Preserving health and happiness

First of all, thank you(!) to all you lovely people for the comments and the encouraging emails. It has certainly given me more incentive to get back here and write another post. In fact, the day after writing the last post I spent most of my walk to work thinking about what I would write next. I actually had a great idea, but I had to shuffle it aside this evening....once again, food takes priority. Don't worry though, I will get that other post to you eventually.

What dinner item could have possibly upset my blog plans? It was pizza. I'm sure some of you are groaning, as pizza is generally not overly spectacular, and I think some of you may not be fans of this food item at all. However, I'm going to argue that there are several reasons this pizza was special and worthy of a blog post. First, it was beautiful, look at that lovely spinach green color contrasting so effectively with the blobs of goat cheese and tomato sauce. And can you see the olives underneath? I feel healthy just looking at it. Secondly, it was a fairly unique pizza. It would have been an embarrassment to the likes of Chuck E. Cheese as it did not have layers of gooey goodness. Yes, I do love cheese (I have been known to eat a massive block of Havarti for supper), but it's nice to change things up once in a while. Third, the crust is homemade made from my favorite recipe. It always comes out crispy and just the perfect thickness, so that you don't feel as though you've eaten a loaf of bread by the time supper is over. The last, and most important, reason for the pizza to be distinct was the sauce.

The sauce was also homemade, which I have done on many occasions, but this sauce I made way back in September. No, it was not moldy sauce I found at the back of the fridge, but some I had canned and preserved. When I think of canning, for some reason I picture a turn of the 20th century kitchen with a wood burning stove/oven and a well stocked larder. The process could be considered to be antiquated, especially in a world where all kinds of out of season veggies, fruits and sauces are available year round from any given supermarket. However, I've been hearing from more and more people about their chutney's, pickles or whole tomatoes that they have canned this past fall. You may or may not be surprised to know that several of these people were not of an older generation who were raised on this method of food preservation. It may simply be a reflection of my friend group, but I think it does show a shift in people's priorities towards food with a known origin and composition.

So you see, this pizza wasn't just a yummy meal, but it also represents the way I strive to eat. Fresh, local and homemade. In fact, we gave thanks to our favorite market tomato-man over dinner.