Cooking with Justice

Food is something that is and has always been important to me. As a child, I would stand around in the kitchen, watching my Mom fry, chop, broil, and bake. The smells of homemade bread often filled our small apartment, and, though I grew up dead damn broke and on welfare, my Mom made low cost sumptuous fare...and she was so adept at it that she fooled us into thinking common dishes, like buttered egg noodles, were expensive delicacies to only be eaten on occassion.

From my Mother's kitchen to my Grandmother's kitchen, from watching my Step-Father cook to learning to avoid my Birth Father's cooking at all costs, I learned how to experiment, recreate, and create anew old time recipes and create new recipes of my own.

Please note, I am not in anyway a trained chef. As a matter of fact, I am a writer. My recipes usually come with stories. I cook at home for my partner, and it is the greatest honor I can think of bestowing on a loved one to cook for them. Knowing that I have created a palate pleasing recipe that sustains the amazing people in my life, gives me a deep glowing satisfaction that is spiritual in nature.

This is also an issue of justice. Massive food manufacturers and the fast food industry target poor and low income families, convincing them that stopping by for a burger from the dollar menu is better, quicker, faster, and more satisfying than spending that dollar on low-cost, good for you foods, that you can make at home and will sustain you for more than one meal. Not to mention the fast food and manufactured food companies do not include that by feeding yourself and your family off of the dollar menu, you are also feeding them a recipe for hypertension, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and a whole host of other avoidable health issues.

Because I believe we need food that sustains us, celebrates our cultures, and are good for the body and soul, I have started a new blog called The Fairy Chef.

My recipes, as much as possible, use fresh products that you can get cheaply and that will feed you for more than one meal.

While I now live a comfortable life, I am in no way a wealthy person. And so it is important that I am able to make good food, with fresh ingredients, cheaply. I understand how difficult that can be in a fast food world in a fast pace life when individuals, let alone families, juggle a million responsibilities on ever shrinking budgets. The recipes you will find at the Fairy Chef should run you no more than $5 to $20 in ingredients, and, since I grew up in a large family, all of the recipes you will find at the Fairy Chef will make more than enough to feed two to four people (depending on your appetites).

Starting today, I will post one new recipe a week. Some will be oldies but goodies and others will be new experiments I've whipped up and force fed to my beloved partner David. He didn't know he was signing up for guinea pig duty when he signed up for the life time gig with me. The various recipes I have posted here at My Feet Only Walk Forward, have already been posted at The Fairy Chef.

So, grab your oven mitts and strap on your favorite cooking gear...cuz it's time to cook it up with the Fairy Chef.