Food glorious food

I'm amazed how much my attitude to food has changed in the last five years. Now, anyone who knows me knows I've always loved my grub and will happily eat anything (except for whole tinned tomatoes. Horrible things. Yuk) But my desire to experiment and try new things was restricted to restaurants and eating out. I'd have a go in the kitchen but I must admit I found cooking a bit stressful and scary so stuck with what I knew and, when I was living on my own, a good (well, perhaps not so good) supply of ready meals.

The Cav of then would have freaked out royally if he, as I did today, defrosted a frozen rabbit bought at the farm shop last week to find the kidneys and liver still attached. Now, the more experienced cooks among you may well scoff that I would find this something worthy of blogging, after all a quick nick with the knife they are free, but there's no way I would have been so calm about it back then. I doubt I would have even tried a rabbit stock-pot either, let alone adapt the recipe from Marco Pierre White's recent Great British Feast series. So, I am, and I think quite rightly, proud of myself.

And the stock-pot was, in a word, lush too (and the liver was delicious pan fried!)

The other thing that's changed I guess that eating at home was something I did in a bit of a hurry and always sitting in front of the telly (hey, I was a guy living on his own in a flat. At least I wasn't sitting in my boxers. Well, not all the time anyway.) Food was nothing more than fuel. OK, it was fuel I enjoyed but something I wolfed down. These days its not mere fuel in my eyes, but something to be savoured, enjoyed and shared. Sure, we still eat in front of the box every now and then, but that's a real rarity. I love the fact that we sit down at the table. Meals have become an event, and as our little brood is about to grow from three to four (baby number two is expected in a couple of weeks) I hope that family time around the dinner table is something we'll enjoy for years to come.