Not exact matches
Friends become family in New York where everyone is from somewhere else so it made sense to linger
together through the
kind of hours long, family
meals we all miss on Sunday afternoons.
So this is another one
of my «fridge raid»
kind of meals, tossing
together leftover bits
of this and that to create another yummilicious bowl
of food for the week.
It's one
of the easiest
kinds of meals to put
together for a family in my opinion.
Weekend breakfasts became
kind of a big deal, and on Saturdays, a few
of us would get
together and have what we called our «family breakfast,» which involved all
of us grabbing whatever breakfast items we had and having one big potluck
meal together.
These creative
meals were pulled
together from an extensive pantry that included things like quinoa, basmati rice, all
kinds of dehydrated meats and vegetables, grains, flours, spices, powdered eggs, powdered milk, and quite a bit more.
Baked ziti with a layer
of sour cream, three
kinds of Italian cheeses, saute ground beef and pasta sauce come
together to make a fast and easy weeknight
meal.
They didn't have any knowledge
of nutrition, they weren't able to eat nutritious, calorie dense food whenever they wanted due to the absence
of agriculture, and their immune systems were likely weaker than ours (living
together in large numbers placed enormous selective pressure on our early agricultural ancestors to develop strong immune systems, keep in mind that early human civilizations did not have indoor plumbing... so they were sometimes exposed to fecal matter both from fellow humans and from livestock and they didn't have the
kinds of disinfectants and anti-biotics we have today,) so for them to have serious health complications makes perfect sense, nature can be very harsh and doesn't care how long its been since your last
meal or what your calorie and micro nutrient needs are... a lot
of people died at very young ages back then simply because they got sick and didn't have proper medical treatment or due to malnutrition or starvation.
It's truly amazing how food and cooking could bring people
of all
kinds together for a cause (even if that cause is just preparing an amazing
meal).