Veggies

3 vegetables is all I ate growing up.  Potatoes, corn, and green beans (only from a can).  That was it.  I would not eat salad, no carrots, broccoli, or asparagus.  OK, so maybe 4 vegetables if you count tomatoes, but it had to be in pizza sauce or spaghetti sauce, and it better be pureed.  Chunks of tomato and I would be out.

Totino’s Party Pizzas

Do you ever notice how we identify ourselves as foods. I’m a carrot guy, or I’m a salad girl or I’m more of a burger guy than a hotdog guy.  Well, I was a Totino’s Party Pizza guy.  So I didn’t necessarily have stellar eating habits and over time my love for Totino’s Party Pizzas in college and young adulthood grew.  I lived with a couple of roommates in a town home for a couple of years and we ate so many party pizzas that we must have spent at least $10-15 that year on them.  Cheap and quick pizzas that would do the job of keeping us alive, for the moment, filling our bellies, and giving us just enough energy to play video games all night.

We learned one special thing about these glorious Totinos pizzas.  The smoke let’s you know it’s done.  We would put these in the oven, and initially we would make sure to set the timer so that they were cooked properly.  Over time though we learned that you could leave them in the oven without a timer, and the moment you started smelling smoke, the pizza would be done.  It was absolutely CRUCIAL though that you took out that pizza THE MOMENT you smelled smoke.  If you waited a minute longer, you would be eating a charred circle of doom.  Yes, you would still eat it, I know that’s what you were thinking.

Learning to Cook

After living in the town home I lived in Budapest for a year.  Without access to a my beloved Totino’s or other quick meals and only a couple of fast food options, I was forced to cook for myself.  I was terribly unsuccessful at first.  I burnt more food than should be allowed.  In this case, the smoke let me know that the pan was too hot and I left the garlic in the oil too long.  It was sad and defeating, but I had to continue or I wouldn’t eat.  So for a year, I practiced and I got better.  I even started cooking vegetables.

Veggies Part Two

I don’t remember the exact time this was, but my friend, Michael, had invited me over for dinner.  His wife knew that I didn’t like vegetables, but she pushed me to try a carrot souffle.   This was essentially mashed carrots, eggs, butter, and sugar.  Here’s a link to a simple recipe. I was unsure at first, but I tried it.  It was actually really delicious!  So I made carrot souffle in my flat in Budapest, and added a veggie to my list of approved foods.

Over time I would begin to add more vegetables and different meats.  I began to develop a love of food and cooking.  I made a rule for myself.  This rule was that I would try anything that I would cook.  Food was unfamiliar to me, but as I started including more of it in recipes, I would learn to appreciate it.  I would learn to shop for it, and how to properly cook it.  I would learn it’s flavor and how it mixed with other foods.

Familiar

I became familiar with food.  As I got to know it, I grew to love it.  I even grew beyond specific foods to different cuisines.  Cashew chicken, pad-see-ew, spider sushi roll, pho, schnitzel, Ćevapi, boeuf bourguignon, enchiladas, brassói aprópecsenye…..I could keep going.  Here is the unexpected thing about my adventure into different cuisines and foods.  As I learned about food, I learned about people, their culture, their history.  And I again, I learned another way to connect with people.

Foreign people from foreign lands became familiar.  I was comfortable beginning a dinner with Hungarian friends over a cold bowl of gyümölcsleves, or enjoying a doner kabob at one of my favorite restaurants.  So the All Around Life has shown me that food helps people to connect.  It’s a shared experience, an intimate experience where you can begin to know someone.  So whether you’re a “seafood guy” or “pasta guy” or a “pork chop gal” or “gyro gal”, cook for someone, or let them cook for you, or have someone else cook for the both of you, but do it together.