Post 3: Preparing A Meal

The meal that my friends and I prepared for this blog article certainly was a wonderful one! It was a lazy Sunday night and we decided that making a home-cooked meal would be a great way to finish out the weekend. We decided on homemade mashed potatoes and chicken along with green beans and chocolate cake for desert.

To begin preparing for the meal, we all agreed on what we wanted to make and then took a group trip down to the grocery store to pick out our ingredients. Along with the main ingredients, we also purchased various salts and other things to enhance the meal that we were about to prepare. After purchasing our food, we headed down to the kitchen to begin cooking the meal. Although there were many things that we needed to complete the meal, the preparation went pretty quickly by dividing each task among the 4 of us. I was in charge of the mashed potatoes and I decided to make them a little bit more special by boiling them still with the skins on and adding a variety of extra ingredients such as cream cheese and whipping cream to make them taste even better.

After each one of us had taken the time to prepare our dish, we sat down to enjoy our delicious meal. Clean-up was again divided among the group and each person took part in cleaning up and storing the extra food. I found that I really enjoyed this eating experience because I was in the presence of people that I really enjoy spending time with and we were all able to work together to accomplish our goal. We were in no particular hurry so it was quite refreshing to take our time in preparing our meal.

I am very much in agreement with Michael Pollan when he argues that American have ruined what is originally supposed to be a wonderful experience. Instead of savoring meals and taking the time to enjoy them, we have turned into a fast-paced society that is constantly on the go. And with all of those changes has come the fatty, over-processed foods that we are so familiar with. According to PewResearch Center Publications, the number of adult Americans that claim to enjoy eating a meal has dropped from 48% in 1989 to 39%. I think that this is a very reflective trend of society in that more americans are eating much more food, but the enjoyment is just not there. Families are no longer taking the time to sit down and enjoy a meal together, but are always constantly on the go. I think that if we want to truly become happier and healthier, we need to slow down and enjoy food the way that it was meant to be enjoyed: made by hand, shared with friends, SLOWLY!!!