I'm an Italian. This means that I grew up knowing that the Kitchen is the most important part of the house. Its the room where all the magic happens and without it we'd all be a bunch of sad, starving, worthless humans. For me cooking and baking have always been a big part of my life and the thing to look forward to during any big event. Seriously, if we want to have a nice day it always ends with food, food and more food. That's just always how its been. But I notice that quite a lot of people don't understand my family's obsession with food. I mean, for pity sake, even our songs have food in them!! They don't understand our love of cooking or why we are so scandalized when they say gnocchi and ravioli are basically the same thing. They don't understand that the recipe is more a guideline than an actual rule-of-thumb. My family cooks by taste, quite a lot. We like to experiment, make new foods and desserts and taste luscious sauces while listening to Josh Groban. We throw a little spice here, add a touch of salt there, put a pinch of garlic here, taste, stir..... mmmm maybe some thyme?
And when we serve said meal and a friend asks 'How did you make it?' we're like......
WITH TALENT!!!!
Basically, my family loves food. You give us food and we're happy. If you walk through our door with brownies or scones or breads, we'll accept you instantly. And if you come empty handed, we'll soon fix it. Company walks in and we're like "TAKE OUR FOOD!!"
People who don't understand this infatuation probably just don't get Italians. Its not so much the food. I mean, we do love food, of course. But its also sort of our heritage. Its our tradition, our life style. Its...... Ugg, what's the word I'm looking for? Help me out guys!! I begins with C, I think.
AHA! Culture!! That's what it is! the food is our culture. Its sort of who we are. like Americans and baseball. Sort of. And, in my opinion, Italians have got it right. Food makes everything better. As for our music, what's wrong with having a little flavor to our songs? We just love food ok! We love food!!
Cooking and baking has just always been a big thing in my family. I grew up sitting on the counter watching some older sister or work with food and doing my part by dumping in the flour or tossing in the spice. I would watch them imagining what I would bake when I grew up. Maybe that's why it upsets me so much when most of what I make turns out wrong. I figure its because I'm too distracted. My mind is too full of magnificence, I need to clear a little area for the splendor of cooking. I want to be a good cook. I don't even have to be
great. Just good! Or even, pretty good! Its rather sad when you pull a treat out of the oven and its become.... not so treaty.
Yeah, that's always a bit depressing. That's when I like to think, 'Oh well, There's always a sin to do penance for.' Or, if I'm in a bad mood and that treat was suppose to cheer me up, 'Fine! I'll just have my peanut butter crackers and tea, watch Doctor Who and be happy! I will rise above this!'
I guess the reason I did this is because so many people I've met in the past months, weather online or off it, don't understand Italians and I felt like stating that we are normal, on the whole, and not crazy chefs who bake all day. That's just my family.
*Grin*
NaNo is going OK, better than I thought it would. It would be easier if I had a COMPUTER. That would be nice. Writing with paper sort of sucks. OKAY I SAID IT! SHOOT ME!! Computers are just easier. Plus most of my story is on my laptop. So.... that's a big thing. I will say NaNo has forced me to do a few things. I've taken a character out of my story and revised the beginning. I feel kind of bad about that, but Peter couldn't stay. He just couldn't. He was getting in the way, and as much as I loved him he needed to go. I'll put him in his own book, I'm sure he'd like that. I'm hoping by next week I can start sharing snippets and scenes from my book. This is my goal. It will make me want to finish my book, knowing all you know I'm writing again. It gives one
kick. And knowing what I'm trying to accomplish, a whole book in thirty days, it causes me to have these bizzare mood swings. First I'm like...
And Then I'm like...
And people wonder why writers go crazy.
We live in a world of MAKE BELIEVE guys. We're all mad here. *Chuckles Darkly* Mrhrrrhrrrhrrrhrrrrrrrr!!!!
I guess I'm liking NaNo. At least I get chocolates every week. Every Friday my writing group meets. And we get chocolate.
I LOVE chocolate.
I would go on for longer, but I am still waiting for my lovely laptop to be returned to me and I'm using a borrowed computer to type this post. Also, I'm stuck using Internet Explorer for the time being. Have you ever tried blogging on Internet Explorer? Its a BENCH you guys. A TOOL BENCH! It is so incredibly picky and obnoxious. If it was just the speed, I wouldn't mind, its fairly quick once its loaded. But the pop-ups? The Pop-ups are a freakin pain! You click an image. POPUP! You click a link. POPup! you open a new tab. POPUP! You try to copy something URL. POPUP!!!!! You press play on a youtube video. POPUUUUP!!!!!! Its so infuriating! By the end of the day you're just like.
I will use Internet Explorer for many things, but when I get my computer back I'm using Chrome for blogging. Just for the blogging. That's safe. *A PROFESSIONAL SAID SO* I. Can. Not. Wait.
Boom
boom
BOOM
