Do you want to have sex in moderation? "Oh, honey, hold off, this is getting off-the-charts enjoyable, and I don't swing that way."
What about when you are in the middle of a blueberry field and you can eat as many blueberries as you want? Why moderate? Why not stuff as many of the bursting warm berries into your mouth as you can? How many times do you find yourself in front of a blueberry bush? I say go for it! Eat until you bust!
I could go on and on, but I won't. I will be moderate ... but only because my other ideas might portray my lifestyle in such a light that ... well, anyway. I mentioned sex and blueberries, that's enough for the imagination right now.
My reason for the whole moderation thing is that I am in the kitchen making dinner. I have a bunch of ingredients from the garden and I am trying to fit them all into a meal, while at the same time creating crazy wonderful flavors and staying healthy. I decided to make a tomato sauce out of all the tomatoes I have, but I didn't want to cook it. So as I peeled and seeded a ton of tomatoes, I realized that I was creating a raw sauce. Okay. But then I caramelized the fresh-from-the-garden onion because that flavor is to die for. And then toasted some pine nuts, which made me think, is there some way to find a balance between cooked and raw foods that makes sense?
My biggest problem with raw food is that it is so time-consuming to prepare and it only lasts for that meal. It's not like spending a chunk of time putting together a lasagna that you can then freeze. Of course the purpose is to eat only fresh, raw food, but it's not realistic in my mind, unless you have decided to devote your entire life to that lifestyle.
And I am not. In the least bit interested in that. And as I cut up my tomatoes, I realized that unless it has the appearance of being cooked, no one else in the family will eat it. And let me tell you, the days of spending hours in the kitchen creating meals that no one will eat are over and done with. NO MODERATION THERE!
I guess the key would be to figure out which foods provide the most benefit from being raw. In truth, the tomatoes should be the ones cooked here, but I wanted the flavor from the tomatoes to show through -- and once cooked down to a sauce, it's sort of just sauce! But am I creating a salsa? I don't know.
I like to be creative (with absolutely no moderation whatsoever) in the kitchen, and I find that like writing, the ingredients sort of just fit and I know where to put them. But I am a little stalled here. I also have a bunch of beautiful swiss chard that I am thinking I'd like to incorporate, but should that be cooked or raw?
Which is why I am here. I am waiting for the genius to hit me and then I can go finish dinner! Maybe cook down some tomatoes and then add the others to it, but leave them cold. I am going to cook up some pasta and grill some chicken, and that will be what I pour the sauce over. Cheese? No.
As I laboriously worked on peeling and seeding the tomatoes (only crazy people do this) the idea of raw blended with cooked came to me. I know it hasn't been done because the raw purists would argue that once you put the dead food into your body, it negates the purpose of the raw food. But I don't know if I agree with that.
So I went out to the garden to get some basil and somehow more tomatoes turned red! Good heavens. And I decided to cook some tomatoes and did you know that the skins pop right off? And the seeds seem to miraculously disappear?
If that's not an argument for cooking those red buggers, I don't know what is! True, when eating tomatoes raw it is nice not to deal with the skin and seeds (in a sauce) but since I am so on the fence, I will easily take the easy way out on this one!
So while the sauce cooks down, I still have the bowl full of chunky tomatoes, and I guess the plan is to throw those in, along with the swiss chard, at the end, just to warm them up a little.
I don't know, I am just winging it. And I don't do that in moderation either! I do it full out, and if the entire thing is inedible, then we'll start again. (Well, in this case we would go out to eat!) But I keep tasting it, and it is DELICIOUS. The basil has the most magnificent aroma, while I was chopping it I nearly wept it was so amazing.
I love to cook, and the problem with raw cooking for me is that I am not comfortable enough about it to do grand experiments like this. At least at the end of this we will have dinner. At the end of failed raw experiments I can only cringe at the money I've wasted.
So why the big war here with the raw vs. not raw? I didn't even realize I was battling it. But I guess I always am. It is, without a doubt, an amazing thing to do for your body (to eat totally raw.) My problems are that I have too much energy and I get sick of preparing the food. Which should balance itself out -- but it doesn't. I think, now that I am in the kitchen stirring and smelling the aromas that are released during the cooking process, that I am realizing that I love to COOK. Not just un-cook.
Off to stir the pot!
UPDATE: It was DELICIOUS! I am writing the recipe down because it was a true keeper. I think the layering of different ingredients at different cooking times made a huge difference. The toasted pine nuts -- exquisite! Caramelized onions ... to die for! I think I will call it Garden Bounty Reduction!
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