Why I Write About Cooking and Food

I, like many oth­ers in our coun­try, are VERY accus­tomed to just get­ting in the car, going to the gro­cery store and pick­ing up our food for the week.  Hon­est­ly, I grew up this way.  While many of my friends and their fam­i­lies ran farms, I was a mid­dle class kid with par­ents that worked, and I real­ly want­ed for noth­ing, at the end of the day… I did have a job and I did make my own mon­ey, but I pur­chased what I con­sumed, and did not think much of it at the time.

Grow­ing up, my moth­er plant­ed a gar­den every spring.  She spread com­post and manure, all veg­etable scraps, egg shells, fish remains, etc. went right in the gar­den in the off sea­son to help fer­til­ize the ground for the next.  Again, as a kid, I did­n’t think much of it.

To be hon­est, I am not sure I was the most self aware ado­les­cent, and joke with friends that I am a slow learn­er.  The truth is, I just don’t think I paid atten­tion.  Today, I pay atten­tion to every­thing.  Do I pay atten­tion to the right things, well, who knows, but I am more cog­nizant of the life that goes on around me, and I am much more curi­ous than I ever was.

Now the old­er I get, and the more I spend time prep­ping, and being of the sur­vival­ist men­tal­i­ty, the more I am exper­i­ment­ing with skills I may need in a SHTF in a more prim­i­tive sit­u­a­tion.  “But you live in the Sub­urbs.”  Yup, but I am prac­tic­ing in the event I end up at a BOL with few­er resources.  “But you just smoked a turkey with an elec­tric smok­er.”  Yup, I am try­ing to bet­ter under­stand the prin­ci­pals behind smok­ing and pre­serv­ing foods so that  in the event of an impend­ing dis­as­ter and bug out, that I can sus­tain my life more effec­tive­ly, and maybe the lives of any team mem­bers with me.

It is a work in progress, this cook­ing thing.  It takes time and can be a sci­ence, or an art, depend­ing on what you are cook­ing.  Knowl­edge of salts and spices are need­ed, and some of this is new ground for me.  I mean, I can make a mean smok­er full of Jerky, but it’s not until you sit down and learn why you are doing what you are doing that you begin to think about it dif­fer­ent­ly?