I've always been curious about food. How does it nourish us? Why do we like certain foods? Why does cooking a food one way make it wonderful but another way make it awful? How do we know what tastes good together? How did our long ago ancestors know it was ok to eat this and not that? Who got the idea that drinking milk from cows or goats was ok for people? What about grains? Whose idea was THAT?
I've been studying this awhile now. Bottom line, it's all been a giant science experiment driven by wanting to keep from starving to death. I can just imagine some long ago ancestor: "I'm so hungry I'll eat this handful of berries, if I don't die, then I'll eat more later!" As time went on, those ancestors learned to grow what was ok. A big challenge was what to do with food that would spoil when the harvest came in, and what do eat when there WAS no harvest....the timing just doesn't always match up. Interesting factoid: first cheeses were discovered by accident around 8000 BC, when Middle Eastern nomads didn't want to waste the abundance of goat milk they had. Those folks didn't waste a thing, because life was so hard. The stomachs of slaughtered animals were used as containers for liquids after they were scraped and cleaned. The stomachs came from animals that were ruminants (animals that eat grass). Ruminants secrete an enzyme called rennin, which helps the animals digest the grasses they eat. These nomads stored that supply of goat milk in the stomachs, which had some rennin remaining in them. As they traveled, the stomachs jostled around, the rennin curdled the milk, and solidified it. When our nomadic friends got their destination, they discoverd the milk wasn't milk anymore. They were hungry, however, and didn't have the luxury of starting over with new milk. So they tried this solid substance, discovered it tasted pretty good, they didn't die from eating it, and voila, a whole new way to save milk was born!
Well, I've got an abundance of zuchinni right now. I like zucchini just fine, but I am running out of ways to use it and friends to give it to. Plus, my husband isn't all that in love with it, and it's just the 2 of us at home now. So, I'm trying to get creative with sneaking it into just about everything. Here's what we had for dinner Monday night:
I've been studying this awhile now. Bottom line, it's all been a giant science experiment driven by wanting to keep from starving to death. I can just imagine some long ago ancestor: "I'm so hungry I'll eat this handful of berries, if I don't die, then I'll eat more later!" As time went on, those ancestors learned to grow what was ok. A big challenge was what to do with food that would spoil when the harvest came in, and what do eat when there WAS no harvest....the timing just doesn't always match up. Interesting factoid: first cheeses were discovered by accident around 8000 BC, when Middle Eastern nomads didn't want to waste the abundance of goat milk they had. Those folks didn't waste a thing, because life was so hard. The stomachs of slaughtered animals were used as containers for liquids after they were scraped and cleaned. The stomachs came from animals that were ruminants (animals that eat grass). Ruminants secrete an enzyme called rennin, which helps the animals digest the grasses they eat. These nomads stored that supply of goat milk in the stomachs, which had some rennin remaining in them. As they traveled, the stomachs jostled around, the rennin curdled the milk, and solidified it. When our nomadic friends got their destination, they discoverd the milk wasn't milk anymore. They were hungry, however, and didn't have the luxury of starting over with new milk. So they tried this solid substance, discovered it tasted pretty good, they didn't die from eating it, and voila, a whole new way to save milk was born!
Well, I've got an abundance of zuchinni right now. I like zucchini just fine, but I am running out of ways to use it and friends to give it to. Plus, my husband isn't all that in love with it, and it's just the 2 of us at home now. So, I'm trying to get creative with sneaking it into just about everything. Here's what we had for dinner Monday night:
The Ingredients....
Hover over the pictures below to see captions:
- chicken (1 breast, 1 thigh)
- 1/2 and onion
- peppers
- mushrooms (had a bunch from Costco)
- olive oil
- garlic
- fresh basil and oregano (I have pots of them)
- whole wheat pasta (healthier, ya know?)
- and of course, zucchini
Hover over the pictures below to see captions:
To paraphrase a popular commercial, "Stay hungry, my friends....."