We're now a Foodie Blogroll member!

All right! Curmudgeon's Kitchen has been approved as a member of the Foodie Blogroll!

When I submitted this blog for inclusion I didn't think there was a chance it would be approved, but it has been. It's kind of strange because I have never really thought of myself as a Foodie. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, I guess I am:

A person who has an ardent or refined interest in food; a gourmet

Or, Dictionary.com:

a person keenly interested in food, esp. in eating or cooking

DD tells me I am a "food snob," whatever that is. Does a food snob insist on real organic, when available? Buy a red bell pepper and roast it rather than getting pre-roasted ones in a jar? Avoid high fructose corn syrup, MSG, free glutamic acids and as many chemicals, additives and colorings as possible? Use butter rather than margarine? Render lard for baking rather than using hydrogenated oils like shortening? Prefer actual Parmesan reggiano to that stuff in a green can?

If so, yes, I am a food snob. I would rather go to the work of making meals from scratch, with healthy and natural ingredients, than "enjoy" the convenience of boxed, frozen or pre-prepared food. Even when I worked full time, we still managed to eat healthy. It takes work and planning but can be done.

In the past we faced the challenge of feeding 5 kids and a lot of their friends on next to nothing, financially. So, we took the best way out, we grew a huge garden. We had most everything that could be grown up here that we needed, right there in canning jars. We shoveled cow manure, we weeded, we talked to the plants (and ourselves, too) We also froze what we could, the things that didn't can well, hoping and praying for no power failures.

Many, many years ago, I couldn't boil water. My mother wanted nobody in her kitchen and I never learned the first thing about cooking. I could wash dishes like a pro but cook? No. After I married the first time, it became painfully obvious that I had to learn. Learn I have.

My journey started in the mid-80s when I borrowed a textbook from an acquaintance who was in culinary school. I was bored with insipid food, bland roasts, just tired of trying to figure out how things worked, why they worked one way but not another. Tired of bottled "cooking wine" with a level of salt close to the salinity of the Dead Sea. Tired of mixes, boxed stuff and junk. Introductory and somewhat perfunctory, it did explain a bit about the chemistry of cooking. From there, we have gone on... Julia Child, Harold McGee, Lydia Bastianich, Rick Bayless... to cold smoking, braising, roasting, sauteeing, sweating...

So, here we are, an official member of the Foodie Blogroll and I am very proud and happy to be there. And here.