Food glorious food

It's everywhere, on tv, in my newspaper, in my bedroom, in the hallway, on the coffee table, in the kitchen and even in my bathroom. What am I talking about? Food writing. I am obsessed with food writing. I subscribe to the following magazines:

• Gourmet
• Sauveur
• Food & Wine
• Bon Apetite
• Cooks Illustrated

Additionally I receive every culinary catalogue known to man kind:

• Sur La Table
• Crate & Barrel
• Williams & Sonoma
• Napa Style
• Chefs Catalogue
• Spices
• Country Kitchen
• Omaha Steaks
• Stonewall Kitchen

And I can't even begin to discuss my obsession with cook books. I haven't counted them last but I would say there are about 125 cookbooks on my packed book shelf and now spilling over onto the dining room side table and my bedroom.

My roommate never questions it but I know she must be sick of the stacks on the coffee table, or the packages that arrive and wondering why I need yet another cookbook. Well let me explain:

As long as I can remember I have loved everything about food. I enjoy going into the grocery store, cooking shops, new restaurants, old restaurants, street food vendors etc. I have dreamed about what I can do with this passion of mine. I even went to culinary school and spent $40,000 that I am desperately trying to pay back. But what have I done with it nothing? My cookbooks and magazines provide me with that fulfillment. They bring me to another world. When my day is bad or I want to fantasize I escape into my private world of food. My fantasy world. I am that person in the Bon Appetite traveling and writing about the joys of White Truffles from Italy. I am the person making an elegant dinner for friends. I am that person testing out the newest All-Clad pan. I can have the most shitty day and my fantasy world takes me to another place.

For example, this week I was told I can't finish the final stages of my teeth implants due to the lack of $2,500 (You may be thinking if you didn't spend so much on your books, magazines and food you could have the money but don't because that is an ugly thought!) It has put me in a big funk. Not only has it become the bain of my existence but I was looking forward to having a party and making baby back ribs and corn on the cobs with Macintosh apples for dessert. I am tired of cutting everything up like they will do in about 30 years when I am in the hallway of some bad nursing home with a drool bib on waiting to be fed. I digress....

Every night of this bad week I would go home and look forward to my food writing. On my transit home I would dive into Ruth Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/garlic_and_sapphires/ wishing to be her going from place to place in disguise. Upon arrival to my home I would hope there was a new culinary magazine, culinary catalogue or even a Safeway, Tower, Molley Stones or Cala flyer (I love seeing what is on sale and deciding if I have a new creation in my future, in fact I get angry when they get tossed out prior to me reading them). If nothing new arrives I always have my old magazines to review again and again, I know there is something I must have missed. This past week I decided to dust off an old Betty Crocker Cookbook, you know the one your mother had with the red and white checks. In it I found exactly what I was looking for, a simple recipe for Popovers. why popovers? I had very little in my refrigerator but I knew I had milk, eggs, butter and some Parmesan cheese. Immediately popovers came to mind. See how my mind works!

I took great delight in escaping into my kitchen banging out a simple popover recipe. Realizing I had a nice bottle of wine waiting I popped one open. Nothing goes better with popovers than a $90 bottle of Cinque Cepage
from Chateau St. Jean http://www.chateaustjean.com/stjean/home.jsp. Popovers aside drinking wine and sitting on the sofa flipping through my magazines while Rachel Ray makes yet another bad meal in 30 minutes (Heck she can make a full Thanksgiving meal in 60 minutes...she is becoming so annoying!)

I could go on and on. But you see what food literature does for me. I escape, I pretend, I dream. The next time you have a bad day, give it a try. A true foodie will understand.

If it calms the KITCHEN BITCH then it can work for anyone!