More books, more cooking
May. 4th, 2006 09:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serindeI just (finally) started the copy of Julie & Julia that Beth lent me. Only a chapter and a half in, and I'm loving it. ONE OF US! ONE OF US!
It's brought up a dilemma I've been wrestling with on and off for ages. I love to cook (O RLY?). I especially love to experiment with new and interesting things. The problem being, of course, everyone in the house (and most of our usual adherents) are trying to lose weight--and frankly, I don't find any joy in diet cookery; it's like sitting a painter down and saying "OK, here's an easel and a set of brushes and perfect lighting, now go to town...but you can only use shades of yellow." It can be a worthwhile exercise but it's horribly constraining. I want to cook the glorious things in Nigella and Julia and Aubrey/Maturin and all my weird little random recipe sources (like the ones at the end of each chapter of Comfort Me With Apples--she has one she got from Danny Kaye!), but I look at the ingredients (Steve calls this the "Take Ye A Pound Of Lard" category) and I can feel my gut expanding on the spot.
Kathryn has pointed out that, in places where they actually eat like this there's no obesity epidemic; she's recommended a book to my attention called French Women Don't Get Fat, and I intend to check it out. I usually hear that the secret here is portion control, but I mean, take potatoes Anna: even if you eat just say a third of a cup, it's almost pure damn butter. Except for the bits that are pure starch. DOOM DOOM DOOM.
Desperately. Need. Food. Icon.
It's brought up a dilemma I've been wrestling with on and off for ages. I love to cook (O RLY?). I especially love to experiment with new and interesting things. The problem being, of course, everyone in the house (and most of our usual adherents) are trying to lose weight--and frankly, I don't find any joy in diet cookery; it's like sitting a painter down and saying "OK, here's an easel and a set of brushes and perfect lighting, now go to town...but you can only use shades of yellow." It can be a worthwhile exercise but it's horribly constraining. I want to cook the glorious things in Nigella and Julia and Aubrey/Maturin and all my weird little random recipe sources (like the ones at the end of each chapter of Comfort Me With Apples--she has one she got from Danny Kaye!), but I look at the ingredients (Steve calls this the "Take Ye A Pound Of Lard" category) and I can feel my gut expanding on the spot.
Kathryn has pointed out that, in places where they actually eat like this there's no obesity epidemic; she's recommended a book to my attention called French Women Don't Get Fat, and I intend to check it out. I usually hear that the secret here is portion control, but I mean, take potatoes Anna: even if you eat just say a third of a cup, it's almost pure damn butter. Except for the bits that are pure starch. DOOM DOOM DOOM.
Desperately. Need. Food. Icon.
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Date: 2006-05-05 01:56 pm (UTC)Now with vegetarian, the main problem that I have is getting enough protein. My general goal is to try and get about the same amount of intake from protein and carbohydrates, in the quest to better manage my blood sugar; and although that's not impossible when you're cooking veg, it's considerably trickier.