On Jun 19, 7:12 pm, P. Blackthorn > wrote:
>
> I've recently moved to central California from interesting times in
> the upper midwest. I grew up here in the west, made a life to the
> east, and am now going to make another nearer my original home. I'm
> going from the world of business to the world of education, with all
> the lifestyle changes that implies. I'm not going willingly, but it
> is my choice to approach this as a way to grow.
>
Sounds like you're coming at things with a level head and a desire for
growth. I'd say that's a very good start.

> Food?

> Is it possible to reconnect to one's core through cooking, more
> specifically heritage cooking (old family recipes)? Does anyone have
> any experience with this?

In a way, yes. But I haven't experienced what you seem to ask about
alone, only in a family context. We had a death in our family early
this spring, and as the days of hope and despair in the hospital
stretched into weeks we found ourselves eating almost every meal at
restaurants. When death finally came, our grief and our relief from
the worries came together in waves. Our first meal together as a
family unit afterwards was expensive and very good, but still it was
in a restaurant. The next night, our family gathered at our home for
the first time in two weeks, and I cooked for us. It was truly
therapeutic. After the meal (whatever it was) we sat together at the
table and talked and visited and finished a bottle of wine. We sat
there for about two hours, I think. Meals together mean a lot.

I use what I know from my family's cooking habits (not to say
traditions) in what I do in the kitchen, but it's the sharing at the
table that counts for me. Then again, cooking and eating are so
deeply embedded in out psyches -- primordial, even. We can't help but
invest them with a sense of connectedness to others.
>
>
> Corn fritters: a can of creamed corn, two parts corn meal to one part
> flour, one egg, baking powder. Combine, then cook like dollar
> pancakes. (That's what my mom wrote in her cooking notebook from the
> early days of her marriage-- I had watched her make these enough as a
> kid that I remember how to make sense of the "recipe".)
>
That's a good connection! And you can make it your own as you get
more connected with it -- adjusting proportions, trying creaming your
own corn.

Welcome, and good luck.

modom