a thing or two about writing, but that doesn't prevent me from feeling a twinge of jealousy. To say that he'd scooped my book idea would imply that I'd actually been working diligently towards writing a book of any kind in the first place.

One of the ideas I am thrilled to have confirmed is how central to the experience of being human cooking is. There is evidence to support the idea that cooking is the thing that enabled us to evolve our large brains, our social structures, and family groups. Food shapes our cities, and has organically determined where they are geographically according to shipping routes, water access, and availability of arable land. The country and the city are symbiotically connected to each other through food.

This week I have been dedicated to Spring Cleaning, organizing our storage, and donating, selling, pitching anything that I haven't used in more than a year. In short, I feel lighter and dust bunny free. But, I must be emphatic about this, I am ready to get back to pursuing my goals: cooking, baking, writing, and going to the gym. I have also been adapting to new technology in the form of an iPad. I am hopeful that the excitement of a new toy will likewise inspire some action. It has already inspired me to sit down and write a journal entry for this blog.

I will officially return to my previously scheduled life on Monday April, 21st.