oh, the flavor that you savor

I made fresh pesto for the first time this week. It's kind of turned into an obsession now. My mom's basil plant is on its last leg, and I'm slowly devouring the entire plant. When I made it the first time (lots of fresh basil leaves, garlic powder, fresh parmesan cheese and olive oil all blended in a food processor) I realized how easy it is and how it tastes just as good as store bought.

I love summertime and fresh ingredients. I love fresh fruit just as much. Especially watermelon. I love that it's naturally so sweet and delicious.

I might as well be that little kid with all of the watermelon I've eaten this week.

My goal for this semester (and I feel like I say this before every semester - but eventually that means it will turn into reality I hope) is to eat better. When I'm home, I eat a meal and then I'm satisfied. I don't go back and fill myself up with random food I find in the pantry, or the oh-so-common bowl of ice cream I fall back on at school. So I don't mean I want to eat less necessarily, just better. Like more fresh fruits and veggies. More variety of meals - aka: not every meal is pasta. I want to learn new recipes and not be intimidated by them.

I feel like I've thought and talked about food a lot this summer. It's such a fundamental part of our lives that it is easy to not think about it very much at all. Call me crazy for thinking about it as much as I am, but I think that it's something worth considering from time to time because, like anything else in this world, it can be used well or poorly. And why not use such a beautiful part of God's creation a little better and more gratefully from time to time? In its most basic sense, food nourishes us. But in its most glorious form it does even more - helps us be in community with one another, teaches us about different parts of the world, and wows us and our senses. It can be its own art form.

(Note: I'm going to see Food, Inc. tonight, so I may very well never look at food the same way again.)