KEEP IT REAL! cook something

I need to set higher goals.In my last post I summarized my time in school food service over the last few years and ended with a goal of meeting the First Lady.I met her this past Saturday.Now what?I’ll tell you what!Home ec.Michelle wants to bring it back. Well, kinda sorta.As I was preparing salad greens with Mrs. Obama at DC Central Kitchen, we spoke about (among many things in the twenty minutes I had with her) the need to educate children. Children are coming to school and being raised in an era where the common utensil is a spork, where the average lunch period is 16 minutes long, and the food is much less satisfying. We need to fix that. We need to bring back the pride associating cooking with keepin it real.We have, in many senses, lost our way in food. We have a huge grassroots and national movement going on that has forced us to think about where our food comes from, who grew it, and how it got to us. But we now need to take that and bring it to the next step; we need to learn how to cook again. Michelle Obama could not be more right.It’s not a lot. It’s boiling water, blanching, searing, marinating, grilling. It’s salting food, it’s making a dressing, and it’s maybe what you leave a Sunday afternoon for in your family. No one is asking anyone to be a chef. But food can and will bring people together, so why not start it on Sundays when the family is around? Why not open a cookbook or even watch the Food Network together? Cooking, after all, should be fun, not terrifying.Let me know your thoughts on cooking with your schedule… What challenges do you face in trying to cook at home? And with your kids? What would YOU need to want to cook more??!Michelle Obama faces the same challenges you all face when raising children to eat in order to understand the power of food, not just eating healthy. She gets that someone has to make those choices for themselves and she wants to help facilitate that connection….but I guarantee you, she wont be using the words “home economics” when she rolls out that plan.