|
|
 |
Green Martha in the Kitchen
There are some people who have always felt right at home in a kitchen; they
like the ins and outs of cooking, presenting, and eating food; they may
even like to entertain. Then there are some who are terrified of entertaining,
and see the kitchen as alien territory to be navigated as expediently as
possible, with the least amount of interaction, for the greatest return.
Most of us fall somewhere in between. We would like to feel more comfortable
and proficient in the kitchen, but don't know how to go about it. Maybe
our moms worked outside the home and relied heavily on convenience foods.
Maybe we don't have any experience dealing with fresh food, or cooking meat,
stocking the larder, or the timing of it all. For some of us, the world
of recipes is as foreign as Greek Tragedy, but there are gentle and non-threatening
ways to be able to prepare tasty nourishing food at home.
We have to have a working knowledge of the language before any of us take
on something as complicated as a recipe. It won't work if we don't know
what it means to sauté the vegetables, cream the butter, or separate the
eggs.
So let's start with the basics. Let's assume that we've gotten along for
years with minimal cooking, usually adding water and heat to a package of
something. An allure to this lifestyle choice is the convenience of the
shelf life of processed foods - they don't spoil like fresh food, and these
meals are quick to prepare with a minimum of mess to clean up afterwards.
These are pretty compelling reasons to stick with convenience foods, but
there is a world of good taste and nutrition just beyond. Green Martha has
inadvertently spent years developing ways to slide from one lifestyle to
another by building incremental changes over time without sacrificing satisfaction.
Back to Top
Green
Martha's Food History
At this point it seems easiest to explain some of why and how Green Martha
learned to cook over the years. My grandmother was one of those old timey
Yankee cooks who seldom measured anything precisely. Her little kitchen
was always warm, inviting, and a constant clutter. It smelled good, and
I could sense the magic of years of pies, roasts, soups, veggies, cookies
and fried eggs every time I burst into her house from where we lived next
door. My great grandfather, grandfather and father were wholesale fruit
and produce dealers, so there were always plenty of veggies and fruit, though
often not strictly fresh, because we got the leftovers. Because of this,
both my mother and grandmother cooked without using canned or frozen food...
more. Back to Top
Developing
Healthier Options
If you would like to wean yourself from foods that add little nutrition
to your life, but you still want a fair amount of flavor, here are some
ideas to ease you into the transition. First of all, don't give up anything
you don't want to-just add other, healthier foods to the mix. See if you
like them. Try them at different times of the day; Fruit may hold no appeal
in the evening, but a banana or ripe peach might go down pretty smoothly
mid morning with half a sweet roll instead of a whole one. Substitute fresh
vegetables for frozen ones at dinnertime, or flavored fizzy water for soda
when munching on chips. If you begin to regard occasional substitutions
of more healthy components as an adventure, you'll soon discover lots of
new foods you actually like but hadn't tried for all sorts of reasons...
more.
Back to Top
Contact
Green Martha
|
|
