Sometimes I think that it is a good idea to take a breath and assess the situation. When you take a big picture view of life, the stuff that we get hung up on seems so trivial by comparison, right? Late last night (and I mean late) I had a come to Jesus moment. Some people would prefer to call this meeting the Dutch Uncle meeting (not sure why- sounds a little perverse to me) or the more common concept of the reality check. Recently Caroline and I have not been feeling too hot with persistent intestinal issues. I’m not going to go into detail, but I will say that the tests are not fun and waiting for results which are constantly “inconclusive” is frustrating at best and leads to a defeatist attitude at worst.
I’ve never been known for a defeatist attitude. Attitude, yes. But defeatist attitude, no. My entire life has been driven by the inner confidence that I am doing the best I can and if it doesn’t meet my expectations, I change course and try again. I have never strayed from this concept and have done alright for myself and my family. But, for some reason recently, I haven’t been following my mantra and just can’t quite figure out why. At first, I thought it was due to leaving a job after 12 years which is difficult and brings a lot of stress onto the body. Then I looked at having a relatively new child in the house that adds stresses of its own. But it’s neither of these excuses or the hundreds of others I walked through during the long hours of the night. I have come to the conclusion that I wanted to see if I could simply just “be” for a while. Let the world wash over me rather than constantly trying to push back the walls from my own little space. This doesn’t work for me, so let’s get into the meat as to why. Now, I am not going to use this post as a therapy session- that would take way more than one post and I have no desire to let it all hang out, if you know what I mean. You haven’t even bought me dinner yet. Jeez.
For the last five or six weeks, I have been writing a food blog (thank you all for reading- it means a lot to me.) It’s a forum that I really enjoy and I hope that some people out there are enjoying it as well. Although there isn’t a whole ton of feedback, I think that the recipes being made here taste pretty good and might expand some horizons. There is a lot of thought that goes into breaking the recipe down so that just about anybody can make it with just a little bit of effort. Most of the posts are probably too long and have too much commentary in them, but that is what it is. My style. Like it or hate it, this is what I have chosen to have hang out here. This blog brings together a lot of passions in my life: cooking, drinking, sharing, writing, technology and communicating with people. You can now find me on Facebook by typing The Chubby Cook into the search area. Shoot it to anybody you think would like what is going on here. See that, communication- I would love your help in getting the word out.
So what does any of this have to do with a reality check? I’m getting to it. Axl Rose said it best, “Gotta have a little patience.” I am listening to Guns N’ Roses right now in case you were wondering where that reference came from. Too bad Axl had to be such a douche and screw up one of the best bands of all time. Anyhow, I have been cooking and eating the stuff in these posts on an almost a daily basis since the end of May. This stuff tastes good, but I don’t think that we can eat it every day. There has to be some balance to the equation. Recently the balance has been upset which is most noted by the scale tipping in the wrong direction. I am still going to be The Chubby Cook, but want to make sure that there is a healthy element which goes along with the name. Perhaps a good equation would be to eat as much healthy food throughout the day as possible and a couple times during the week throw down on something really decadent.
Like I said, late last night (about 3:50AM) I started to turn the corner. There are things that we can do to make ourselves feel better. There is no need to be at the mercy of a healthcare system that to date has not been able to tell us anything other than every test comes back perfectly fine. I don’t blame our physician or the system, they are doing what they can and providing peace of mind by ruling out some pretty serious things. But what have WE done to help ourselves? I’ve been sitting in the basement, eating plain pasta, drinking water and feeling generally sorry for myself since Wednesday last week. I think I have been out of the house three or four times since then, mostly to go to the doctor. Caroline is feeling cabin fever in the middle of the summer.
What happened to the people who were feeling great a year ago? Eight months ago I was juicing every day and eating sixty to seventy five percent raw foods each day. My energy level was through the roof. I was hitting the elliptical on a running pace for an hour each morning and was riding at least ten miles a day on my bike. Now, walking for twenty minutes is strenuous activity and one which I try to avoid at all costs. What happened is that I took that high-energy feeling for granted. I had it for several months and thought that it would be fine to stray away from what I had been doing for a while. Once you feel great, that feeling should stay no matter what you do- right? Wrong. Once chicken wings and fair fries (love them at Blossom Time in the spring) come back into the fold, it is hard to chase them off again. They are the wolf in sheep’s clothing, for lack of a better analogy. Akin to a Trojan horse? You choose which one you like and go with it. There is a draw to these processed foods that is really hard to break once you start eating them again. I’m not suggesting never eating them, but like I said, I think that there needs to be a healthy balance. Wings today then light dinner and breakfast to clear out the system. Doesn’t sound terrible, right?
Back to last night. I was laying on the couch in the basement (watching TV, eating Tostitos and trying not to disturb the family), thinking about all this. I was thinking that I know better than what I have been doing. Foods that are highly processed are ridiculously hard for the digestive tract to handle. We went through a time where if we didn’t understand even one ingredient on a label (Riboflaven for example) we wouldn’t buy it. We actually lived without riboflaven and other food additives and preservatives! We felt great for about eight or nine months. It was hard because so many foods have such a huge amount of crap in them, but overall we felt so good that the minimal effort to find the right stuff to eat was a small price to pay. I have read dozens of books on nutrition, eating raw, healthy lifestyles and for some reason have just been ignoring everything. Well, I thought, it is time to incorporate some of these principals into my daily cooking. It’s time for the Healthy Chubby Cook. Anybody have a cape? I think I just created my own superhero.
As my superhero was flying around in my own mind, the thought came to me that I should open a store locally called Pure Food which offers only organic, preferably locally produced foods and products. I quickly shelved the superhero to think more about this idea. Stay with me on this one.
In my minds eye I could see the simple signage on the building with lots of windows and a bright interior. When you walked in you were greeted with the sight of overflowing baskets of produce. There is a huge olive bar with twenty different types of olives and large trays of homemade hummus, baba, bean spreads and salsas all in different flavors. I see shelves of products that are not only good for you but taste good too. A giant butchers case would display locally raised proteins and sustainable seafood. Cold cases would have fresh organic eggs, locally produced organic pickles and prepackaged organic sides and dips. There might even be some meals ready to take home there. For some reason, to me the shop smelled like freshly clipped wheat grass.
In another room of the store there was a coffee, juice and smoothie bar. I could see a commercial style juicer and a bank of VitaMix blenders creating some delicious and nutritious smoothies. In the corner sat a frozen yogurt bar (the fro-yo would be self serve, of course) with five flavors always ready to be sampled. On one side there is a small open kitchen with a range, flat top and clay oven. I could see people sitting in there at breakfast eating some buckwheat pancakes and at lunch chowing down on the Sammy Big Stack with juicy organic turkey on locally produced bread. In the hot summer afternoon there were families enjoying some frozen yogurt with whatever topping your heart desires. Maybe this is a pipe dream, maybe not. I made a quick mock-up of what the sign would look like outside:
A while back a good friend and I were looking at hydroponic equipment to start growing produce for ourselves. The idea of fresh, organic heirloom tomatoes in the dead of winter was so appealing to both of us that we just had to give it a try. Unfortunately, there is one heck of a lot more to growing things hydroponically than just sticking some seeds in a tray, adding nutrients and letting them grow. By the time we came close to figuring it out, summer was upon us and it was simply easier to grow stuff outside. We toyed with the idea of growing microgreens, basil, gourmet lettuce, kale and other leafy produce greens. It is entirely conceivable to have fresh crops year round even in a climate like Cleveland. Tomatoes are a little bit harder, but it could be done with some experimenting. The idea of microgreens is still incredibly appealing to me as these little plants have the most density of nutrients of any green available. Eating them should make you feel like Pop-Eye after eating a can of spinach. These would all be items that would be sold in Pure Food. Imagine sitting down to a fresh microgreen salad with a homemade champagne vinaigrette that danced on your tongue. Sounds good, right? Where can you get this in Cleveland at lunch? And locally produced?
Now I know that there are stores like Whole Foods and more local grocery stores are bringing in organic produce. Most the stuff in whole foods is grown in California, Mexico or Chile. Who knows where the meat comes from. The question is if you would stop at a store that you know carries mostly local, unique and extremely fresh produce vs. the big box store that gets it in from around the world? Maybe the era of the independent store is gone. Sad, really. It would be cool to find someone local who dries and cures meats, bakes delicious crusty breads and has the tastiest morsels around that could be brought home quickly and would satisfy the whole family. Come to think of it, there would be a huge cheese case in Pure Food as well. Gotta have a cheese case that is deep with cheeses from around the world.
Maybe there is a unique opportunity between all these ideas. Let’s just say that space could be acquired to open a shop and a small eatery. And the organic, hydroponic produce could yield enough crop to be sold or at least used in the concept- perhaps at the juicing station or smoothie station. Maybe we toss in a line of The Chubby Cook all organic sauces, sides and pre-packaged foods. I know of a few local people who have the best tasting desserts that could be sold there as well. During the week I could see holding a cooking class where a small group of people would help to prepare a wonderful, light and organically derived meal. Maybe we could find some local chefs who would be interested in helping out every now and again at a class like this. I have never run a store, or an eatery or produced enough hydroponically grown produce to feed a rabbit for a day. But, I bet there are some good people out there who have done all these things and would be willing to get behind an idea.
In the short-run there is work to be done on a more micro level. I woke up after far too few hours of sleep and created my game plan. I dusted off my “raw” cookbooks and made a plan for the week. I ate some greek yogurt, bought some probiotics, drank a green shake and am feeling better in general. Tonight we are going to have some veal chops with goat cheese medallions and a fresh spinach salad. I’ll be posting up about it tomorrow or the next day. Breakfast will be a Green Lemonade. I’m going to make a cucumber and watercress soup that should be pretty tasty for lunch. Tomorrow night we will have grilled mahi-mahi with a peach tomato salsa and a side of tomato carpaccio and arugula . Sounds pretty good to me. I think that you’ll like this direction as well.
My new goal for this blog will be to lead by example for my family and in particular my son. Jack has never really had anything which is not prepared fresh or organic to date. Some notable exceptions are breads and oyster crackers, which he just loves. I would like to have him grow up continuing to eat healthily not because he has to, but because he has been shown how it can be done to taste better than the alternative and hopefully lead to a long and healthy life. I would like that for everyone who takes time out of their busy day to read what I write on this blog. I think that this is going to be fun. It is certainly a challenge.
Who knows, maybe sometime down the road you’ll be driving and see a sign that says Pure Food. It would be great if you decided to stop in and take a look around. There might be a big chubby guy working behind one of the counters somewhere loving every minute of it. Or, maybe this sounds like something you would like to be a part of as well. My view is that there are no limits, just good ideas and a ton of potential waiting to happen.
Let’s see where this thing goes. I think I need a green shake just thinking about it.
