[The Little Bowl] Pot Liquor

[Guest guest]

I remember when I was a child that my Grandmother made sauces. These were not the thick goopy gravy kind, they were thin sauces made from the pot liquor, or the juices and fats left from cooking meat and veggies. Every one loved to be able to put a spoonful on their cutlet or potatoes, it was so rich and delicious! I often get pot liquor when I cook my dinner in the lunchbox ovens, since it is like cooking in a dutch oven. It starts with some residual liquid from the canned veggies and a bit of olive oil, some seasoning and a bit of meat juices. It all simmers together into a lovely tasting sauce. Since I have been eating the canned greens and last night had the rest of the roasted chicken, there was such a heavenly sauce left that it was like liquid gold to me. The photo above is what is left of what I could no longer scoop up with my spoon. Yum. It makes me think about how such simple food, if prepared well, tastes so incredibly good. I think about how much crappy junk foods I use to eat, cramming Twinkies, extreme flavoured chips, cheap ice cream (when melted left foam on top of water) and processed food that just didn’t even taste good. All those chemicals, preservative, bad tasting crap. Of course a binge isn’t about food at all, but still. I know I was punishing myself for having feelings, so it was appropriate in my mind to stuff myself with awful food. Little Debbie cakes. Gads, those things are terrible. Another way I wasted my life, stuffing myself on bad stuff when there was a wonderful world of great tasting food, all within my reach. What amazes me, is that good food, rich and flavourful food has a way of satisfying me, in a soulful way that junk food never can. My husband is beginning to struggle again. The other night, he succumbed to his snacks during a basketball game and last night wanted a late night snack of cheese and bread. We will both be tested about our resolve when we are apart for 2 months. We will be out of our normal pattern and habits and that is always a tempting path. Right now, I feel such an improvement and sense of wellbeing, that I want to continue it. He’s doing well to not let his indulgences rollercoaster into a bad pattern again, but I think for him, it will always be about food, he just loves it so much. For me, I want to accept that I cannot live for the idea of eating food anymore. I want good food when I do eat, but I don’t want to center my life around it. I wish I could convince him of how good it feels to go low carb, but he’d never go for it. He loves his carby foods. This is a fundamental difference between us in this area, I am willing to give up foods that cause me to be obese and have addictive behaviour, he is not. --

Posted By elisaannh to The Little Bowl at 6/19/2010 06:47:00 AM