Week 3 - The Myth of Martha

I was watching a television show last night where a popular stylist wanted to cook the perfect Passover Seder for her family and friends. She wanted it all to be like Martha Stewart - perfectly polished silver, warm comforting foods served in mix and match coordinating dinnerware, and a spic & span house. She pulled it off, but is that reality television? What did they hide from us - what was not shown??  I mean, she has make-up and hair stylists, house cleaners, a personal assistant and a bevy of other people standing at her beck and call to perform any inane duty should she ask.
The reality of it is, that kind of crap makes all of us feel inferior and sets the bar too high for the rest of us "normal" folk to achieve. When we can't pull off something like that or even something remotely similar, are we failing? I'm just trying to lose weight and eat healthier - a daunting enough task on its own. I don't really care if I have a pile of dishes in my sink, dog hair dust bunnies in the corners of every room and if it's just another paper plate-kind-of-night. That's reality. Of course, probably not good television, but perhaps it could be. Maybe it's time for America to get real and stop with the "Martha Stewart fantasy."

Some would say I'm trying to cook like her, but I'm not. I'm just wanting easy, real food to come together on my plate in a palate-pleasing kind of way. It's time for us to stop using pre-packaged dinners, convenience foods and boxed-this and bottled-that and get real. Believe me, I know it's hard. I have a pantry full of those items that I'm slowing moving through and throwing out. I'm glad that I've made small changes and I hope more will come. I'm loving the bevy of healthy eating blogs I've found complete with hundreds of recipes using only REAL food. Some ingredients still mystify me, like spelt flour. What is it and why should I be eating it? That's my next investigation. I'd love to try baking my own bread. I'm going to experiment this weekend. I'm headed to two farms in two days. I'll report back on what I bought and what I learned - down on the farm.