Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Food (or happiness, they really are the same thing)

Post written by Bridget Strub.

Food has always been a passion of mine. Not the crazy expensive, you need an overactive pallet to appreciate it, type of food. Rather, I love the good ol’ fashioned stuff. Give me a slice of thin crust pizza, a heaping plate of creamy beef stroganoff or a big bowl of ice cream drizzled with caramel and I’m the happiest girl in the world.

In fact, I like food so much that when I eat an especially good meal I sway. I can’t help it. Like my dog’s passionately wagging tail when the word “walk” is mentioned, I rock from side to side when I’m digging in to some really yummy eats. It may not happen every time, but if I’m absorbed in my meal there’s no stopping the sway.

I dream of spending countless hours in a gourmet kitchen inventing award winning meals or desserts with ease like they do on cooking shows. I imagine my family applauding my newest dish and complimenting me on how easy I made it look or how beautiful the presentation was. I often daydream about opening my very own café complete with unique varieties of paninis and salads, a wide array of drinks, and delectable pastries (all with really fun names of course!).

While I aspire to these things, I need you to know up front that this is not at all reality. In fact, before we get any more attached to one another there are a few things you should know about me:
• I once ruined EZ-Mac, therefore proving that it’s not necessarily all that “EZ”.
• I collect cookbooks, but rarely use them except to look at the pictures and dream about what I could possibly make.
• I often blame my cooking incompetency on the kitchen we inherited in the house we bought a few years ago. It’s pink and has nasty tile countertop. I don’t like going in there so of course I can’t practice my craft!
• The extent of the weekly meals I prepare for my husband and I consist of a pretty plain rotation of pasta, baked potatoes, salads and the like. I thought I was doing pretty well the other night when I added peppers and sausage to the pasta. I was pretty proud of myself.
• When making macaroni salad I misread the 1/8 teaspoons of salt I should’ve added for 1 ½ tablespoons. Don’t try that at home, your face might scrunch up and never go back to normal.

Luckily enough for me, I married a pretty patient man. He grew up on a farm, with a mom who can cook like it’s nobody’s business. He was used to real homemade food. The kind you think of coming out of the oven piping hot on holidays while your family is sitting around the table laughing and enjoying each others’ company. That was his daily encounter with food. He’s been more than kind when I’ve had my many mishaps in the kitchen, and never once tries to compare me to his mom. He is, however, pretty bad at hiding the thrill in his eyes when his mom asks us if we want to come over for dinner. She doesn’t even have to tell him what she’s making, he’s already drooling.

That being said, my husband loves food just as much as I do, maybe even slightly more. We established a pretty awesome tradition early on in our marriage of going on a date each week. At the end of each week we go out in hopes to put the craziness from the week behind us (we’re both teachers…there’s a lot of craziness that happens in a week!) and remember why we got married in the first place. I love date night for many reasons, but one in particular is that we get to enjoy food from various eateries around Rochester.

We used to explore all around the city (and beyond) to find fun, unique food. However, after four years we’ve gotten into a pretty big rut of eating primarily at chain restaurants or the few places that we’ve loved since the beginning. So, in attempts to help us branch out a little more we will be trying out new eateries in the next few months and I will be sharing our experiences with you. I will attempt to offer some advice on places you can go to get good real-people food. The type of food you can get on a budget (because we are which could make this a bit tricky). I might even share with you other food things that come up throughout the week, but only if you’re lucky.

Here’s the deal though, I tend to get distracted pretty easily. I have random thoughts flying through my head most of the day. Some are brilliant ideas, others just strange, lots are observations I have of the things or people around me. So, don’t be surprised if the randomness creeps into my entries. I’ll do my best to stay focused, but the random is part of what makes me me, so try to bear with me! My last disclaimer is that I can’t commit my husband to eating “strange” food for a crazy long time (he really likes familiarity), so we might have to break our “non-chain” rule every once in awhile.

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