Sunday, October 22, 2006

Use it or Lose it

With umpteen years of evolution behind us, we still instinctively follow old ways of finding and dealing with food. We scavenge - now usually in the supermarkets who, knowing this, move foods around so that we have to hunt even harder to find them. We hoard, particularly coming up to the winter months. Men, who won't even acknowledge what a kitchen is for, suddenly become cook of the tribe the minute a barbeque is lit. The thing to remember is that along the evolution trail, how to cook food was learned much later and more by accident, so these survivial techniques need to be handed down generation to generation. And still need to be despite what the supermarkets wish us to believe.

I can relate to scavenging, now bringing it under control by ordering on-line several days before delivery, filling my basket willy-nilly, and then, after calming down, deleting what I don't really need (which is most of it). Do you - like me - still feel the urge to buy when you know you could keep going for several days more?
Hoarding, now this I do really well. It satisfies my sense of security, which is one of the main reason why creatures do this- if you don't hoard you can't live through the winter - but in this 21st century no need for that, so then I take pleasure working through most of what I have bought before I start all over again. See an earlier posting where I got this down to a fine art.
A reminder: it is always important to use foods before or around the time of their use-by date to avoid having wasted money. But not necessary to throw out (as so many people do) when they arrive at their 'best-before' date. These always keep a good while longer.
Tip: Even if you haven't been taught to cook, you can still teach your children - just get a good cook book and learn together.