Why I Cook from Scratch.

I cook from scratch for a lot of reasons. Most of them are a broken record; it's healthier and it's cheaper. I am definitely of a whole food philosophy though. I don't buy low-fat, low-calorie, imitation anything. I cook with butter, and with milk and cream. When I come home from the store Mike looks through the cupboards and says, “But what is there to eat?”, because I buy ingredients; I don't buy food. I buy flour, milk, sugar, eggs, onions, vegetables, noodles and cheese. I have made it to the point where I don't even buy bread at the store anymore; I make it myself with the flour. One of these days I'm going to find a tortilla press and a griddle at a garage sale for cheap and I'm going to stop buying tortillas too. I am half tempted to just start buying whole milk since we don't really drink it; I just use it in my cooking, so that I can make my own cheese and butter.

So, why do I do all these crazy things? On top of which I don't own a microwave and have no intention of buying one (I don't like them), and I don't have an electric mixer, just a hand crank egg beater (although I would love a standing mixer). I do it because it tastes so much better and not only is it good for your body, it's good for your soul.

Food reheated in a microwave and on the stove are totally different. You can taste it. Sure, it means I have more dishes to do (and I don't have a dishwasher) but it's worth that time to me to have something that tastes fresher and has been heated with real heat. Meals prepared from whole foods taste so much better because it has the time I spent slicing each carrot, chopping each onion, washing each leek put into it. People joke that the secret ingredient in their cooking is love, but I don't think it's that far off. I really do think about that when I am preparing a meal. I think about how this meal is going to nourish me and my family, which may just be Mike (and maybe the residual sauces to Lemon), but it's my family and I put my love for them into my cooking. I think the same thing when I go out to the garden to check on the radishes and look at the pea sprouts. I think about how my time I am spending and the love and care I am putting in my garden is going to feed my family. And then I am thankful that this isn't the old west and there is the grocery store down the street because my family would starve and I have no idea what I'm doing. But, it's the thought that counts.

I can't wait to take the next step in whole cooking, taking the food from the seed to our plates. If I had the land I would grow my own grains and mill my own flour for my bread. That would be the ultimate. But I think the farthest I'll make it is my own chickens, and maybe a goat for milk. But a girl can dream, can't she?