I have been watching a wonderful Documentary on Netflix called COOKED, Michael Pollan explores food through the four elements on earth (fire, water, air & earth). It's a wonderful series, investigating the evolution of what food means to us, highlighting our primal human desire to cook and the desire to have a meaningful connection to what we nourish ourselves with.

Explored through the lenses of the four natural elements - fire, water, air and earth - COOKED is an enlightening and compelling look at the evolution of what food means to us through the history of food preparation and its universal ability to connect us.

This show has totally resonated with me on so many levels. Creatively, it has been beautifully executed and as a documentary lover I think it's a really informative and engaging one. It also made me more aware of the culture, particularly in the USA of 'TV Dinners' - the concept of 'allowing others to cook for us' especially, as a now, a stay at home mother of 2 and previously a working mother of 1 child... I get it...

WHO HAS TIME THESE DAYS TO COOK???!!!

On the topic of time... Albert Einstein wrote in 1952 ( in his book Relativity) that the past, present, and future all exist simultaneously, he believed that there is no true division between past and future there is rather a single existence:

Since there exists in this four dimensional structure [space-time] no longer any sections which represent "now" objectively, the concepts of happening and becoming are indeed not completely suspended, but yet complicated. It appears therefore more natural to think of physical reality as a four dimensional existence, instead of, as hitherto, the evolution of a three dimensional existence.

Pondering the above, immediately leads me to ask myself the following important questions... "Does this mean that I am doing everything at the same time?" I often feel like that with two kids any how, either that or I am octopus, or psychotic, for thinking I am actually an octopus... So... "If time doesn't exist, why don't I have time to pee some days???!!!" Perhaps I have too much time on my hands to even question all this stuff. However, at the end of this train of thought, and agreeing a lot with the sentiments of what Einstein writes, I have made a commitment to myself to 'make time' to prepare food at home.

The benefits of preparing our food at home are abundant. A lot of them are addressed in this documentary I have mentioned above and a lot just FEEL GOOD and intuitive as someone who has an awareness of themselves and their family and wants to be conscious to what they are putting into it.

I do see the value in making food from scratch, I also find it a necessity the more and more I read ingredients on packets and have the following sentences on loop in my mind as I go round the supermarket, which can make shopping a real headache sometimes:

"if you don't know that the ingredient means, or can't say it out loud DON'T buy it... If it has more than 4 basic ingredients added to it, DON'T buy it... if it has sugar in it ( in it's many forms...) DON'T buy it!"

This is one of the reasons I have started this blog, to log all the things I make, a lot of them are bastardised dishes from internet trawling and cookery books, taking the bits that work for me and dumping the time consuming, measuring fussiness that frankly puts me off cooking. It's to log the experiments that work and not the ones that don't! it's to remind myself of all the reasons why I know it's so important to keep making time to cook for my kids, husband and most of all myself. It's meditation, it's consciousness and it's nutrition to the body and soul. We can heal through food and I want to be part of that revolution that reminds people of the importance of cooking, eating, sharing and celebrating food.

Believe me, it takes commitment, but it's amazing to see my elder son grasp the concept of preparing food. He has his toy kitchen and when i cook he cooks too. It's magical to exhibit such an ingrained and integral cultural identity that makes us human in someone so little, knowing that I am teaching him values that he can carry with him throughout his entire life...