Home Cookin': It Isn't Just for Housewives Any More!

What is it about Mr. ELV's blog that always gets me thinking? Today, he talked about how he hasn't gone out for dinner in five days. I can see how this is shocking news for a restaurant critic, but this is pretty much my ordinary life. And worse yet, I know people who haven't gone out to eat in months!

Sometimes, it really sucks when I plan weeks ahead for a glorious night out with someone special... Only for it to be taken away when the someone special is hurt and in a wheelchair and/or a friend calls to borrow money from me because the bank screwed with his account. It really sucks that I can't eat out that often these days because I may be only one broken leg or one broken window away from financial ruin. And yes, it really sucks when my next great vacation full of culinary bliss is always at risk of vanishing away if I ever lose the roommate at the house or my dad needs money to pay for my grandmother's next trip to the hospital.

Let's face it, this rotten economy is ruining a good night out for all of us. So what do we do?

Fortunately, I still enjoy the privilege of eating out at restaurants about once or twice a week. The rest of the time, I've been eating in. Yes, I'm learning to cook more and more... And I don't feel sad or frustrated about it.

Last weekend, my dad was pretty wowed when I turned his beloved “eggs & potatoes” (yes, he really isn’t into “fancy food” like I am) into a breakfast frittata that had his taste buds singing. Let’s see, I also think my “Mexitalianese” stir fry with extra firm tofu strips, shredded carrots, sundried tomatoes, and Parmigiano Reggiano for dinner recently was another winner. I just can’t wait until tomorrow when I’ll have time to make my signature gnocchi dish (with crimini mushrooms, shittake mushrooms, and Manchego cream sauce) for dinner!

Maybe I’m weird, but I feel most comfortable when I’m in my home kitchen. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy eating out. I guess I just feel like I’ve accomplished something truly meaningful when I eat something that I cooked myself from scratch or near-scratch.

Perhaps this is looking on the bright side of the recession, but I feel glad in a way that I do more of my own cooking these days. And maybe by cutting out so much driving and by using "local" (or as close as we can get to it in Vegas) and organic ingredients in my own home cooking, I'm doing my part to reduce my carbon footprint and help save the planet. Ironically, living green also saves serious "green".

Yes, I guess I have channeled my inner "no really, she's for real housewife!" and I don't feel bad about it at all. ;-)

"Food, Inc." Now Showing in Las Vegas

As I've said before, I'm not a one-trick pony. I have many different interests, with food being one of the top. I LOVE cooking my own meals. I feel so blessed to now have a kitchen big enough and modern enough (don't ask about my old digs in SoCal!) to give me the opportunity to experiment more with my cooking.

However, I must also admit that I enjoy the occasional night out. And yes, when I go out I sometimes like to go "all out" and check out one of those "fancy schmancy dancy" places that get all those rave reviews. That's why I always check out local restaurant John Curtas' wonderful Eating Las Vegas blog before making my next fine dining reservation.

So anyway, I noticed yesterday that John Curtas mentioned "Food, Inc." coming to town. I was quite excited in learning this... Until I found out it's only showing at the Regal theater on Sahara in Summerlin South. Still, I want to make the effort to trek across town to see it. I hope you can, too.

Why? I'll let Mr. Curtas explain:

The message of Food Inc. is that the giant corporations that control our food supply don’t want us to know what we’re eating. Ignorance is bliss to their corporate thinking, and the less we know about how that chicken was raised, or the predatory practices of soybean farming, the more we will continue blissfully strolling down the center aisles of our supermarkets, shoving processed corn, soy and wheat products into our pieholes to their everloving profits and our everlasting doom.

If you’ve read Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation or Michael Pollan’s Ominvore’s Dilemma or In Defense of Food, nothing on the screen will be news to you. But watching an overweight, diabetes-ridden poor family fill up on cheap protein from a fast food window drives home the point that we have sold our souls to high-fructose corn-syrup, genetically-adulterated soy-fed-white-meat-bred-botched-bovine-mad-cow-corporate madness. The thinking of which goes something like: because we can do something (and make a healthy profit) we should do it. [...]

The facts are we are the most unhealthy first world country on the planet – one in five children born after 2000 will suffer from juvenile diabetes – one in two if they come from a minority background.

There is a direct cause and effect between the over-sugared, fat and carb-laden meals that lower income families can feast on, and these statistics. Food Inc. drives home the point that back in the fifties, government subsidies allowed the wheat, corn and soybean mega-farms to produce such an abundance of these easily storable commodities, that it was only a matter of time until food scientists figured out how to adulterate them into virtually every kind of food imaginable. And it’s a short hop from artificially low production costs to a 99 cent Happy Meal.

This is why I mostly stopped eating fast food long, long ago. (And even when I occasionally do, I'm careful about where I order it.) Believe it or not, humans were not made to survive on high-fructose corn syrup, bleached flour, and grease alone. Actually, we shouldn't be having too much of any of that. But thanks to an outdated agricultural regime that refers to corporate agribusiness as "family farmers" as they give them subsidy after subsidy to keep producing this garbage that plagues many communities (especially poorer inner city communities) in nearby fast-food joints and convenience stores, we now have an obesity epidemic and scores of health problems that were unimaginable not that long ago.

Sometimes, I feel guilty that I can go to Trader Joe's and buy fresh, local, and organic produce while even some in my family (especially the ones living in poorer inner city areas in places like San Francisco & Orange County) say they usually can only afford that greasy "McMeal Combo" or pre-packaged convenience store sandwich. It's sad that the inequality in this society even extends to the very food we eat. Many of us can enjoy the better food in life while others are pretty much forced to eat this synthetic crap.

So anyway, please see "Food, Inc." at the Regal theater in Summerlin South. And once you're done seeing the film, consider doing something to give more people access to the good food that so many of us take for granted.