Create

Food glorious food......

Doesn't it get you salivating!! I love food. I love eating food and I especially love creating with food. All the flavours and textures and smells, I will say it again, I just love food. What a feast for the senses. This photo is one of my Friday night specials. Home made pizza. I make the bases myself and the ingredients are mostly out of my neighbours gardens (mine is still under construction) although I can take credit for the fresh basil.

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, in fact as I have mentioned before I like to make most of the elements of my meals from scratch (aside from milling my own flour) If I cant make it myself I ensure I source it locally. I proudly produce my own sour dough bread from a live culture that I have lovingly cared for and feed regularly for the past 12 months. My culture even came on holidays with us in the early days of nurturing. I have recently started making pasta from scratch, kneading and rolling it out using traditional methods, I make a mean ricotta gnocchi with burnt butter and sage and I plan this year to start working towards becoming a cheese maker. I plan to make my own ricotta and feta and yoghurt. Lots of my friends think I am kind of strange when I tell them how long I spend on my creations, considering there is a pretty good bakery just 200m down the road, however there is something therapeutic for me being in the kitchen. I just love the sense of calm that comes over me when I have a cooking/baking task ahead. I take a lot of pride in my workmanship and I love to serve others (which my husband doesn't mind) although he's had to endure years of me practicing and some pretty hilarious stuff ups!!!

I don't have a lot of rules around food. These days it seems everyone is on one band wagon or another regarding what to eat and what not to eat. I am a big believer in moderation. I don't go on diets, because they don't work and they end up leaving you feeling miserable and deprived. I also don't cut out any food groups, I eat carbs and some sugar occasionally (my baked goods wouldn't be the same without it) I try to eat as naturally as possible, with minimal preservatives and additives and from locally sources products. I believe food has been given to us in all its forms and flavours to enjoy and not to feel guilty about. Lucky for me, I naturally gravitate towards healthy food but certainly there are times for a bit of chocolate and some starchy pasta and I listen to my body and its signals when I really feel like those things. I just make sure that I eat them and enjoy the experience because that's what good food is all about, the experience and the fulfilment and the nurturing of our bodies through a positive relationship with food.

So I will post my creations from time to time in this page. I hope to have some pics of my attempts at dairy really soon (oh and some of my own home grown produce) I cant wait