My Personal Food Culture

I am so thankful that I have a mom who likes to cook. I was lucky, growing up, to be one of the few kids that I knew who sat down and ate with their family. We ate breakfast together every morning at the kitchen table, and we ate dinner together every night. I credit my mother for a lot of things, but specific to this, eating dinner helped keep me sane. It kept me healthy. It helped me develop a good relationship with food. That table was where we talked about our days, where we talked through our problems and issues, where I associate with comfort. To this day, when I'm staying with my parents (holidays, visiting, whatever), there's just something about having a cup of coffee made for you and set in front of you with all the love a mother can give. That kitchen feels more like home to me than does any other place in my parents' house.

My sister, still in high school, baking thumbprint cookies in my parents' kitchen

My mom, making fried green tomatoes for the Fourth of July the year Mark and I got married

I didn't really learn how to cook there. I was really spoiled when I was younger, so I didn't really learn how to cook/clean/do my own laundry very well until I went off to college. That's where I started, with my mom's recipes and a willing spirit. And then, after I got married, it was something I wanted to be really good at. So I tried hard to learn to cook both the things my mom made and new things of my own, and gradually developed my own tastes and ideas and beliefs about real things and fresh things and food that makes me happy.

On fall break one year, in Hannah's family cabin, making Chicken Noodle Soup group-style

Cooking with one of my roommates in our apartment my senior year of college

Now, I have the best memories in kitchens. Because while being cooked for is fantastic, cooking with someone you love is even better. Making pizzas on Christmas eve with our whole family, baking cookies and Oreo truffles with my mom. Making her scrambled eggs with greens in them. Cooking extravagant meals and trying new things with Elissa. Experimenting with Kelly. Exchanging recipes with everyone.

Mark and Matthew doing the dishes after Elissa and I made dinner

M

My mom, dancing and singing with our Christmas dinner this past year.

Pizza on Christamas eve

Tab, Elissa's roommate, with the blueberry brownies we made

Kelly slicing peppers in my parents' kitchen

I had an interesting conversation with a co-worker the other day. I talk about food and cooking a lot at work, because it's something I really, really love and care about. I made muffins for everybody the other morning, and she said something along the lines of "Wow, you really do like to cook." Which started this conversation. She, apparently, doesn't. She says she doesn't know how to cook, doesn't cook very well.

In Nashville: good food, good wine, good friends

 Pizza fixin's on Christmas eve

My mom making cornbread ... and having difficulties

And I always wonder... what on earth do people like that eat? How can you feed yourself if you can't cook? Does your family sit down for dinner together? Do you eat fast food all the time? It always baffles me when people say "Oh, I don't cook." I'm thankful that I really don't have any concept of that "I don't cook" statement, but what does it mean for their families and their children?

So I'm posing the question to all of you. Do you cook? If so, what do you cook? Do you sit down and eat as a family (or, if you're single, did you when you were little?) And if you don't cook ... what do you eat??

Humble Pie

Okay, so I know this is my third post in like 4 hours, but I feel bad.

I just ate a pretty humongous slice of humble pie...

Let me explain. This morning, when Mark wouldn't get up to work out, I wasn't necessarily very nice about it. In fact, in my head, I was thinking he was a slacker. So then after he left, I decided that I needed the cardio as well, and I'd just head on downstairs, pop Tony in the DVD player, and do the darn thing by myself.

Well. Let me just tell you. I couldn't get through the first 10 minutes of the video - INCLUDING the warm-up.

A lot of times people think that because I'm skinny, I'm in shape. Sometimes I'm fooled into this illusion as well. But let me tell you, a fast metabolism does not an athlete make. I turned off the video and decided that I REALLY did need the workout, and made up my own (WAY turned down than the P90X version.) I ended up doing 25 crunches, 25 leg lifts each side, 25 bicycles forwards and backwards, and 20 reps each of bicep curls, lateral raises (where you have your arms at your sides, then raise them straight out where your body makes a "T" shape), and upright rows (for forearms, I guess, where you have the dumbbells in front of you and pull straight up), with 3-lb. weights. And then I ran in place for maybe a total of 10 minutes? And! I did 15 push-ups! Probably the worst form imaginable, and you can bet that my nose didn't come anywhere near the floor ... but I pushed my self up and down without falling on my face a total of 15 times.

Anyway, all that to say ... I was worn. flat. out. 30 minutes of basic calisthenics, and I was D. O. N. E. DONE. So, I feel kind of bad for lecturing Mark about "not being serious" about working out and being healthy. As soon as he gets home, I'm going to apologize, and I'm going to try really hard to focus more on MY lack of cardio, and let him handle it on his end.

I can't believe I'm that out of shape.

Exercise.

Exercise has always sort of been the bane of my existence. I don't know whether it started in the seventh circle of hell gym class when I was younger, or because I feel like I'm just no good at it, or because I hate most conventional methods of exercise, or what. But I just don't like to do it. Now, put me on a dance floor and play some Big Band, and I'm all for dancing for HOURS. (And if you've ever swing danced, you know THAT makes a good workout.) I need to join a gym, but Mark doesn't really want to fork out the money while things are as tight as they are.

Things I have tried (or aren't an option...)
-Running. Ha! Do any of you guys remember when I was going to train for a HALF MARATHON back last fall? So do I. That lasted all of about 2 weeks. I hate running. Always have.
-Walking. This, I could do for hours. This, I love. But it's so gosh-darn hot right now, and I really want to walk with Mark, and he doesn't like the heat, and never wants to walk as far as I do. (I would happily walk five miles or more a day. Every day. Great exercise. But ... I don't wanna do it by myself.)
-Swimming ... well, I've not tried it, but I can't really swim all that well. I know, embarrassing, whatever. I want to learn. But I feel like I wouldn't get all that much of a workout because I'd be trying to keep my head above the water. That just makes my neck tired.

I want to try a spin class, or a zumba class. (That would require a gym membership, though ... see first paragraph.)

So all of this to say ... Mark has finally decided that he wants to re-start P90X. But I think we're going to do it a bit differently this time. I'm not following that stupid diet. (Not stupid. Sorry Tony. Just stressful, and I turn into a demon when I can't eat carbs.) Also, I think we're just going to do the cardio part (and any other video that is cardio-esque ... and hopefully the ab one, because that's something that I can do, and feel good doing, and Mark needs to do.) We're going to try for 30 minutes of cardio every morning. I'm not looking to lose weight ... I just need a good cardio workout in my life. And I honestly think that Mark would lose weight if he HAD a good cardio workout in his life. The full P90X program is just too intense, I think, and there's no possible way that I could do the upper body part. (I can't even do one real pushup.) So we're going to start over, a bit slower. And try to do it together. That's always a good motivator. (I hope.)

Wish me luck! Because I have to wake Mark up in, oh, about 20 minutes. And we'll see how it goes.