We've also been stocking our pantry with canned peaches, applesauce, canned chicken stock (what a miracle in a jar!!), and apple pie filling. That's a first for us, and I am eager to try it in a pie.
Today, we've been making up a batch of spaghetti sauce to can. We haven't made this in over a year due to the kitchen renovation from last year. This year's garden produced nicely though and there is a large stock pot bubbling away on the stove. A friend stopped by and immediately proclaimed that she could smell the garlic I had been roasting to add to the sauce. Of course, she's a garlic aficionado, so I don't doubt that she would be able to pick up the aroma from quite a way off.
I was struck by something though, while I was mixing up the sauce and pureeing it down: how good it tastes. And I don't mean that in a bragging, "oh man, my sauce is awesome" kind of way. I mean, I was just blown away at how GOOD it was because it was REAL. Not store bought.
It is amazing to me how we can actually forget what REAL food tastes like. We think we know, we're sure we know. Then we taste REAL food, and we are awakened. Awakened from a sleep we didn't know we were in. --- Ooohhh ... how very "Matrix", right?
As silly as that sounds, I swear that is really how it is. The first time I tried raw milk I simply knew how right it was. For those of us who cook, it's like when you're trying to perfect a recipe. Suddenly, you get it right. How do you know it's right? You just do.
When you've been eating store bought food, you can think you've eaten, and even created, some very good meals. To some extent, that is a completely accurate statement. I've eaten very good meals that were made from store bought, packaged, processed items.
But then .. then you try something that is homemade. Homegrown. Organic. Fresh off the vine, literally still warm from the sun. And .. well, Morpheus might as well have just given you that magic little red pill. Have you experienced it yet?
Dinner is beckoning me now, so I will leave you with this quote from 'The Matrix':
Morpheus: Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Now, Neo replied "The Matrix", but Mama Taney replies "Real Food". :)
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