........Are you a Foodie?!

I've worked as a sous chef and saucier in several up-scale restaurants. I've owned and operated a catering company for over 5 years and I've worked as a personal chef to several couples and families. I graduated at the top of my class and tutored the advanced students in the culinary institue I attended. I am passionate about food of all type and it gives me great pleasure to shop for, prepare and create dishes that will be appreciated by others.
So yes....I guess I can say with conviction that I am a foodie!

Actually it can be. Guy I went to school with loved to cook. It wasn't all that unusual to see him in the grocery store talking about some new recipe they wanted to try or debating what method of prepare this that or the other thing was best. Me and my grandfather also have big conversations on food though that is more from a health benefits side.

And so does my spouse, and my daughter, and my two neighbors.

For us, it IS quality time. I buy from local farm stands (in season), from a local country store, and we make a lot of things from scratch.

I bake all our bread. My spouse hunts, and I've got a freezer full of venison and upland game birds. We don't buy much in the way of commercial meats at all. We get oatmeal in 10 lb bulk bags, and go through about 60 lbs a year.

And we're working on eating lower on the food chain--more whole grains and veggies than meat, more beans. Less processed foods and high fructose corn syrup.

We read Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver. We've read Fast Food Nation and Spoiled. And we subscribe to Cook's Illustrated Magazine.

My spouse and I (and my daughter, when she's home--away at college, now) cook together, nights and weekends. We like lots of the same things, and while he's more apt to put dinner on the table (he works from home, I have 2 hours of cummuting time 5 days a week on top of my 8.5 hour workday), I'll be putting something big together over the weekend, for us to eat at least 2 days out of the coming week. Today, it'll be venison chili and a big pot of vegetable soup.

When I compare this to life with my EX, who is about 80 lbs (if not more) over weight, and who is killing himself slowly with his knife and fork via what he eats, who would NEVER lift a finger in the kitchen and bitched if he didn't get something different every night? My spouse doesn't understand, really, why I THANK him so profusely when he cooks, or when we cook together!

For us, the kitchen IS the heart of the house.

I hate that term, but I do like food. What. To. Do...

then.

Preparing food together with your partner is almost a form of mental foreplay.

Absolutely!!! :)))