It’s amazing how just one sentence can completely alter your course in life.
I finally made it to a book club meeting in my neighborhood. We moved last September and I have been trying to make a meeting since about December. I have even been reading all the books I just hadn’t actually made it to a discussion. Well boy did I pick the right one!
The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry, by Kathleen Finn, is a detailed account of the author’s experience studying at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Let me tell you I spent most of the book wiping the drool off my tablet and bookmarking recipes for later. Even now, just writing this I can feel my mouth begin to water. I am not a super cook nor do I find it especially full-filling but after reading this book I wanted to start baking my own bread, learn to speak French and run off to Paris to study cooking.
My family would greatly appreciate the bread, but not so much the running off to Paris. 😉 And really, I do NOT have time to learn another language. I’m still trying to figure out toddler-ease, French will just have to wait.
Finn details so many of the techniques, from “simple” knife skills to the proper way to make stocks and sauces, that I quickly found myself branching out with our recipes just so I could practice some of what I was learning. Le Cordon Bleu even has a You Tube channel where they demonstrate some of the basic techniques!
Interestingly, one line in particular has stuck with me after reading this book and it was a big part of our book club discussion. When visiting Rungis, one of the largest wholesale food markets in the world, they were touring the beef hangar. Apparently they move approximately 200 million tons of meat, and while most comes from within France, you can also find beef from Japan, Argentina and other countries.
HOWEVER, “only two countries are not allowed to sell any meat here: the United States and the United Kingdom. Due to problems with hormones.”
WOW.
That has really stuck with me. After finishing this book and listening to the ladies in my book club I started to dig further. I ran across a great website, 100 Days of Real Food, and she led me to another book, In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan.
These three resources have really opened my eyes. In the past I have wondered about the effect processed foods have on us, and even used to make Noah’s baby food from scratch. (That last link has a link to a great resource if you are thinking about making your own baby food) But nothing really motivated me to make a drastic change.
Until now.
I have decided that I owe it to my family to try to cut out as much processed food, hormones, and other junk as possible. I have to be realistic. Our society is so overwhelmed by these foods it’s going to be impossible to completely remove them from our every day life, but we are going to do our best. Pollan gives some great rules to help when choosing recipes or items in the grocery store and the 100 Days of Real Food has great tips too!
I’m going to try and share as we continue on our quest for healthy foods but I’m not going to jinx it by promising to post so many times a week or every Tuesday because let’s face it, I suck at that. In true UnCoordinated Mommy fashion we are just going to see which way the wind blows us.
Healthy eating and Bon Appetit!
**Some of the links above are affiliate links. All opinions are 100% mine.**