Food and Garden is about turning beautiful, preferably homegrown, produce into tasty, home-made food with hardly any effort, bringing happiness to cook, family and guests all year round. Combining delicious, healthy recipes with tips, tricks and stories from the kitchen garden and showing how easy it is to grow your own vegetables, berries and fruits.
But it’s also about bringing inspiration to a busy everyday life, hoping to see more home-made food in the kitchens instead of the many ready-made dishes bought in supermarkets. No doubt there is a big difference in quality of the ready-made dishes, and I believe the difference differs from city to city or country to country but even with a good quality ready-made dish you will miss out on all the joy. The joy of picking the vegetables in the garden, the joy of learning how to cook with vegetables in new ways, the joy of all the beautiful aromas and, not least, the joy of serving something home-made. It may not be perfect but it’s made with love and great effort and that is worth much more than serving a perfect ready-made meal.
In many contries we tend to be really focused on serving the perfect meal and being the perfect host. Candles are coordinated with the colours of the flowers, the napkins are folded perfectly and the food should look like something out of a magazine. I can understand where all this is coming from and I also want my dinners to be as perfect as possible but time is short and having guests for dinner is not fun, if you are stressed. So where should you put all your effort?
I believe most guests would prefer a really nice home-made meal with less attention to candles and napkins over a shop-bought meal anytime. The best thing about being a guest is the moment you ring the door, the host answers and you are greeted with a wave of mouth-watering aromas. So why not focus on making home-made dinners, not perfect but wonderful in aromas, colours and textures, and focusing less on accessories. Discover the joy of cooking with friends and family while talking and having a glass of wine.
My focus is always on doing things simply. It should be easy to grow beautiful vegetables and it should be equally as easy to make delicious home-made food. Thereby not saying things shouldn’t be time consuming but to me it is all about doing things as uncomplicated as possible.
If you don’t have the time or space for a kitchen garden, just focus on the recipes. You should find plenty of inspiration.
I do hope, however, Food and Garden will inspire you to cultivate your garden and make home-made food, bringing joy to friends and family but not least yourself!
Enjoy!
Karin
