friday afternoon update! 15: a good depression!

happy birthday to ran!

randi, that would be, who, as my son rowan is telling everyone he runs into, is having a birthday today. and unlike rowan, i won’t tell you which one it is! we’ll just break out in a chorus of:

happy birthday to you!
happy birthday to you!
happy birthday dear randi!
happy birthday to you! 

and now back to our regularly scheduled broadcast.

what this country needs…

for the longest time i had this catch phrase, which i would use whenever it seemed that excess was bloating the ship of state and gratitude was being demoted from attitude to platitude.

what this country needs is a good depression.

nothing like a good tightening of the belt to help you start to recognize your true priorities and the value of friendship and neighborliness, not to mention thrift and kindness and all those things that money can’t buy so why think about them when we are awash in all the things that money can buy.

and then here we are! yeah. and in the face of this current economic climate, the extent, reach, and length of which i will leave to those more foolish than i to debate, i would like to look at what can make a depression good.

a good depression

back to basics seems to be the dominant theme for me and my family. and how that impacts our relationship to food seems as good a place to launch into this as any. after all, food is pretty basic. and necessary. and so since we can’t just stop eating, it’s a good place to look at how a lessening of financial stature can bring about change of the good variety, good meaning we like it! so here goes.

we are eating out a lot less

when i look at the old charges on my credit cards–the stuff i am paying for now, i suppose–the thing that is coming out to bite me in the ass the most is eating out. huh. a bit of irony there. ouch!

this eating out thing probably came from habits i developed as a waiter. years and years of eating at work got me into the habit of eating other people’s food, of slowly losing the habit of cooking for myself; of planning ahead and all the other skills necessary to be a successful home chef. and the definition of a successful home chef? well, that would mean that the meals are healthy, economical, and tasty.

so now, of course, with the well running, if not dry then certainly not as wet as it used to be, i’m going back to those days of 95% home cooking, which, from my partner randi’s perspective, is not a good thing. randi loves to eat out and would do it everyday if possible. not that she can’t cook or stretch a food budget or take care of a household, because she can and does. and she’s a foodie. c’est la vie.

less can be more

for me it is a blessing full-on. i love to eat at home. and i love to eat my own cooking. i love to cook in the most simple and basic way. i love knowing where my food has come from, and knowing that it has come from someplace i approve of. yes.

where did that food come from anyway?

so. many years ago when i was first pondering whether there was anything to the whole organic foods thing, my girlfriend at the time suggested that we try an experiment and spend a full month eating only home cooked organic foods. from scratch. which we did.

this was pretty much everything from the bulk bins, and produce. Rice, beans, lentils; fruits and vegetables. and homemade bread. made from freshly ground whole wheat. wow. that was good.

let me tell you. i don’t care where you are buying your bread, how fancy or crunchy your bakery is, how well trained and full of integrity the bakers of your bread. i don’t care if they look like the three fat guys in the night kitchen who make the morning cake for mickey the pilot—there is no bloody bread on the planet that can beat a home made bread made from freshly ground grains. 

holy mac! unless maybe it is made from freshly ground sprouted grains…and that’s a cousin of this same story so it’s the same point. point? well, read on.

the point!

so what we found out my girlfriend and me, was that we felt better–we felt great, actually! and the food was excellent and super tasty, especially once we had gotten the other more processed stuff out of our systems and our taste buds.

and it was actually cheaper! yep. we were eating all organic and saving money at the same time. whoa! what a revelation!

well. time spirals along and i find myself once again in an economically inspired detox. from the excesses of the past 8 years. wow. 

sweet potato chili. home made kombucha. red lentil soup (or papa doup as rowan calls it). simple apple and kale smoothies. spinach salad with raisins and pine nuts and goat cheese, dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. split pea soup. bacon and eggs.

i haven’t gotten around to making my own bread yet–and it’s certainly just around the corner.

and what the hell else did i discover this week?

well. there is a lot to learn from a good depression.

1. it starts in the bed. 
2. family rules. 
3. call up old friends. especially the ones that you have some stuff with. 
4. clean out the stuff. especially the stuff in your relationships.

and what else did i clean up?

well. my car for one thing. and more importantly i made two phone calls that ultimately did not connect.

1. i called my brother whom i haven’t spoken to in four years. or maybe five. and this is the brother that i like! and unfortunately he wasn’t at work. that’s the only phone number i have. i’ll try again.
2. i called up angelica’s mother. yeah. the mother of the daughter i haven’t seen since 1999.yeah. and i got a machine. didn’t leave a message because…well…that didn’t seem appropriate. or wise. and i’ll try again.

mercury, my wise guide in all matters of communication, goes direct on sunday. so i’ve got 48 hours to dig into this stuff. lot’s better than the piles of paper i thought i was going to take care of. i’ll keep you in the loop.

and yours?

Tags: apple, change, friday afternoon, happy birthday, kale, kombucha, mercury, neighborliness, sweet potato chili, the night kitchen, value of friendship

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