Joy

I feel very strongly that food should be about joy.

Not how many calories, or how much time do you have to scarf before your next errand or your next television program.
Not how much fat is in it, or what package it came it.
Not artificial sweeteners, preservatives, or dye colors.

Joy.

At its best, dining is an event.
It is a child's giggle over sugared toast.
It is conversation with friends and family.
It is quality time.
It is meaningful moments.
It is memories.

Yes, joy.

I think too many people have forgotten that.

A wonderful post by Orangette offers a great example.

A previous post I wrote about baking bread is another example.

Or this quote (also from a previous post) by Tessa Kiros, author of the cookbook Falling Cloudberries.
"There are some things that don't change much. I find the smell of a dish, or the way a certain spice is crushed, or just a quick look at the way something has been put on a plate, can pull me back to another place and time. I love those memories that seem so far away, yet you can hold them and carry them with you, even forget them, and then, with a single taste or hint or a smell, be chaperoned back to a beautiful moment."

The PBS cooking series Diary of a Foodie, by Gourmet Magazine, features chefs, farmers, and artisans.
Do yourself a favor and watch the episodes (online here).
Magic.

The book Joie de Vivre is more than a cookbook, but an example of living life to the fullest--and let me tell you, exuberance in living involves enjoying food.
Eating can be, should be, a joyful event.

Another quotation (from yet another previous post), by Elizabeth Gilbert, from the book Eat, Pray, Love says it well.
"But is it such a bad thing to live like this for just a little while? Just for a few months of one's life, is it so awful to travel through time with no greater ambition than to find the next lovely meal? Or to learn to speak a language for no higher purpose than it pleases your ear to hear it? Or nap in a garden, in a patch of sunlight, in the middle of the day, right next to your favorite fountain? And then do it again the next day?"

More Fun Food

These are just so fun.
I got a big box of recipe cards in a Betty Crocker plastic recipe box, at the thrift store for one dollar--The Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library, 1971.


The card says, "Come for a tea party and bring your favorite dolly! How many little girls will love to walk over in their mothers' heels for a special little party under the mock orange bush. Instead of the usual cookies, why not surprise them with Rag Doll Salads? To drink? Why, tea of course, generously mixed with milk."

For each serving, place 1 peach half for the body on salad plate. Arrange 4 small celery sticks for arms and legs around peach half. Use 1 large marshmallow for head, raisins for eyes, nose, shoes and buttons and small piece maraschino cherry for mouth. Shred yellow cheese; arrange around marshmallow for hair. Add a skirt of lettuce to complete the salad.


This just makes me smile.
From Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls (3rd printing, 1985)
I'm not sure kids would be too hip on the prune ear (oops, excuse me....dried plum).

Major Cookbook Score!

Oh my...
check out my incredible find--I posted to my thrift blog.

Here's a tidbit:

Ha! These food-to-catch-a-man recipes crack me up.
Read the key statement (and you can click on the image for an enlarged view too)

Ummmm....beets!

What was with all the aspic and gelatins in the 60's?
What was appetizing about vegetables suspended in goo?

This is from a cook booklet of recipes using Carnation Evaporated Milk.
Ooh, "it's Velvetized!"

Oh, and since I mentioned grammar yesterday, let me just add a few more pet peeves while it's on topic. Then I'll shut up.

A drug is a substance. Items and the proverbial cat are dragged.
Curtains are hung. People are hanged.
There is no long eeeee in mischievous. It is pronounced
miss-chev-us.