Parental Role Injustice For Next Generation

As a mother of three achieving teenagers, I have put into place a strategy that may give them a leg up in the coming years. This plan of mine isn't done just because I am a chef, but I have seen that there is a informational gap forming on many levels and types of education that our children are not receiving. I have seen this more readily now that I am a culinary educator of other's parents children.

It is no longer a pervasive standard of parental expectation that children are expected to participate in completing chores, household repairs, and cooking duties. This has established bad habits that won't be easily broken. I seldom here of the Saturday mornings filled with cleaning the house, Spring cleaning, yard work, or any other type of productive duties that a family should be doing together. It is our duty to send out into the world at large young adults who have the skills to survive. I never wanted to live in situations where my kids would drop off their laundry at my house for me to do, or having one that come and eat or pickup dinner from my house because you didn't learn these skills before moving out. And I don't want to have my adult kids return home to live rent free in my basement because they can't maintain themselves in the real world.

Do I expect any of the my kids at home to become a chef or work in my industry? No way. However, I want to see my kids having the ability to cook at home, not being dependent upon corporations to feed themselves, understand how to manage a successful household, paying bills, and raising their own children in a healthy environment. We often set our kids up for defeat, poor health, shorter life spans, and a inability to function. Those of us that do not develop our children's potentials are not the only ones that will suffer in the long-term. Our grand kids and our daughter or son-in-laws often have difficulties with a parent or mate that is ill equip to deal with the day to day of adulthood.

I am the perfect parent? Do I only eat a restrictive diet? Do I know everything about everything? NOT TRUE. But I believe that when you don't share your knowledge on any subject with your children, in a age appropriate manner, it is a cold meal of injustice you are serving up. We parents have been given a charge, these aren't just kids we are raising, but in fact, they are the next wave of leadership we are growing. We are charged with the duty of their safety, education, development, and identity, we have a huge responsibility. Almost everything that our kids grow up to be is in fact our fault, good or bad. Some people never grow up, they just become old children and others become anxiety ridden over achievers who never get the hang of intimate relationships. Yes we must take the blame as well as the credit.

School isn't were kids learn about adulthood, that happens in the home. Teachers can teach algebra or science, but it's isn't their job to raise your kids. Manners, respect, honor, and loyalty must be taught in abundance along with hard skills of paying bills, being a reliable employee, and being a fully actualized adult prepared to take a significant role in a family or their own.

Cooking your meals has many benefits. It is cheaper than restaurant food and it gives you control of what goes in your food. The savings and the versatility that cooking at home can bring is beneficial to your bottom line and your waistline. Fast food and processed foods are designed to be made as cheaply as possible while being highly addictive and while our younger folks cannot see any reason not to eat that way. Those of us who are a bit further down the road have begun to feel the effects of a American diet rich in empty calories and large amounts of fat. Diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and a host of other aliments attributed to this eating style. Since the days of Jane Fonda workout, we have become more unhealthy while spending more and more money on diets, supplements, yoga pants, and health club membership that you don't use.

Not teaching your children some survival skills is not a good option. I know that you can do it faster and better, but they need to practice, so they will be able to do and teach it to their offspring. And do I need to mention the habit fosters a greater sense of responsibility? Creating a mess and not cleaning it up is telling them that they don't need to take ownership of what they have done and it also says 'don't worry, Mom will fix everything', While they are little it should be that way, but as they age, year after year, it becomes a very bad idea. Stop coddling yours so much that they have a stunted emotional growth.  

Healthy eating starts with healthy cooking, eating at a regular schedule, and understanding the basics of nutrition. Do everything you can to equip them for the future instead of spoiling them in the presence. I see teenagers every day that have no idea why they think they don't like to eat this or that. My program is an exposure program in which they cook new dishes and eat food they may not have ever heard of before, giving a lot better toolbox of personal experience.

I have heard my students say things like 'I didn't know mashed potatoes didn't come in a box", "I always thought I didn't like coleslaw", "Chef, I really really liked the green beans." all of which I count as a victory!

I do know that giving something away that you don't posses isn't easy or nearly impossible but I want you encourage every parent, even the ones that don't know a lot about cooking. Grab the bull by the horns, and learn with your kids if necessary, and learn better habits. Live a healthier life while giving one to your next generation.

Going Live

Just like with live television, broadcasting a live podcast can run into problems. Last week, and a couple other time as well, we planned a live broadcast on Blogtalkradio.com only to run into problems. As I have had the opportunity to mess around with my options, I had a plan B. Since it is a program with very little visuals, I quickly went to a taped conversation that I uploaded after the conclusion of the conversation.

There are a few ways that you can create content for your podcast if the server is too busy or something interrupts your scheduled show. I often tape my shows from Freeconferencecall.com. This service allows callers to chat and record the conversation easily. All participants call into a common phone number and the host can use its tools to make a mp3 of the meeting. Most laptops and PC's have options for recording voice recordings. Sometimes the feature may not have options to change the format of the recording, so please check. If you record a conversation in a format not recognized by your broadcast service, you may need a converter software to get the recording in a format the you can use.

I enjoy podcasting. The conversations heard on my show are very similar to conversations I have offline and in real life. The food news, food culture, chef conversations, and the culinary industry are apart of my everyday. And I hope my audience agrees....

We set the goal of one podcast a week, and I hope to always go live on Saturday afternoons, however if we run into issues, we got to tape and upload later. The other reason that may force us to go tape is the availability of our guest. I'd rather tape a podcast with a dynamic guest whenever is best for them than not to get the conversation with the guest.

I got one scheduled for today, so catch us if you can:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/giantforkandspoon/2016/04/24/episode-16-maurice-miles-wy-dolphin-and-foodie

Fake Foods and Fraud

If you were a teenager in one of my culinary arts classes, you may well already be tired hearing my rants, for a lack of better wording, about corporate food offerings. I say often, when you are relying upon a corporation to feed you, you are already in trouble. A corporation, ultimately, has only one goal, to make profit. When your family farmed, their one and only goal, was to nourish people. We have traditions of offering guest something to eat or drink for the same reason. A gift of food implies that you care if the receiver lives a healthy long life.
 
I am willing to come and bare the bad news about these edible non-foods on our health and longevity. My teens have been known to say "Chef, you make me want to stop eating everything". In fact, that is not my goal. I want them to do a couple of things, make intelligent choices about what they eat, I want them to question how and what they eat, and hopefully they will make nutrition decisions based on facts and not on marketing.

These kids have a steady diet of Kruncy Kurls, Hot Pockets, Hot n Flaming Everything, Pop Tarts, McDonald, Wendy's , and Burger King. There are more greasy spoon restaurants in their neighborhood than grocery stores. They never read a nutrition label or even question what they are eating. Is this butter or margarine? Is these long long named ingredients chemicals or food? Just because it can be eaten, should it be eaten? What is natural and what is not?

To this, I bring up a legal case currently in the headlines. A cheese company is under indictment for selling wood shavings as parmesan cheese.  This fraud was perpetrated over many years by a particular company. Naturally, this brings up many questions. Who knew about this? Why didn't anyone report it? How did the consumers not know what they were eating? And I wanted to know how the legal suit is progressing. The totality is that one individual is charged with a misdemeanor crime under one count of crime. This is not something I can understand fully. Why is this a misdemeanor and not a felony? What is there only one name on the indictment? And why hasn't the company been charged with each and every count of sales that were contaminated and sold to consumers?

The other article in recent news are the results of a study that found industrial chemicals in the bodies of fast food consumers. All the preservative and chemical additives are taking a toll on our health and, I believe, is costing us financially by causing disease and needing additional medical expense. Last year was the first time on record that American's spent more money in restaurants than at grocery stores. We are trading nutrition for convenience and suffering a high cost. If you can't read everything on the label, why are you eating it?



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-16/the-parmesan-cheese-you-sprinkle-on-your-penne-could-be-wood

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-13/fast-food-eaters-have-more-industrial-chemicals-in-their-bodies

I agree with Micheal Simon

On a aired episode of The Chew, 2/29/16, the topic of food destroyers and binge eating contest was brought up in the first segment. Chef Simon stated that he has never understood the phenomenon of eating more than a human can eat in a week choked down in a few minutes or the videos of people throwing or smashing food. I agree. I have never understood it either, add to that, the trend of folks making giant, over the top foods, from other foods, like taking 20 big macs and making a casserole from them. Yuck

This reminds me of the stories at the Romans before the fall of their society. We haven't yet began using vomitoriums but at this rate I would be surprised if it were to begin. This is the height of greed, excess and privilege. Only in a self centered community will you ever see such habits as their are too much famine in the world for this to make sense. Homelessness in America is the least talked about societal ill and with efforts, not to feed them and house them, but to install fixtures to detract homeless people from sleeping on bus stops and around buildings, I don't think it is at all reasonable to act in this manner. Yet, you can find many representations on social media depicting these acts.

In my opinion, the statement 'less is more' in this conversation is exactly right. We have so many people without and so many people with too much. Food waste is a big problem here. Every year we throw away an estimated 133 billion pounds of food. A lot of the waste happens in grocery retail outlets and in our own kitchens, as we may cook too much one day and not consume it before it spoils. Yet we have food stunts as I like to call them happening all the time. We have television series dedicated to this idea such as Man v. Food. Nothing succeeds like excess.

We humans think we are so clever and know so much but we are only gazing at the world through a peep hole wondering what it is we see. Hopefully the rise of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and the lot, will wake up our society to eating to live instead of eating to excess.

http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/man-v-food
http://endhunger.org/food-waste/

Oh Honey... Oh No Buzz

There are many ways to add sweetness into your recipes, some are great in some recipes and horrible in others, depending upon the composition of all the ingredients combined. But are they equally bad to your health? All sweeteners add calories while giving small amounts of nutrition to almost none at all. Lately, lots of attention in the healthy food movements have been changing to 'better' sources of sweetness. Sometimes these adjustments can be made without much adjustment to the recipe formula, other times it isn't good at all.

Honey has always been a bit expensive, compared to say cane sugar, but many believe that the nutrition of honey, and its associated pollen, to be wonderful. However, the golden syrup we all know and love, may not in fact be honey. As the definition of honey isn't clearly defined, manufacturers can legally sell you what amounts to yellow corn syrup and still be able to have the label read "pure honey". And don't think that a 'organic' labeling is a guarantee as there aren't any laws that define what this should, and should not, be.

 For those of us who bake, knowing which sweetener to use when is vital. The artificial sweeteners often sell the idea of using them in your baking as a better alternative for the diabetic consumers. The naturalist speak on behalf of use of items such as agave nectar, whey low, natural maple syrup, molasses, stevia, lo han, brown rice syrup, coconut palm syrup, and date sugar. Each one has differing chemical components and therefore you must do your homework if you are going to use any of these as a substitute in your favorite recipe.

http://world-of-honey.com/honey-products/organic-honey/

It is a shame that it is estimated that a huge percentage of the honey on the American market has never been anywhere near a bee, ever. Deceptive practices, undefined idea of what honey actually is, and unenforceable rules about organic labeling, have all lead to this hoodwinking of the consumer. One would assume, by way of the pricing of most jars of honey, that the prices were a indication of it being the authentic item, but oh no it isn't. I am not much of a conspiracy theorist and I am sure someone has pointed this in that direction. In my opinion, this just reeks of bad business if not flat out fraud.

Food Delivery Services

In our modernized age, everything from clothes to tech can all be had online, so is the way with groceries. Peapod, Instacart, Door to Door organics, Home Chef, Amazon, Hello Fresh, Blue Apron, and many more all have the ability to get food to your door from your online requests.

Here in Chicago, the most commonly seen delivery truck in these parts is the big lime green trucks of Peapod. I have had them deliver to me for about 3 years now, on and off, and I have always had a good experience.

Peapod was established in 1989 in Evanston Illinois, making it the oldest company of its kind. Since then, their reach has expanded to other cities such as Boston, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. The service is available by zip code and they have a very large pool of available items including their own product label of goods. They sell, in addition to food, flowers, alcohol, cleaning products and paper goods.

Customers can place orders online or via their app. Then their order is hand picked and packaged for delivery. Delivery options can be chosen by the customer by time and date, and as early as the next morning they can have things at their door to restock their kitchen. My favorite part of ordering from Peapod is that they had pick fresh produce that is perfectly fresh and high quality. Our family is in love with their seasonal fruit packs, these boxes of assorted fruit come carefully packed, and I have never had a bad apple in the bunch. There are two sizes of these items and my kids always get excited when it comes like it a wrapped box under the Christmas tree.

The big green delivery truck is refrigerated and the frozen items are kept with the aid of ice packs. You can set your customer options to include text messaging to notify you that you are the next delivery on the route. The very friendly delivery staff unloads and brings in your order to your kitchen or wherever it is needed. If there is ever a problem with an item, invoice, or delivery, the customer service department is top notch at handling the issue quickly.

While there have been other companies to enter this type of service arena, I have not used them. There are now services that I consider more like a chef services, where customers can order a meal set-up. These come to your door as a meal. The food and the recipe information are ordered so that the customer can create a gourmet meal at home. I like this concept as it teaches the customer new culinary skills, allow them to get all the items required, even the harder to locate items, perfect for a nice dinner at home without take-out pizza or the delivery fee and limitations.

If you have a chance, you may want to check out these options in your near future.

Food v "Food", Part 1

One of the major themes in my teaching to our young folks is that I constantly challenge their idea as to what is food and what is "food". I began this after watching them eat all sorts of garbage, listening to them talk about what they like to eat, and then seeing the deficits of understanding about nutrition. When you talk to kids that cannot identify that margarine is not butter, don't eat vegetables, drown their food in hot sauce, and never ever ask what is in this food... there is trouble brewing. A very large portion of the population that I teach just eat what they like and they never give a second thought to what they are consuming, while childhood obesity rates raise.

 

I teach them how to read a nutrition label, show them that vegetables aren't scary and can be very tasty depending on how it is prepared. I challenge their tastes by making them at minimum sample the dishes we prepare, make them look at what they are eating and why. It isn't easy work especially since the come to my class believing all that we are going to do is cook. If it were up to them, they would work in my class as if it was a cooking club, but its not, it's a culinary class. If it were up to them, we would only cook those things in which they are already eating regularly. The difference between a cooking class and a culinary class is very similar to the difference between food and "food".

 

I am fully aware that lots of food choices that are made in the households, in which my kids live, are done so with economy and convenience in mind. We Americans have totally bought into the idea that food must be cooked quickly and if you are in a lower economic rung the cheaper products tend to win the race to the shopping cart. Lots of our citizens are quick to spend a lot of money on clothes but not a lot on food. This is backward thinking, as clothes wear out quickly and go out of style, but your health is critical. I too have to consider my economy when purchasing, I buy some convenience foods, very few, mainly because I am not home for dinner 3 to 4 nights a week so the cooking duties fall upon my kids at least a couple nights a week. However, understanding what you are exposing your health to buy the constant consumption of these are risks most of us cannot afford. All of my children cook, nothing too fancy, for my middle school and high school kids, but my college kid does quite well, as she has had much more training.

 

Kids don't think about health and nutrition often as they have those perfect metabolisms and digestion that keeps up with the junk they consume. I often ask them what if the aging process begins to break down your body at a young age because of what they eat?

 

The populations that I teach are made up of inner city minority kids who's families are dealing with members that are impacted by cancer, hypertension, diabetes, glaucoma, drug abuse,  immobility, and early death. What they are more concerned with are the drug overdoses and deaths from gun violence that they face daily. I have talked to my kids and heard about the reasons they skipped attending class due to being in the hospital visiting their siblings and loved ones. They tell me of how many funerals they have had to attend and when asked questions about life longevity they tell me that they are not concerned with living to 100 because they are expecting to die before they are 30. It's easy to not think about your  health when you don't think you will survive very long, so why not eat and do whatever you enjoy today because tomorrow may never come.

 

So, there I go into the breach attempting to change their view of not only what is food and what really isn't food but also trying to change their world view through cooking and teaching. I speak to them about their life goals and dreams as well as their diet. I convey to them the impacts of poor diet don't just show up on the inside, but these things affect their appearance and their future. Basic nutritional information and health are done every week along with recipe comprehension. I am a firm believer that it isn't their fault that they don't know these things. I am a firm believer that you cannot give someone else something that you don't have. A great number of their parents either don't have time to teach them these things or don't know enough about the subject to teach them to their children. The notion of eating whatever is cheap and accessible is costly to your health. Anytime that you can go to the store and buy a 2-liter of soda pop for 99 cents but the same amount of juice or water is 4 to 5 times the price.... something is off.

 

I tell everyone if you cannot read all of the ingredients on the label then you might not want to eat that product. Whenever you leave control of your health and nutrition up to a corporation, you are already in trouble. The one and only purpose of a corporation is to make money. They make decisions not based upon what is best for the consumer, they make decisions based upon profit. If a natural item cost five cents per unit and a artificial substitute costs 3 cents per unit, the corporation will used the chemical substitute to gain a bigger profit margin.

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These artificial things do not create the same reactions in the body as real food does, and if you are around enough, you will see how the FDA and researchers will prove them to be harmful in the long run and it's use will then be stopped. But what about all the people that consumed these chemicals for years and are possibly suffering the after effects? Wouldn't be easier to select the natural food options and not suffer any side effects? I want to see my kids live long long lives full of joy and not short lives filled with discomfort and disease.

 

Any food that has multiple multi-syllables  chemical names and are high-up on the ingredient list should make you take pause. If you don't know what it is, then maybe you shouldn't be eating it. Can you find those items in your kitchen? Why are they in your food? Corporations make it difficult to make good choices. Their marketing campaigns, packaging, confusing labeling, hidden sugars, cheap ingredients, market saturation, are pervasive and target your kids.

 

A large percentage of your average citizens do not fully understand how to read nutrition labels.  The first thing that everyone should know is that the list of ingredients is listed in order of amount from the highest quantity to the least. In other words, if you are reading the label and the first ingredient listed is sugar then you know right away that is isn't a healthy item to eat. Secondly, look at the serving size on the package. This is one way the corporation tries to fool the consumer into believing that the item isn't too bad for you. A small package of potato chips is commonly consumed by one person, but the manufacturer may use the serving size as 4, for example, that way, if you aren't paying close attention you can believe that the bag is only 100 calories when it actually is 400 calories, deceiving. I also encourage folks to Google the chemical names listed to see their purpose, possible health issues, and perhaps why they are used. Knowledge is power.

 

Last year was the first year in American history that consumers spent more money in restaurants than in grocery stores. That is huge news to both the culinary industry, retail food store, and the medical community. Our families are not growing, harvesting, cooking, hunting, or controlling the most important aspect of their health, food!

 

Bitting off more than you can chew

From lazy to ambitious, between confidence and hubris, lies all the egos of the chef. Some of us are rock stars with skills to tempt the gods, others are far far from that, but most of us have had moments much like Icarus when we foolishly fly with waxed wings too close to the sun.

 

We all have to grow into our identity and develop, not only our skills, but our understanding of ourselves, what we do best, what we can improve upon, and what our limitations are so that we don't bite more than we can chew. I love trying new things and if I fail my first attempt that's fine, I dissect the problem and make a course correction. However, trying out new things on a client's order, can either be a triumph or a total disaster. There is nothing wrong with being ambitious or pushing our limits to achieve new goals however there is something unfair to the customers when you accept a request that you really are not able to fulfill perfectly.

 

Everyone that has ever received a good review of their cooking skills thinks they are a whiz in the kitchen. A great many of these whizzes also thinks that they are ready to be a caterer or a chef. Please understand, that pulling off a event with food has a large number of moving parts that must be considered and controlled and the paying client has little grace about the excuses about why it wasn't all that they asked for and more. No one cares that you were under staffed because of employee call-offs, or there's missing items, slow service, or just about anything else that can go wrong for the chef or event site.

 

I'm certain that there's nothing wrong with declining an offer in order to protect your client and your business reputation as a quality service and product. I have worked for owners that do not understand this concept and have gotten angry with staff because they were unable to forgo other important  commitments in order to put in unfathomable amount of time and energy to complete a order that was beyond the capability of the company.  It is not unusual for chefs to work double after double shifts in order to get everything done for a company but tax your body will pay, will take its toll sooner or later.  In my younger days have pulled 18 and 20 hour work days, I have skipped personal events, not taken vacations, and done so until I have gotten sick. I am sure that the type of demands I put on myself when I was younger has taken a toll on my health today.

 

Knowing how much you can handle, how much your kitchen is capable to producing, how your staff's skills are or are not, understanding your hot holding and your cold storage capacity, makes all the difference in the world. Can you afford to take on more that your capacity, risk losing product due to inadequate refrigerator space or lack of hot boxes, risk not being able to serve food at the correct temperatures, risk ending up with burned out or injured staff, or worse of all end up getting someone sick via food poisoning?

Nourishment

There's a national attitude about food that is not in our collective best interest, only seeing food as pleasurable.  It is so apparent when you talk to kids about nutrition or health. Children are only interested in what they enjoy so if it tastes good they are content.

Some of us do as we are expected to do, become an adult and put away childish things.  The majority of Americans are not maturing as expected and continue to eat like they did in high school, which wasn't very good for them even then, creating a greater risk their own health. More often than not, it takes a doctor to inform said adults that a reevaluation of their consumption is required.  Diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, gout, cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol levels, ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, acid reflux, and a whole host of discomforts are directly related to our dietary consumption.

Please understand that I am not a person that jumps on the diet bandwagon at the start of every new year and as a pastry chef some feel like I am not qualified to preach about health. Wrong. I am not a advocate for rigid dietary restrictions because of the psychological effects of such limitations. Telling a human not to eat their favorite things only makes them crave them even more.  I advocate balance and a focus on healthier choices. Everyone needs room in the diet for treats and snacking.  We are social animals and celebrating always involves eating. There is nothing wrong with eating dessert, it is however, how often it is consumed and which dessert is chosen that makes all the difference.

Health comes from balance,  balanced diet, balanced emotions and stress, balanced work and life harmony. Eat to live instead of live to eat. Food is the first line of defense against disease and discomforts.  Too many people are addict to some very destructive eating habits, are living in a food dessert, haven't faced the reality of what junk food does to the body when you consistently consumed, and often times live in bodies that are not working well because it isn't being maintained properly.

Last year was the first time in U.S. history that it's citizens spent more money in restaurants and eating out than they did in grocery store purchases. The 'give it to me quick' mentality is taking it toll on the health of our nation.  Lots of the food regulations and feeding programs that we have grown up with and are most familiar with, were developed after a large amount recruits enlisted for WWI were so underfeed and malnourished that they were practically or completely unfit for combat. The U.S. government understood if the nation is not nourished properly that it would not be able to defend the country from foes. Tag along to that, it stands to reason that school age children can not make the most of their educational opportunities if they are not well feed. Mandatory regulations of school lunches, for example, is a result of the governmental effort to assure that our citizens are not burdened by a lack of nutrition.

Furthermore, the changes experienced in the American workforce has put pressure on the households to eat differently than their predecessors. Less that two generations ago, 90% of meals consumed in American were prepared at home, which included boxed lunches. These days convenience foods reign supreme in the food marketing wars. Get it quick, microwave it, take and bake it, and buy it precooked, all are outselling fresh produce and meats. The heavy demands on workers to increase work out-puts have pushed the average 8 hour work day on to the back burner it seems as often longer hours and taking work home is more and more common leaving whomever in the household that is responsible for meal production with less and less time to plan and produce what the family is consuming.

The biggest danger in this tend is simple, whenever you become reliant upon a soulless corporation to do things for you that are critical to your overall health, you are in trouble. Why is a pint of orange juice 3 times the price of a cola? Corporations really only have one goal, to make money! Cheaper, faster, longer storage life, and readily available is how a corporation makes its goals. Food additives and preservatives most often do not help your health, they only help the corporation to make money. I have seen in my lifetime alone, several sugar substitutes, food color, and other chemicals available for the consumer to purchase have been removed from the marketplace after finding out that they cause a cancer or a serious risk to public health, but how many years and how often have the public been eating them before they have been outlawed?

Just some thoughts to consider as you prepare your next grocery list....

Winter into Spring

Recently, I have been feeling the pull of a new season, in other words, I am so ready for Spring. In Chicago, the winter hasn't been bad this year, however, my spirit has been wanting to do some deep Spring cleaning and brush away the cobwebs in my brain.

I have often felt the need to purge and reorganize everything. This need is related to the seasons and often can be a deeper draw than my strongest food craving. Last year I was determined to garden but my health issues and my work schedule interfered. I was drained after teaching my high school class and didn't spend the time that I wanted to successfully grow anything. Hopefully, I will be able to maintain and fulfill my mental to-do-list this time around the sun.

As a chef and a mother, I have always enjoyed the bounty that only a garden can give. My grandmother always had a garden going in the backyard and I would help out. I have kept gardens myself as a adult but lately it has been much harder with my fibromyalgia and knee pain. I will give it a go within the next few months.

If you have never attempted to grow things, not even a flower bed, I encourage you to do so. You will never eat a tomato, for example, that tastes better than the fresh grown in your own garden. You are in control of this process when you garden. You can grow and harvest the foods you like best, you can control the chemicals used, you can monitor and effect change in your garden, and best of all, you lose no time from harvest to your plate.

I am determined to push past my limits and plant this Spring and force other members of my household to deep clean every inch of my house very soon, the first 60 degree days coming to our area will signal the beginning of our purging period.

Does anyone else feel this way?