Cooking Llama

7.17.08

I think about food a lot.

Sometimes I even dream about food. (Last night, for example, I was trying to find the magical sprinkle doughnut that would save me from the medieval literature exam from hell.) It hasn’t always been like this. I’m not sure when it was that I developed a pervasive food consciousness, but for better or worse, it’s what I’ve got. As of now, food and my slight preoccupation with it are definite positive forces in my life, bringing me joy and sunshine and sparkles and, above all else, yumminess on a daily basis. It’s taken some time for me to get to this point, though.

During my freshman year of college, I had a run-in with a comparatively mild, but nonetheless preeeetty unpleasant, eating disorder that just wouldn’t quit. The thought of food made me anxious. The more anxious I was, the less food I ate. The less food I ate, the more I thought about food. The more I thought about food, the more anxious I became.

Not a whole lot of fun. It was a difficult cycle to claw my way out of, but eventually I got help. And I got a lot better.

As I began to eat well again and feel good about eating well, I realized something crucial.

I love food. And that’s cool.

In part, this blog is about embracing that acceptance and all the fascinating avenues it’s opened up for me. I’ve since discovered that I love to bake, and I’m not half bad at it. Whenever I have a tough exam or paper coming up, I threaten to drop out of school and open my own literature-themed bakery. As something of a budding (if easily distracted) activist, I’m also nursing a keen interest in the connections between food and the environment.

But beyond the personal ideological reasons, this blog also serves a practical purpose: to keep me organized and well-fed. I’m going into my junior year of college, and I’ll be living in an on-campus apartment with a kitchen. For the first time in my life if I want to eat a good meal, I’ve gotta be the one making it. Not the cooks in the dining hall. Not my mom. Just me.

I figured it was about time I start collecting recipes. I’m still hoping that if I keep at it the whole “actually learning to cook” part will inevitably follow.

Herein there will be an amalgamation of recipes for everything from super healthy Mediterranean veggie wraps and tropical island fruit smoothies to five-cheese pasta bakes and peanut butter seven layer triple chocolate cheesecake brownies with fudge ice cream, taken from websites, cookbooks, newspaper clippings, the backs of bags and boxes, my mom’s exploding drawer of food idea goodness, my own imagination, and whatever other resources I can find to plunder.

The one thing they all have in common? I’ve made them, and they’re delicious.

Make that two things–they’re also vegetarian.

All that said, feel free to take a look around and drop a comment or two. I’m always up for meeting new recipes. And new people. Right. ;]

Cheers!

Dani

absotively[at]gmail[dot]com