Especially sautéed onions. Life doesn’t get much better than the smell of onions cooking, and the taste of browned sweet onions. Maybe that’s part of the reason fancy restaurants are wasted on me – I’m so delighted with such simple tastes as sautéed onions that some sauces and reductions are over the top for me. I love simple.
Thing I’m grateful for Number Two – Homemade Soup
Some foods are so incredibly different between store-bought iterations and homemade, that it’s almost not worth buying the store-bought. I’ve discovered this holds true with soup and pasta. I’ve never made my own pasta; I got the good stuff the easy way – by being the manga-cake girlfriend of an Italian guy. I hadn’t had real pasta before then, so eating Mama’s homemade ravioli was a religious experience for me. Up to that point in my life the only pasta I’d had was dried spaghetti and Chef Boyardee.
Thing I’m grateful for Number Three – Ginger Tea
It’s practically a religion for me: ginger tea for health, peace and regularity. I’m so grateful to my father-in-law for introducing it to me, and one of my students, many years ago, advising it for health. Nothing’s easier to make – boil ginger in water until the water tastes as gingery as you want it. Maybe it’s the placebo effect, but even then, I’ve read that even patients who knew they were taking a placebo got somewhat better, but ginger tea keeps me healthy.
It helps my health in less direct ways. Because I love to have a hot drink beside me as I write, I used to get a little wired on coffee. Now, however, after two coffees, I switch to ginger tea, which is calorie and caffeine free.
I mix it into the water in my water bottle for taekwondo workouts. It adds a great flavour. Because ginger tea tastes so good hot or cold, I drink a lot of it, thus keeping myself hydrated, another important aspect of health.
That way I don’t know if I mess up! Because I am creative and love to experiment, being untrained gives me the freedom of ignorance. What if I add apples to a stew, or ginger tea, or croutons (not so successful)? What if I bread these fish fillets with Panko flakes for fish & chips, or make a salad dressing out of peanut butter, applesauce and mayo? What happens when you use ginger ale instead of water when making jello? I have enough food safe awareness and general smarts not to have poisoned us (yet), and a few experiments were inedible (some even the dog rejected), but the successes are many. I love the feeling of joyful discovery when something turns out well. My kids see me experimenting and join in, even if only for their own protection, so we all have fun inventing and creating. And eating, of course. Things like curries, salads, smoothies and desserts are especially easy.
Regular exercise hones the appetite. Sadly, things like chips, candy and junk food no longer taste good to me. (That doesn’t mean I don’t eat them – just that they don’t taste good while I’m scarfing them down.) I crave protein, fruit, water, vegetables and spices. I love the joy of eating good food. That it takes much less to satisfy me is a bonus. I love knowing that I am supporting all I want to do and be by fueling my body with positive energy.