My dearest guests,
Welcome to the eat portion of Eat Pray Love. And welcome to my kitchen. Tonight, you will be experiencing long grain wild rice with eastern spices, and zucchini, onion, summer squash and tofu pan fried with soy sauce and sesame seeds served by our amazing head chef. All of this will be complimented with "Team" Jacob's Creek Cabernet Sauvignon courtesy of my brother-in-law (thank you, <3 you), who added the "team" into the name of this delicioso wine seeing as I have been converted since the movies!! The vino will be served in my Tiffany and Co. glasses that I feel like a million dollars drinking from =), but really in all honesty weren't very expensive. How I came upon these glasses is a long and semi-funny story for another time.
So, here I am with this amazing meal, which I normally do not cook for myself, but I feel as though I am cooking for all of you too. So, I was inspired to cook tonight. For me. For you. Mangia!
I've been thinking about the notion of having a relationship with your food. After all, cooking is passion. Food is a very important part of your life. It is nourishing the temple of your body with vitamins, anti-oxidants, iron, etc. But, food is also allowing your lips and tongue the utmost pleasure of tastes, and spices, and memories--all packaged into one succulent bite. In the perfect combination of sweet and salty your food can be divine ecstasy--it can increase your awareness, your emotions, your desire.
And so my dearest friends . . . Tonight, I had a relationship with my dinner!!
While I was eating. . . oatmeal chocolate walnut cookies were baking in the oven!! Courtesy of my mother's semi-homemade recipe--where one step in the directions is literally to take three fist-fulls of oatmeal haha! Who needs measuring cups anyway!!!
Can I even tell you how much I love the words for eat. Not so much the American word, it sounds kind of rough. But, mangia... I think I love this word because it was often said to me as a child in the presence of the old Italian cooks in my family. I espeically love the Spanish word for eat, which is "come." You pronounce all of the letters, of course, so it actually sounds like co-m-A. But, I love that in English you would pronounce this come, like come here, come and eat with me!!!
come and eat and mangia!
Alla Salute,
Most of you already know that I absolutely love to cook. It is one of my favorite things to do, and bring me a great deal of inner joy.
Later, dad grilled shish kabobs. We sat around and visited--catching up and relaxing. I love being surrounded by family, like being wrapped up in the warmest blankets in the wintertime, or eating comfort food. My family is one of my greatest blessings.
I woke up early this morning to the loud, obnoxious revving of my neighbor's motorcycle. Having had to endure this horrific sound many Saturday mornings past, I will never own one of these!!!! Sorry to all of you men out there who like cycles and want to marry me ;)
SARAH WOULD LIKE ME TO ADD: "I look like I'm going to die [in the pictures]. There is still make up under my eyes because I was sweating." (she laughs hysterically in little bursts) "Oh my God my laugh," she says and then I run to the sink to spit out my diet Coke because I almost choke... this is as she's telling me to write this addition. 
Since arriving here, I ventured into Wegmans and was able to experience the AMAZINGNESS that is this place!!! No wonder all of my friends who went to college out here miss Wegmans. It is truly marketing genius. Sarah and I grocery shopped and then sat in their dining (yes, dining) area to eat lunch. And their sandwiches are soooooo delicious! I recommended we have ice cream for dinner, so perhaps we will be doing that! =) 
hmmm. . . who did I want to be? Ballerina. Atmospheric Scientist. Actress. Astrophysicist. Film Editor. Housewife. Teacher. Writer. I think always a writer. The rest, they were like distant beats in vacant chambers of my soul tempting me to remember. Pick me. Remember? You wanted me once. A long, and not so long time ago. But, now. . . now, I want to be everything--which is perhaps why I am a writer.
Welcome to the eat portion of Eat Pray Love. And welcome to my kitchen. Tonight, you will be experiencing long grain wild rice with eastern spices, and zucchini, onion, summer squash and tofu pan fried with soy sauce and sesame seeds served by our amazing head chef. All of this will be complimented with "Team" Jacob's Creek Cabernet Sauvignon courtesy of my brother-in-law (thank you, <3 you), who added the "team" into the name of this delicioso wine seeing as I have been converted since the movies!! The vino will be served in my Tiffany and Co. glasses that I feel like a million dollars drinking from =), but really in all honesty weren't very expensive. How I came upon these glasses is a long and semi-funny story for another time.
Can I even tell you how much I love the words for eat. Not so much the American word, it sounds kind of rough. But, mangia... I think I love this word because it was often said to me as a child in the presence of the old Italian cooks in my family. I espeically love the Spanish word for eat, which is "come." You pronounce all of the letters, of course, so it actually sounds like co-m-A. But, I love that in English you would pronounce this come, like come here, come and eat with me!!! 
