Emotional Eating.

I am an emotional eater. I use food as a way to bring full circle an emotion I may be feeling or to take me to a place I want to be. Food, to me, is a gateway for expression and an experience.

If you come to my house for dinner and find that I have made something creamed (peas, turnips, and even asparagus) then you can be assured that I am home sick for my grandmother - she makes the best creamed peas.

If creativity strikes me then you will find some sort of off the wall creation or a new twist on an old favorite (like adding bananas to my chocolate chip cookies - YUM!).

With that said, this week I have been yearning for a bit of stillness. Fiona and I spent last week in North Carolina cooking traditional Midwestern holiday cuisine for my Uncle, my beau, and their/ our collective friends. Yes, even Fiona helped. She is an expert noodle maker (picture at the top of this post).

I returned home Sunday only to step full force into a hectic week.

I must admit that I have been taken aback by the overwhelming feedback as a result of LivingSocial. I have been showered with kind words of encourage and cute little organic love notes which, without fail, make me smile big and occasionally do the happy dance- not to be confused with the potty dance. Then, of course, as with anything in life, there have also been the occasional rants and haters...but such is life. At any rate, all said and done I have had more emails/ voicemails/ phone calls than the total population of my hometown which means I have been chasing my tail trying to catch it since the word go. :-)

So my stillness and zen this week has come through food. One night, Fiona and I ate sliced tomatoes with salt, corn cut off the cob , fresh berries, and this amazingly wonderful cheese made by Organic Valley. No, I didn't put much effort into the creation of the meal, but the result was effortless communion between mother and daughter. I could have spent more time laboring away to enhance flavors, but instead I let them stand on their own and spent that extra time chatting away with Fiona - she loves stories, so I spent that particular evening telling her about the people that grew her tomatoes.

So, what is cooking in the Clark kitchen? Simplicity. Time to stop and smell the fruit. :-)

Cheers and Happy Eats!

Lucinda