Tuesday, July 24, 2007

I am here!

Oh the joy of rediscovery!

Wild raspberries just beyond my kitchen window. Swathes of wild lilies winding pathways to my door. The wildflower seeds I scattered three years ago in bloom here and there and though sparse and bedraggled providing the first glimpse I have ever had of the fruits of my past labour. It has always been my dream to create a woodland garden here for the great love of my life but this will not be achieved without considerable handwringing, not least because I am here in America so rarely! Long distance love is one thing but long distance gardening quite another!

And in my kitchen? Omaha steaks gifted to me by my love. I adore American beef. It tastes vastly different (and dare I say superior?!) to New Zealand beef. In New Zealand our cattle graze outdoors all year round on lush green pasture. But the grain-fed cattle seem to me to produce a beef that is far more complex and satisfying in flavour. When I first arrive I love the wild days and nights of rediscovery - ferreting through my cupboards for all that I left behind all those long long months ago. Dark brown Canadian Lake wild rice. Quaker Oats. Organic brown rice pasta. Popcorn grown by the Amish communities of upstate New York. I am told by Americans who eat in my home here that my cooking is "restaurant quality". Anyone in New Zealand who knows me will know that I simply cook in the style common to all my New Zealand friends. In New Zealand my cooking is seen as everyday and rather average.

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