My mom is a great cook and I always enjoyed eating her food growing up. But, I was never interested in learning how to cook myself.
In college, I ate food service food quite happily. Back then, we were only required to buy a meal plan our freshman year. But, I always had money on my ID card (thanks to my parent) and often ate my meals on-campus even after I moved out of the dorms.
During college I did start to dabble in home cooking. My circles happened to have like-minded folks when it came to food and we began having co-op meals where we would cook for each other, somewhere between a dozen and two dozen of us. I got to know the Moosewood cookbooks well.
After college, I moved to Hiroshima for a year and lived alone for the first and only time in my life. What did I eat? A lot of canned tuna. And toast with butter. And convenience store onigiri. And I ate out. I was a regular at Mitchan, an okonomiyaki place. I took off a lot of weight that year.
What I remember most about cooking in Cambridge, the time before GFCF Kid came along, was that when I cooked, it was almost always scrambled eggs. They were just about the only thing I cooked, but they also became my specialty. I became curious about improving my technique and taught myself a few things.
But, then came GFCF Kid. Our firstborn, who changed everything. When he was about three months old, I went on an elimination diet to try to ascertain what in my diet, which he was getting via breastmilk, could be causing his bloody stools. Suddenly, it became very difficult to have our staples or any take-out. A month later, I was down to eating rice and some veggies and fruit. I was also back to work full-time and newly parenting not only my first baby, but also a baby who had bloody poops (though he was, thankfully, fat and happy and didn't appear sickly at all).
By the time GFCF Kid started eating food (he was switched from breastmilk to hypoallergenic formula at 4 1/2 months), we knew he was very allergic to cow's milk. We didn't discover he needed to be gluten-free, as well, for another year or so. For awhile there, he was also allergic to soy.
Between having a toddler with multiple food allergies and the arrival of a second baby within eighteen months of the birth of the first, and working an incredibly rewarding yet equally demanding full-time job, something had to give for me.
So I quit my job. And we moved in with Red Sox Daddy's dad. And began the journey of figuring out how to live on one income while nourishing each other and ourselves, trying to be as independent as we can, but also relying, as gracefully as we could, on the help of our family and friends.
Something I have learned over the years is that, as much as possible, it is worth it to spend more money/time on purchasing certain kitchen/cooking items. It takes time to figure out when you are simply paying more for a brand, as opposed to finer workmanship or more quality base material.
And it definitely takes time to figure out which are the tools of the trade you will use and depend on for years and years, as opposed to the ones which seem nifty at first but turn out to be redundant because something you already have can perform the same trick (which is really cool).
This hasn't been easy for me. But, having been at it for seven years or so in three different states, I have a lot of experience under my belt. I never anticipated that this would be such a big part of my life, but this is what I have spent much time and energy on. First, there was learning the ingredients, then there was learning the resources, then learning recipes, then streamlining (time), streamlining (cost), and streamlining (tools/space) some more.
As I have moved away from novice status, I have felt quite a drive to make more and more efficient the process and the life of being a GFCF parent.
All this front story for a post about a rice cooker and Dutch oven.
I have wanted a Le Creuset Dutch oven for years. I love color and Le Creuset is colorful. I am drawn to heirloom pieces. Things that are crafted to last for generations to come. Le Creuset fit that bill, too. Then, I began seeing recipes that called for the use of a Dutch oven. And I learned what a Dutch oven was. (That's me...wanting something before I even know what it's used for...or that it could be useful to me. I love beautiful things, unreasonably sometimes.)
I never bought one because they are really expensive. I could somehow never justify it. A quirk of the brain since I have justified spending a lot of money on other things in my life.
I am also not one for delaying gratification. It is very unusual for me to be able to wait comfortably for something that doesn't have a definite arrival date. So for me to have waited years...that's something.
Recently, one thing led to another and I bought a Dutch oven. It's made of cast iron and coated in enamel. Like Le Creuset. It was not made in France and I was disappointed that it was not made in the U.S.A., but at a fraction of the Le Creuset price tag (I bought mine from Amazon), and the personally known reliability of their other cast iron products (which are American made), it was a no-brainer.
I was very happy to find our new Dutch oven, made by Lodge.
The timing of buying the Dutch oven coincided with the search for a new rice cooker. Our old rice cooker was sixteen years old and had served us so well. But, the heating elements were going awry and the rice was coming out soggy in spots and crunchy in others.
I spent some time doing research and some time mourning the demise of ol' faithful. And chose the Zojirushi 10 cup mid- price range rice cooker. It cost nearly $200. But, we have been using it almost every day since its arrival, it makes perfect rice and keeps it warm for 24 hours (they say 12, but it's been fine for 24), and I am betting we'll have it for a good 15 years or so.
I know not everyone lives a culture of rice like I do, but if you like rice, I recommend looking into getting a rice cooker if you don't already have one. It makes streamlining easy.
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