EAT TO LIVE

As Nigella schmoozes around her kitchen on our screens, and quickly whips up ‘something quick for lunch’, a world away in my modern but hardly used kitchen I throw myself together a quick tuna and mayo sandwich and wonder why I don’t have the joys of putting together food she so obviously has. And as Maggie Beer strolls through her kitchen garden collecting home grown vegetables and herbs for her no-nonsense cooking, I seek an explanation as to ‘why my homegrown tomatoes don’t look like that’?

The truth is, I probably could put together something Nigella-ish if I had the inclination to shop for the right ingredients, the patience to ‘finely chop’ the gathered herbs, the wherewithal to know one cut of meat from another. A steak is a steak is a steak to me, and to relish in the find of a new cooking oil or such like from some organic farm that that has been happened upon whilst driving the back roads. But to be honest, cooking is not my thing….at all!

For me, food is there to sustain me living on this earth. I eat to live!

Whereas others find the joy in living to eat………wherever i.e.; somewhere quaint that is only accessed by word of mouth, with whatever i.e.; the latest organic truffle, zested with lemon coriander and rounded off with a full-bodied, briar rose back note, peony top note red,

I just can’t be bothered with it at all.

I don’t have the taste buds to distinguish the ‘hint of ginger’ from the dark, moody liquorice. I can’t tell the difference between a cab sav and a shiraz. Its red wine for goodness sake. If I like it, I eat it. If it tastes smooth, I’ll drink it.  If not, well I live to try another day.

Friends don’t stop asking me over for dinner though oddly enough “to try something new I’ve found in this wonderful cook book”. For goodness sake!

I go along with it all. I smile, tell her how wonderful it all is and what an amazing hostess she is but seriously, as long as I’m fed, I’m happy!!

My theory? I was ‘dragged’ up on fish and chips, steak and kidney pudding and peas or whatever the queen of the house could muster out of a tin. My taste buds were never tested, never encouraged.  “You’ll get what you are given, eat it, or you’ll go without” was the mantra so, I ate it and lived to see another day. The kitchen wasn’t the place to hang out and chat about the day as it is now.

Now I chat, whilst someone else cooks!

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