Thursday, September 4, 2008

Slow down...

There was an article in our local newspaper today about a new Slow Food movement...from San Franscisco where some 30,000 people gathered for Labor Day weekend to persuade Americans to reject fast, cheap food and embrace organic, local agriculture and a return to the kitchen. 

I agree, we have become a nation of fast food junkies and non-cooks. It takes time and energy to plan out menus, shop carefully and then cook nutritious meals. I remember one KFC commerical that says, we're having a home cooked meal, then the mom brings in the paper buckets of KFC chicken and side dishes. We are raising a generation of kids that don't know how to cook or what real home cooked meals look like.

9 comments:

  1. One of my sisters-in-law was just talking about that same thing yesterday. She has growing daughters and she's afraid she hasn't taught them enough about cooking. You're right, it is sooo easy to grab some of the prepared foods from the stores' freezers. I have to tell myself over and over that I can make good food without that help, at less cost, and with more control over the ingredients.

    Timely post, Lin.

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  2. Hm... What it takes is new habits, new aims and use of time.
    Sweden is following US in these things, but not the all the saints, cause many of them have large families and over here fastfood is not cheap.... Meaning, we cant afford it. We have to keep on sooking from scratch. There are pleanty of easy fast dinners to make, with lots of wholesome veg to it. No problem! Just takes a new habit, if you dont have one! Maybe what you need in america is more expensive junkfood...

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  3. Oh my goodness...this very night I am going to a slow food's restaurant, learning to make 2 Italian dishes by the owner and then having dinner there. Our Red Hats went there in the summer and had a lesson at lunch...now it's dinner. Can't wait. Took hours for lunch...Im off to take a nap cuz I doubt i'll be home before midnight

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  4. That's going to be so much better, so much fun. Rather than getting fast, cheap, already prepared food. We're going to voluntarily: slave over a hot stove in a hot kitchen all day, picking and washing greens and beans; start gardens to grow our own veggies; raise chickens; catch fresh fish . . .oooo I see where this is going!!! Good luck to whoever...

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  5. We won't reclaim our family structure until we restore the family dinner table - with real food on it.
    Wow. I sound like one of those dreaded conservatives.

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  6. I remember hearing about the Slow Food movement. There was actually a workshop on it as our school district. It's fabulous! Now that we're living with my mom, we're definitely into slow food since she takes pride in her cooking.

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  7. My mom simmered her spaghetti sauce for EVER! Her meatloaf was in the oven for an hour. Even potatoe salad was made the night before to allow the flavors to meld. The dinner table was a place for conversation, laughter...even the occasional disagreement(which was generally settled by the time dessert was served.)

    I started out that way... Most of the time my four tykes were growing into adulthood, we had large breakfasts together. Lunch during the summer months was also a shared activity. And dinner was one of the highlights of everyone's day. Good food! Good Company! Good times!

    Too darn bad it's become a good memory!

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  8. I have a friend who just finished building a new home. She was so caught up in it all she said she went for a good year without hardly cooking at all. Then came her daughter's birthday. She asked her where she would like to go for her birthday and her daughter said she just wanted to stay home and have a home cooked meal. Man did she feel bad after that.

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  9. That is very true and much of the stuff out there is not healthy at all..

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