On New Year’s Eve we found ourselves making a run to Traverse City. As we only had the two littlest children with us, we decided to splurge and eat in a good restaurant. For various reasons we bypassed other places downtown that we knew were worthy establishments and settled on Paesano’s. Mark & Joe had been in there for pizza a couple weeks earlier, so we knew it’d be good. Once again, we were reminded of our philosophy that good, real food may cost more up front but is so worth it in the end. We enjoyed a tasty antipasto salad for starters. The ingredients weren’t exactly local, but it did hit the spot. A large plate of breadsticks with sauce followed. They were soft and flavorful (even the next day). This was 3 year old Rachel’s favorite. The pizza was obviously fresh (we’d watched them expertly stretch the dough over the baking pan and put the toppings on) and satisfied what ever hunger we had left. I was impressed with how good it all tasted–not due to sugar and salt, but with spices and quality. We left with our leftover pizza feeling satisfied but not driven to over stuff ourselves. How different from the times we’ve found ourselves eating national pizza chain fare! A reinforcement of our philosophy about eating quality food rather than packaged, highly processed fare.
Another reinforcement came in the form of being subject to seasonal eating. Specifically, the milk goats all dried up so we are “reduced” to buying milk. I get rBGH free milk, but it’s still cow milk that’s pasturized and homogenized. Big sigh. We tried some milk from Hilshire Dairy of Hersey, MI. It’s certified organic, non-homogenized (the whole milk has a good layer of cream on it) and comes in a cool glass bottle. The family consensus was that it tasted notably better. Dorothy described it as being “buttery tasting.” Ah yes, the closer we can keep our food to the way it is freshest, the better it is all around.
I came across an article, “Food is your best medicine,” recently. Dr. Jeff Prystupa presented several interesting thoughts on what we eat, how we eat, and our health. A share of it I’ve heard from several sources, some was new. There was an article on enzymes there also. We try to use natural enzymes to aid digestion (saurkraut with red meats, yogurt with live cultures, etc.), but the two together gave me some “food” for thought. I don’t neccessarily endorse all the information on that website, but thought you might find the food ideas interesting.
Happy eating!