I talk a lot about my grandmother's recipes and how even if you follow what she wrote down, yours won't be as good because she kept the real recipes in her head. Earlier this week I decided to make a quiche and brought out my old standby recipe. It isn't my grandmother's. My favorite quiche recipe was shared with me by my college bestie. She also shared my favorite cookie recipe with me. Every time I make the quiche or the cookies, I am transported back to one of the most fun times of my life.
I LOVE that my dear friend wrote the recipes down on cards in her handwriting. Who knew I'd be using them throughout the years to this very day? That I'd be raising four daughters on that spinach quiche and those delicious oatmeal chip cookies? That any of us would be responsible enough to raise children? LOL Yes, I have some pictures of us but I really don't think y'all want to see exactly how crazy we were back then.
Anyway, the cookies were her father's mother's recipe and that tells me why the cookies are so delicious! I've never made a grandmother recipe that I didn't love. Even my grandmother's recipes turn out pretty good even without knowing the secrets.
Here's the quiche. One of the reasons I love the recipe is that it is versatile. I don't love swiss cheese so I use my cheese of the moment and this time I changed the crust. I wanted to try a sweet potato crust because I had sweet potatoes and not a frozen crust and I don't make homemade crusts because when I do, they are awful. It worked!
"It's trendy, too!"
The same day I made the quiche I had the television on while Baby M was sleeping and Rachel Ray was on. I don't watch her show because she gets on my nerves by talking on top of people but there was a guy making something interesting so I watched for about 3 minutes. He poured a squash mixture in a bowl and mentioned eating color, and it was a beautiful shade of yellow, and then added quinoa when Rachel says, "It's trendy, too!" Ok, what's trendy? The quinoa? Wasn't that trendy a few years ago? Eating color? Hasn't that always been the idea? Good grief.
The word, trendy is also getting on my last nerve.
The word, trendy is also getting on my last nerve. I suppose that's a millennial thing but let me tell you something when the big technology breakdown comes millennials won't be able to deal because they seem to want to throw everything of the past away so they'll have no idea how to live without the instant gratification technology allows them. They also won't be able to access the latest fads (because isn't that really what trendy things are?) with a mere touch.
The trend-focused crowd does not take time to relate and share.
I'm not opposed to new thoughts/ways/ideas/trends but I see no good reason for tossing out all the old thoughts/ways/ideas/trends. I feel that's cutting off your nose to spite your face. The trend-focused crowd has no idea how to take the time to relate and share ideas. They get an idea and toss it right out if it doesn't work, throw it out there if it does, and move right along to the next idea. There is no perfection of an idea. There is no sharing. There is only moving through the days at the speed of light throwing ideas all over the place without once taking their eyes off their digital devices. Here's a thought: how long before they forget what human beings look like? Oh wait, they see humans on those digital devices. What was I thinking?
Trendy people seem to be drawn to fancy words instead of the food itself.
Back to the food... It's not that I never check out the new, 'trendy' recipes. But I will say this, healthy, organic eating is not new. It was the same kind of food my grandmother made because we weren't fighting against big pesticide companies and GMO corporations. We got our food from family farmers who farmed the way they were raised and this did not include pesticides or GMOs. Food used to come from the ground without the unhealthy additives. Plus, people used to cook every meal from scratch. That's the way I learned and it's what I did when the lovelies were growing up. It's what I do now. We've always made our meals colorful, this is not a new trend. Putting the name 'artisanal' in front of a word such as, butcher, does not change what it is. Putting multiple foods in a bowl is supposedly a new trend but I've seen this for YEARS and please ask anyone of the Asian culture how long bowl meals have been in existence. What I'm thinking is putting a fancy word behind another or renaming a dish with something sounding more clever is what the trenders are drawn towards. Brunch? Not new, y'all. None of this stuff is new it's just trendy. It's what they like right now. Trend = Fad. Anyway...
Cooking like Grandmother is not a trendy thing to do.
To go with the quiche I made grilled cheese but, instead of bread, I made bread out of zucchini (is that trendy enough to be considered trendy?). The 'bread' (trendy bread?) was like zucchini fritters and very good. I didn't follow the recipe to the letter because that's not what Grandmother did and I learned from her (not a trendy thing to do). I was going to make the two recipes at different times but couldn't decide which to make when and that's how we ended up with both for one meal.
I'm not trendy and I'm perfectly fine with that.
Trendy or not, I eat what I want to eat. I prepare food the way I want to prepare it. I don't need a trendy word to make something more appealing. I'll enjoy preparing my home-grown food over a fire and not losing my mind over not being able to use my digital devices should the world ever come to that in my lifetime. I might also enjoy watching millennials run around not having a clue what to do.
Until then, life goes on in a whirlwind of technological development and e-waste destruction.
Oh, and I guess we can't use FB to abbreviate Facebook. Seems it stands for, Follow Back.
Are y'all trendy?
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