Something Simple. Something Complicated.

Food. For some, it's easy. For Sean and me, it's seemingly more complicated.

That is not to say we can't eat. God knows we can, and do.

Sean likes to joke that my body must hate life, and to be truthful there was a time when I agreed; almost anything and everything I could eat that your average person takes for granted today would cause me to be violently ill. That is because I am allergic to both gluten and dairy. Which might be easier if it weren't for how our society has chosen to prepare, package, and produce the common foods we eat.

So what does that mean? Because I am not the best expert, I will try to make this simple. Gluten is a protein within the endosperm of some grains that acts like a glue in most things we eat today. Which grains are those? Wheat, Barley, and Rye. However, it isn’t that simple. Wheat consists of a plethora of different types, and barley can be malted and added to make many different foods (not limited to just beer).

So what can I eat? A short list is rice, potatoes, quinoa, buckwheat, and corn. The tricky part is all of the different ways food scientists have been able to add gluten to seemingly innocuous every day items. Take for example soy sauce; the second ingredient is wheat. Or even dried fruit from the grocery store, it is dusted with flour to make it not stick together. There truly is an endless list.

Now, dairy. This one may seem easier; it is just milk and cheese, right? Unfortunately, No.  Food scientists have invented innovative ways to utilize every portion of milk. In doing so it has been added to just as many things as gluten, the easy ones are things like flavored chips or pasta sauces. However, some things bear a surprise, like soy cheese. That's right, soy cheese. Casein (a milk protein) is used as a texture enhancer.

So at this point, it could be said there is nothing simple about how Sean and I go about eating. However, we would argue the way we used to eat was complicated. This, this is simple. And this blog, and the passion behind it, is to make things simple. Simple, delicious, natural food. It just so happens everything you will see here is dairy and gluten free. I bet you wont even notice, we don't. Well, most of the time.

Late Summer Farmers' Market

On almost any day of the week there is a Farmers' Market in a Seattle neighborhood.  Our neighborhood lands luckily on Sunday.  I'll be honest.  I have lived within short walking distance to the market for over 18 months and hadn't yet visited it.  My work often began early on Sundays and the rare free Sundays were spent nursing a hangover or traveling to some nice day trip locale. 

The summer is about to turn to fall in Seattle and the market is in full swing.  Ryan was quite overwhelmed.  The beauty of farmers' markets is the freedom they seem to bring from "profitable crops".  When I asked why Ryan was so silent while I was brimming with excitement, he said, "I don't even know what half this stuff is!"  Ryan, with his business background, explained why the grocery stores didn't carry 8 varieties of tomato, 6 varieties of potato, or what looked like hundreds of pepper varieties.  It made the grocery store seem pretty boring.  

To be fair, an excellent grocery store (by grocery store standards) is one block closer to us than the farmers' market.  But it's just not the same.  After picking up some rainbow chard, red-green tomatoes, apricots and a bag of mixed potatoes we headed home to cook some lunch.  It took a fair amount of coaxing to get Ryan to try the tomatoes.  They looked ugly, with weird red green patterns, some healed splits on the top and their irregular shape.  It only took a bite.  He was hooked.  They were so sweet they tasted like candy but so much better for us! 

Then we had to figure out what to do with the chard.  We picked up a huge bunch of rainbow chard with white, yellow and red stalks.  We decided to sauté with just a simple dash of salt and pepper.  The red stalks were sweet and the yellow stalks were salty.  It was a great mix together, plus look at all the nutrition in chard!

Simple was the theme for lunch.  The potatoes were boiled and salted.  The tomatoes were sliced and topped with chopped carrot and cucumber and dressed with basil olive oil.  We were full and felt healthy all the way around.  With a little coffee we were ready for the rest of the day.   Ryan remarked as I carried the plates into the kitchen, "How nice it was to talk to the farmers."  And I agree.

Cultivate. Cook. Consume. Responsibly.

Food. It's pretty good. It's even better when it comes from the ground.

This blog is a journey, a manifesto, and a challenge. Boys are picky eaters and when they carry a chip on their shoulder about social responsibility and a grab bag of dietary restrictions, it can make the kitchen a creative place.

We live in a small apartment with an even smaller kitchen in a small city. We aren't rich. We aren't over zealous. But, we do like to eat and we do like to drink. Hopefully, here at the Sensible Epicurean we may learn to save the world through our stomachs and have a damn good time doing it. Join us.