Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.
~Voltaire

I was born a Phillips and one of the genetic gifts handed down by my forbearers is a love of eating. Savoring food is one of my life’s greatest pleasures. I love preparing food with my husband, working in the kitchen side by side, creating fresh and healthy dishes as we chat and reconnect after a busy day. I love the family rituals that revolve around the dinner table: the gathering and sense of belonging that accompanies Sunday roast and potatoes. I love sharing good things to eat with friends at barbeques and parties. I get a thrill out of learning about food: where it comes from, how to prepare it, and how it works to benefit my health. The process of preparing and consuming food is as much a spiritual and social endeavor in our home as means of sustaining life.

Unfortunately, in today’s market place, saturated with confusing nutritional information, pleasure in food is somewhat difficult to come by.

“What should I eat?” is a question most Americans have trouble readily answering.

How blessed we are to live in an era of abundance. Gone are the days when humans spent the majority of their time finding and preparing food, living literally hand to mouth. Today there is almost no limit to the quantity or variety of food or food like products readily available in the average supermarket. Add to variety, the constant bombardment through media sources of conflicting theories, information and recommendations about what we should put in our bodies.

I believe the overloading of food products and data is an influential contributor to the decline of general health and the increase in degenerative diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer that plague the western world. How? People make poor diet choices for many reasons, but certainly one reason must be that healthy eating seems too demand too much time, energy, or money.

This year, I am making a goal to explore in greater depth my love affair with food and nutrition. In addition to forcing my husband to listen to my endless speeches, I will use this blog as an outlet and a place to record and experiment. My aims are:

1. To share my love of food
2. To try new foods and new methods of preparation
3. To show that eating a healthy, balanced diet is achievable for almost anyone
4. To distill and simplify food information

I hope you enjoy this journey with me!

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.
~Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright, Pavarotti, My Own Story