Menu Mania

I love planning menus. I think I started to love cooking in my early twenties and it has been a passion ever since. I love reading cookbooks the way you would read a novel. I have gone years without repeating a recipe, except for holidays (those rarely change....until recently) I have my ritual....

Every cooking magazine and most cookbooks have post it note flags through it marking the recipes that strike me the most; that I want to try. It takes me a long time to read through and devour the ideas and flavors as they appear in print.

Friday (sometimes as early as Thursday) I start to pull current magazines or a cookbook or two that appeal to me. I begin the LIST. On one page I write the recipes that I feel most inclined to make for the next week, along with a note about where to find them again. (When my children were smaller, I made my lists for two weeks at a time so that I didn't have to shop as often. I think I just got carried away...) Unless I am really tired, I have lots and lots of choices. I end up surrounded by cookbooks and magazines before I am done and satisfied with my choices. The second page is where I list all my ingredients for my shopping list. My daughter has been known to exclaim when she was younger, "There is nothing to eat in this house....only ingredients!" You know what...she was right. But oh the joy of having those ingredients and knowing I was going to make luscious food with them for my family.

Almost every Saturday morning, I go to the grocery store. It is one of the things I look most forward to on the weekend. To me, it represents all the endless possibilities of dinner creations. I love to read the labels and select just the right ingredient for each dish. I am a savvy shopper but not a thrifty shopper. I have learned that quality ingredients make a quality product and quality is rarely cheap, unfortunately. By now, I go organic as much as I can....but that is a whole other conversation. Let's just say it goes with the whole quality argument...

I don't like putting everything away. I wish I could skip that part. What I do like is the feeling it gives me knowing that all those ingredients for all those lovely dishes are in arms reach. I like the anticipation of making each dish and the joy I get in serving them to my loved ones. I think if I am ever alone, really alone,  I will have to cook for someone....family, friends, co-workers, total strangers.... I don't think I can give up the joy that the entire process gives me. Just yesterday, someone ate something I made and said with great enthusiasm, "Honey, that is GOOD!" And they weren't even family!

I am grateful for the joy that cooking and all that goes with it, brings to me. One of my blessings....