FALL in love.. with food!

originally published November 28th, 2007

That's right. It's still fall. The first day of winter is more than three weeks away. The autumn leaves are just past their peak and we're not even close to being tired of apples yet!
Are we?
Though my head is spinning with holiday party plans, I relish this season and what it brings. After a very active and adventurous summer, I'm thoroughly enjoying my days and nights indoors. Animals and plants hibernate during the winter with good reason. The cold seasons are a time to restore, reflect and rejuvenate. It's an opportunity to slow down and nourish yourself. Even at the end of a very busy day, I find cooking to be great therapy and stress relief. There's something so simple and comforting about warming the house and filling it with delicious smells of sauteing onions and garlic. Tonight I took a short break from a long day at my desk to make a pot of chili. The recipe only has a few ingredients, but the most important of those is time. The longer you can leave the pot to simmer, the better. Winter is a time to do just that. A time for pondering over stews and soups and slow-roasted meats. In the time of wood-burning stoves, the heat did double duty as a method of cooking and also warming the home. Though most of us have electric or gas heat nowadays, I always think of my kitchen in winter as a sort of hearth. Anytime something is cooking, it feels warm and inviting. If you've ever been in a house full of people, you know that the smell of baking immediately draws everyone into the kitchen.
I imagine the satisfaction my great grandmothers and their mothers had when they pulled out their own carrots, potatoes, and onions from the root cellars to make meals each winter. It wasn't novelty to them, of course. It's just what they did. If they didn't grow and store enough food each summer in winter they could go hungry. It was simply survival.
Somehow the idea of this kind of bucolic existence has become synonymous with privilege in our society.
If my great great grandmother saw the ultra-high priced organic produce at Whole Foods i don't know if she'd laugh or cry. We are lucky in NYC to have a great network of local farmers so that we don't have to depend on supermarkets, but not everyone is so lucky.
I consider the availability of pure, nourishing foods to be a basic human necessity (or even a right), not a privilege. Moreover, the preparation of good food for oneself and others is such a simple act of kindness, that is often forgotten or underappreciated.

I once cooked a meal for a friend, who complimented me and thanked me profusely. Not used to this kind of praise, I passed off the compliments and said "it was nothing". She argued that it absolutely was something. She said "who cooks for you (as in, all of us), besides your mother and your lover?" It's important! I tend to agree. Now when people thank me for my food, I say "you're welcome".

This summer I heard a wonderful interview with Barbara Kingsolver. Kingsolver is most recently the author of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle which documents an entire year her family survived by procuring as much of their food as possible from neighboring farms and their own backyard.
The interview topic was "The Ethics of Eating" and I really loved the following quote.

" I think what suprised me the most is that we didn't really miss anything. We went into it probably thinking too much about what we were not going to be able to have (strawberries in January) but when we changed our thinking and started every meal with the question "what do we have? what's in season? what do we have plenty of?"
It became a long exercise in gratitude.
The ethical choice of supporting your local farmer also tastes better. And it does involve cooking, but that's also such a wonderful thing to come home to. I think that the planning of beautiful meals and investing one's heart and time in their preparation is the opposite of self indulgence".

It's a wonderful interview. You can download the entire podcast here

But back to that pot of chili I was making. While I typed this newsletter, the chili cooked and cooked three times longer than I usually leave it on. The results are fantastic.
This season, take some time to restore and reflect. Nourish yourself with some slow food when you can, and share it with friends!

Web news
In case you haven't visited the site lately, there's a new feature to check out. Each time you visit a new page, you'll see a new Unfussy Fact at the bottom. Facts are generated randomly each time a page is opened so keep surfing and see what new info you find!

Holiday Gifting
I know everyone is thrusting gift ideas on you all these days, and not all of them are good. I have a great one! The gift of good food and good health. A lot of folks want to improve their diets, and even learn more about cooking and food. Cooking classes, a gift of delivered meals or a pantry makeover are a great way to get started on the road to good eating! Unfussy Food offers something for every budget, and gift certificates to be redeemed in the New Year. Instead of just trying to keep New Year's resolutions, why not begin healthy lifelong habits?

Check out our Custom Services for gift ideas!

This week at the market...
tat soi, brussels sprouts, asian pears, Red Jacket Orchard's Tart Cherry Stomp (awesome cherry juice), cider donuts, apples, apples and more apples!

My favorite recipe of the week...
Roasted Autumn Vegetable Soup

One very nice thing to do this season is to forward my newsletter or a link to my website on to a friend. It's free, entertaining and hopefully enlightening.

Keep warm and eat well,

-Holly