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The gist of the presentation - you can rebuild your relationships with the kitchen, family, and your own self by rediscovering what's key about food. Fresh, local, flexible and easy on your diet and wallet. 

Thanks, Travis, for the techsupport. :P

Hopefully everyone had a great time. Anyway, check out the kitjer believe presentation.pptx!

I recall Julia Child from my childhood, watching her on public television, making food. I didn't understand her, of course, and her voice was slightly scary, but she cooked, and it was interesting to occasionally watch.

By the time I was in college, I realized the impact of her show(s), and her status as a food and cultural icon. It wasn't until I read My Life in France that I understood why Julia was revered as she was. Not only for the techniques, regularization, translation, and simplification she provided to the American kitchen, but also for her unabashed love of France, her husband Paul, French kitchens and cuisine, but as well for her hunger to learn, her strength of purpose in an age where women were on a precipice of change, her tireless need to teach and share the things that she loved, without wanting (it seems) much in return.

By the time Julia & Julia came out, well, I was a committed devotee of Julia within my own kitchen, having already realized the place my own kitchen holds for me and the memories of family kept deep within it.

A friend gave me a copy of Mastering, and so, with a freezer full of goodness, I decided to finally give direct homage to Mrs Child (and Mr Child, for he was awesome), Mme Berthold and Mme Beck. I thought, I LOVE their French Onion Soup, but instead, with all of the Farmhouse Delivery vegetables I still had, I'm obligated to do the Beef Bourguignon.

And so we did.

Now, I only have one photo. Why? Because I was too caught up in making it, then eating it. Simply forgot.

I enjoyed standing in my kitchen, pulling out farm-fresh vegetables. Cleaning and chopping them to set my mise en place. My Wusthof knife glinted in the cutting. The mat held nice piles of nicely chopped onion and carrots. My new doufou Le Creuset was French country blue, and I sweated my vegetables in it. The beef tips were so tender right after the first saute to sear. Knew then that it was going to be awesome. 

After the vegetables sweated and my fond was pulled up from the quickly cooked beef, it all went back into the Calphalon dutch oven, with beef stock and red Aussie wine, and then set into the oven, low and slow.

It only took an hour and a half (not her 2.5h recommended) before the beef tips would fall apart. The pot was strained, the gravy further reduced, and then the meat/vegetables put back with the reduction.

Instead of rice, I made potatoes, roiled in salt water and drained. They were slightly crushed on the plate, while hot, and dollops of butter, coarse salt and pepper were put on. Then a sprinkle of grated parmesan-reggiano cheese and minced fresh parsley for a bright sprinkle of green on the plate.

Then, the beef bourguignon was then ladled on the hot potatoes and served immediately - with a large glass of a hefty cabernet sauvignon.

That was simply one of the best meals at our house.

Thanks, Julia.

Meats are still packaged for small consumption, if just for a few days' more. A package of beef, instead of 1lb, is 10lbs. Easy to get rid of for any party or catering event, or even just two to three family meals. There's little fear there that the food will get used, or that the food will go bad while being consumed. It's easily managed by breaking into two packages, putting into the house freezer, or using it up in a large meal or three.  

Committing to a carcass of an animal engenders more fear - an entire cow!? Where do you get it? What will you do with it? Where does it go? At the end of the day, the worry may be 'where do I put it before it goes bad and I waste a ton of money'? 

That anxiety is understandable, but it's key to remember -

1) In  year's time, if you are a beef-eater, how much beef do you eat? In six months? You may be surprised.

2) Beef costs in 2010. The Beef Retail Marketing organization's average wholesale cost of beef (per lb) for the last week of 2010 tells a costly picture (2010 vs 2009) -

3) Our household dietary needs demand regular protein - my own consumption should be 100g/day, however, I'd like to be at 120g/day. That's a lot of protein. Now granted, fish, milk, eggs absolutely contribute to this. But making it affordable, convenient, good quality protein at my fingertips is a solid win towards my health. Here's a note from Beef Issues Quarterly (BIQ) (isn't that awesome), Dec 2010, commenting on the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's recommendations about plant-based diets and nutrition that would become part of the 2011 government-issued nutrition guidelines (we're overweight, but undernourished). Think the DGAC is encouraging plant-based diets (instead of just lean protein in diets), and BIQ (heh) had something to offer in rebuttal -

While beef contributes only 5 percent of the total calories and 8 percent of the total fat to the American food supply, it provides 29 percent of vitamin B12, 20 percent of the zinc, 14 percent of the protein, 13 percent of the vitamin B6, 9 percent of the phosphorous, 8 percent of the niacin, 7 percent of the potassium, 7 percent of the iron and 5 percent of the riboflavin. According to a 2005 analysis of NHANES data, beef eaters are more likely to meet nutrient requirements for protein (11%), vitamin B12 (24%), iron (13%) and zinc (26%) than non-beef eaters. 

and

There is a need and an opportunity for the beef industry to take an active role in educating consumers, as well as food, nutrition and culinary thought-leaders, about lean beef's nutrient advantage in a diet that is also balanced with fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy. 

Understandable their concern. They promote beef. But their point is well-taken - and from my own dietary standpoint, that's the key reason for such a protein-heavy diet - while I love grains and fruit, some nutrition is chock-full in protein sources, and if there's a choice to be made on what to ingest, protein wins here as first option, every time.

But I digress -

The average price range for a carcass, during our research, was anywhere from $2.50 - $4/lb, cut and packaged. Now while these were soft numbers, it was clear to us that we were in the right zone for it to be cost effective, considering the amount of beef that we consume in a year and the retail price we were paying at the store registers and restaurants. Between ribeyes, ground beef, burger places (love you, Hut's), dining out at steakhouses, seafood joints, or scarfing meat at the local churrascaria (love you, Estancia), could we safely say that we ate more than the US average of 100 lbs a year, per person.

The most complex thing about the choice to find a healthy, tender animal from a reputable source are the logistics. We're fortunate to have friends in the industry (it is Texas, you know), so it was easy to discuss this option with them, and get their impressions. As it's something they live with daily, it was great validation that purchasing a carcass was a cost-effective and high-quality route. In fact, as things go with friends-of-friends, there is a desire to ensure the best quality available (to keep the wheels of reciprocity spinning happily).

Timing, costs, cuts, processing, packaging, age, live weight, yield - all of these were considerations. More on that later.

Why do I eat that?

Why do I cook that?

Why don't I cook this, instead?

Why are we buying x, instead of y?

And more so,

How does it make me feel?

The last question is loaded. Typically, in this age of self-reflection and pop cultural psychoanalysis, the last question often gets a response about parenting, comfort eating, stress eating. There's another question there though.

How does food make me feel?

This is the question I ask now. What food does my system appreciate? What does it reject? Why does rice make me feel horrible, while potatoes go down very well? Why does the body reject certain foods? And if it does, why do I continue to feed it? What's in it that causes distress, and how do I get rid of it? What things should I eat, what things settle well, what doesn't, and what foods provide me the most bang for my (energy, health, enjoyment) buck? 

How do I eat with quality that my body needs and enjoys, and control the industry, the emotion, or other baggage that surrounds this simple act?

Answer: control the acquisition. Go further upstream in the process, and own that point in time. 

This year, I decided to have my beef picked, slaughtered, and delivered to me in a way that I could consume it, that is in line with my newfound dietary needs, that works with the pace of our life, at a price that aligns with our budget. I joined a CSA, and will have my vegetables delivered bi-weekly from local farms, in the amounts and cost that will be sustainable. And a friend will supply fresh eggs, from new chickens.

It's a start.