The Eclectic Interweb

Was reading the Phantom’s blog a short while ago where in short form he discusses the joy of cooking and presents the thesis that when it comes to food, consumer appreciation correlates closely with preparation time… more or less 🙂

I would never place my meagre skills in the same class as his, but there was a time in the distant past when he and I would sit around a table quietly pulling apart a meal into it’s constituent parts identifying spices as we’d go… much to the annoyance of everybody else who wanted to just enjoy the meal in peace… especially the cook… heh!!

Those were the days when the wife and I were on our own with no responsibilities other than our old dog. Then we got broody… why oh why did we get broody.

When our oldest daughter began eating solid food I was in my element. All her food at each and every meal was freshly cooked, and targetted at the palate of a child. She ate everything I cooked no matter what… it was great to have an appreciative audience for once.

She amazed staff at restaurants when we went to eat when for her we’d order poached salmon and the like, nachos, chilli con carne… whatever… and she’d eat it all with relish.

Then she went to pre-school… and peer pressure began to insinuate itself into our daughters little psyche… and we all know how important peer pressure is.

In this case, seven years of peer pressure left my kids eating little else but tinned baked beans, tubs of instant noodles, bread, and plastic ham. Occasionally I can force them to eat bland oercooked roasts… otherwise zilch. Well except for the little one who has developed a liking for salads like tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce.

The result is my cooking skills, such as they were in comparison with the Phantom, have slowly atrophied virtually to the point of no return. There is little point either in preparing food aimed just at the wife and myself… she has no regard for food preparation as an art at all and even the experience of eating is relegated to the status of adding fuel to a boiler. She is as pleased with a plate of tasteless meat and two veg, as with Boeuf Wellington with Duchesse potatoes and lightly steamed bok choy… what it is and how it’s cooked means nothing.

So I no longer ‘cook’… I just heat food. My ‘specialities’ were ‘wet’ meals… soups, stews and casseroles etc… it’s upsetting that the kids won’t even taste them to see if they *might* like them… and there is a limit to how much force you can use to bully kids into eating anything. The object after all is to get them to eat a balanced meal… but it’s quite sad really. We eat junk food… well ok it’s chops, roast chicken and steak rather than McDonald’s… but as far as I’m concerned it’s not *really* cooking… just warming food up. it.

There are times when I’m quite sad thinking over the old days in London… and I hanker for a decent kitchen. Reading blogs like the Phantom’s makes it all so much worse!!

See what this crappy high carb diet is doing to me? Only Day 2 and I’m already getting maudlin!! 😀