I’m absolutely thrilled to be contributing to Sobeys Love Food blog this fall, and excited to talk a little bit about what “Falling in Love with Better Food” means to me.
As a food blogger, I cook and bake. A lot. In a way, blogging about food has made me so much more open to trying new things as a cook and baker and so much more confident in my abilities. And hey, I’ve posted my fair share of, shall we say, not-so-successful dishes. I think my readers appreciate that honesty. I’m definitely not one of those blogs where you will find perfection in every post. Because that’s not reality, right?
Falling in love with better food has had me cooking and baking a lot more from scratch. I was never really one to use many processed foods in my cooking, but over the past couple of years, I have found the courage to try so many more things than I would ever have dreamed possible—bread, charcuterie, and pastry. Five years ago, I would not have imagined I would be making such things from scratch in my own kitchen. But there you go. Never say never. And it’s definitely meant better food in our house.
One of the biggest influences on my courage to try new things however is my boys’ cooking club Les Petits Chefs. Kids are fearless in the kitchen because, generally, they have no concept of a dish being “difficult.” So they just jump on in there with every intention of things going as they should. Working with the boys in cooking club has made me more aware of the importance of education about better food, and made me determined, in my small way, to help my students understand that “real food” doesn’t have to be complicated. And that cooking is fun! I hope that through our lessons, I am teaching the boys to fall in love with better food too
In terms of “better food” and eating better this fall, something I am working on incorporating more of in my daily routine is the idea of shopping more frequently. This was something I was used to doing when I lived in Paris (having a small fridge meant this was not only preferable but necessary!). It’s a habit I adopted when I spent my summers in France, but it’s one that is too easy to let slip, especially in the crazy back-to-school days of September.
Buying smaller quantities of fresh, local produce every couple of days is definitely a goal this fall. In this way, not only am I eating seasonally, but also eating fresher. And that can only be a good thing, right?
