Thursday, April 30, 2009

Determined



Ok - so now the day is done and the laundry sits in big mounds in my basement. There's dirty dishes everywhere (even on the back porch - because I couldn't fit them on my counters). The day's emails are unanswered - and I know there was more book promoting that I could have been doing. But - today I made LASAGNA.

It's in capitals because this is different from your everyday lasagna. You betcha. This is certainly different from the packaged "Amy's" single serving lasagna I used to eat in the teacher's lounge when I was a school counselor and needed something to get me thru the day.

No, this was make your own ricotta, make your own pasta, stick it to the man kind of cooking. This was, I am more than a consumer, Whole Foods has nothing on me, I may move out to a farm kind of lasagna. Yes and "I don't mean maybe" - as my mother used to say when she was being really firm.


Last night I edited Fredrica Matthewes-Green's AFR podcast for this week. It was written when her granddaughter was a newborn and was published in Again magazine during manic Christmas shopping season. She spoke of the "Hypnotic Mall." You know the kind - with all of the people and lights and action that you turn to a zombie and make you buy lots of stuff you don't need. She then talked about how years ago mothers were teachers and chefs and artists and now they buy stuff. I'm paraphrasing, of course. You should listen to it, because it's inspiring.

Anyway, I woke up today and decided that this day, I would not be a just a consumer . No way. I've already found this amazing man that sells raw milk (for animal consumption only, ofcourse, since it's illegal to sell raw milk in Indiana). I was going to make lasagna with real fresh ricotta and homemade noodles and local beef - yes, and dangit, it took me all day - so I don't really understand how those Italian women did it without their pasta rollers and blogs to brag on - but...

I did make it. And sure, part of the reason I'm blogging is to stretch the oohs and ahhs, but I'm also blogging about it because our culture doesn't really support this kindof slowness. It's not acceptable to waste your whole day cooking. But why not? Because it's so much better to spend your day driving around or hurrying or doing weird marginally important errands? Isn't this day important enough?

Well, for my weird little household (remember, my 20 something brother lives with us) today was important enough. each individual in this house was important enough. And while I may not do this everyday (no one needs that much saturated fat in one sitting) today was quite special.

6 comments:

Kris Livovich said...

Fantastic. You said it just right, and I think more days should be devoted to making.

Beth said...

I am so proud of you. I mean, I was excited when I actually boiled the skins off my tomatoes and then diced them to make tomato sauce but you have taken this to a whole other level. Good for you! I am still hoping to read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Now you know, if you lived closer, this process would be a bit quicker- I could do the sauce and you could do the cheese, plus I have so much access to good, hormone free, anti-biotic free, grass feed meat, and then we could all dine together, sipping wine and watching the kids play : ) Love to you, B

paige maddex said...

Dearest Dot - I can think of nothing better than sharing the tasks and enjoying it all together over a glass of wine. Would you please make some banana bread for in the morning coffee?

We really miss you guys - it's almost painful. Can't wait to see you in June!

Kelleylynn said...

Love it...when is dinner? Paige, this is the perfect example to live our lives. Thank you for sharing.

::Sylvia:: said...

So happy to see you on and Molly both are 'tweeting' these days! :)

I'm off to check out Pr. Frederica's podcast now, thanks for the heads up!

Jenny said...

Lovely! I wish I could have had a bite...One thing about the economic crunch is that I am guessing that more people are learning the pleasure and satisfaction of eating at home. I would really love to be able to find a local dairy, no such luck just yet. Maybe I should just spring for a cow...