What's on your plate?

So, this morning I asked a question that offended some, was thought-provoking to many, and undoubtedly stirred feathers. My question was, "Why aren't Americans cooking?" Looking back, I should have altered the phrasing to not offend people. I do think many Americans ARE cooking and I think many do a fabulous job. However, I do see numerous people not cooking, living mostly off of terrible take-out and frozen meals and not relying on fresh ingredients. So I am pondering this after a multitude of responses to my question. These are the reasons people use for why they have shied away from the kitchen and natural, fresh ingredients:

• Don't have time to cook
• Don't have time to go to the store
• Don't like to cook
• Don't know where to begin
• Fear of failure
• Don't know how to cook

I am sure that are others but these are the most common I have heard. My response is: life is about priorities. Not everyone likes cooking or knows how, I get it, I don't particularly like camping or the great outdoors, sorry Mike, but I still go. But I do think everyone likes GREAT food. How do we get that on a regular/daily basis? I think we have to cook with fresh food, support locally produced ingredients and when we go out to eat make responsible choices. This can be difficult but life is about making those choices. Sometimes there needs to be a paradigm shift not in only your personal life or your family's life but also maybe as a city or a town to where it supports the smaller farms where everyone and everything is treated humanely and it embraces the restaurant which staunchly believes in making everything in house. I know it seems weird to discuss patronage to restaurants when I am encouraging people to cook but restaurants are an important part of food and culture.

So where do we go from here?  I DO want to be realistic, to live a life solely with this philosophy is difficult and unfortunately extremely expensive. We live in a country where we can get things cheaply and quickly without a lot of thought on how that food got to the plate, how it was raised, how it was handled, etc. For now, I want people to start thinking about what goes into that frozen dinner, where did the food come from in that take-out meal, how was the chicken raised, how did that pig die? Do you care? I do. That is why I have chosen a more humane approach to my food and a more farm to table way of life.

So let's everyone dedicate one night this weekend to cooking with something locally produced that was raised humanely. Try something new this weekend. Cook out of the box (pun semi-intended). It might be hard in winter to find something but lets give it a go! Go cook!

P.S. I really want to get some recipes on my site, there is just a learning curve with the blogging thing. If anyone wants a recipe or a suggestion on a star ingredient just ask I am more than willing to help.