Food for thought

It's been a good week here. Despite some illness and the bitter cold weather. After indulging quite a bit last month we're reigning things in for January. We're cooking more, and working on using food we still have around in the house rather than let it go to waste. This has Allie and I putting more intention into our meal planning and working together more to prepare meals.

We've always really enjoyed cooking together, but often times it's too easy to be busy with other things. This often results in going out, getting take out, or one of us cooking for the family on our own. It's been awhile since we really took the time to cook together and it's something I really missed.

I've spent an incountable number of hours watching cooking shows and the like over the years. I really enjoy cooking, preparing a meal for people. I get a lot of satisfaction when something I prepare is enjoyed by others. I've picked up a lot of basic knowledge and technique over the years, but it's not always easy to get it just right.

Allie has generally eaten more functionally. Simple foods, some rice and frozen fish. She's also anosmic. She has little to no sense of smell, which changes the way she tastes and enjoys foods. The strong flavors - salty, sweet, bitter come through. Heat comes through, and texture is incredibly important. Because of this the food we prepare together is often strongly flavored but extremely well balanced. She is "The Sauce Queen", and has an uncanny ability to know what flavor component is missing and figure out something creative to add.

This combination of balancing strong flavors and placing such a high standard on texture has made me a better cook, and makes the two of us together pretty freaking awesome. It's fun to work as a team and enjoy our time in the kitchen and it's resulting product.