FOODGAWKER

ok ok ok. I thought I was late on this trend but I've asked a few people about this and none of them have even heard of FOODGAWKER!! It's actually "foodgawker" all in lower case. As you read this imagine I am yelling the name at you because it is so amazing. Anyone who knows me really well knows that I get a perverse pleasure from watching other people eat things that I cannot eat (usually due to food intolerances but those are almost gone now) and ask them to describe what it tastes like. This past spring when I was having a bad stomach flare and I was on a really restrictive diet to heal my gut, my diet got very boring...very healing but very boring. I would see something delicious, ask Chris to buy it for himself and have him eat it in front of me and then literally breath in my face so I could sort of taste it. Don't judge me. Or him. Actually it's almost weirder for him than for me. Anyway, it was an act of desperation. One of our favourite games to play (that is PG enough to write about..har har har... sorry Mom and Anne I'm totally joking) is where we ask each other "if you could eat ANYTHING right now, what would it be?" And then I usually say "ANYTHING, as in no health repercussions, no weight gain or stomach aches the next day?" Do not skip this part. This part is important because it really helps you to dig deep and find something so good that no moral reasoning can steer you away from admitting you want to eat it. We usually do a main dish and a dessert. Often my dessert is Creme Brûlée, a delicious custard dessert of which Chris is not a fan. (his loss). My mains vary but they are often a burger or pizza. Sometimes we throw a side dish in there or we say we are eating at a specific place and can only choose from that menu. Another game we like to play when we go out to eat is one where we pick a page or a section of the menu, count to three, and then yell out what we would pick from that section. Chris would say that I've actually just described how I order my food when the waiter comes over to our table but really this is a game we've played since just about our first date and we still play it over 4 years later. It never gets old. The 10 year-old girl inside me gets excited in a "we are meant to be" kind of way every time we pick the same thing. I've gotten pretty good at it and often I know what he is going to pick, even if it's not the same as what I would pick. That is true love! Anywayyyy... back to FOODGAWKER:

FOODGAWKER is this amazing website where people upload pictures of something they've made and you just scroll through a never-ending page of pictures upon pictures and if you like something you click the little heart on the side of the picture and it saves it to a list for you to look at later when you want some ideas about what kind of delicious meal you want to make. I feel like this website was made for me. It's easy to use and it is just constant stimulation which means I don't get distracted and move on to something else. All you do is make a profile which is really just signing up with your email and making a password, and you're all set! When I'm trying to be really healthy I go on the site and just stare at all the pictures. To me it's not punishment to look at a bunch of cupcakes when I'm trying to eat well because as an Art History major I see the beauty in the photograph as well.  That's not really true but how can I make it normal that I am obsessed with staring at pictures of food.

That is really all I have to say today. Go to FOODGAWKER and get excited about all the delicious things you can make and consume in your kitchen. I'm sorry if you were expecting a recipe today, but as Chris reminded me this morning, I "haven't made anything to post lately", which makes him sound mean and unsupportive but that couldn't be less true. However, he is right in that I have been cooking lots but nothing worth posting and yesterday I roasted a chicken and I'm pretty sure it was raw and I poisoned us both so I don't think I'm ready to do a post on roasting the perfect chicken just yet. If you're looking for help with roasting a chicken Ina Garten does a really nice roasted chicken, or if butter all over your meat isn't your thing then check out Jamie Oliver's recipe. Yes it's true that these recipes are the first to show up when you Google "Perfect Roast Chicken" but I also KNOW they are both good because I made them. Give me some credit, I'm not that lazy.

Have a delightful weekend everyone!