On Food and Food Writing

I've always been a big eater. Truly an eater, in the sense of consuming, rather than savoring or even tasting. Part of this may have been because there was a time when I was very tall, very thin, and very active, and thus had a gnawing pit of despair where normal people keep their metabolisms. At any rate the habit of stuffing myself carried over into adulthood, and, of course, became aa way of easing boredom and depression. I thought, and still do think, about food almost all the time. I can frequently be persuaded by my undisciplined mind to think about food rather than work, laundry, driving, or any of the usual mundanities of life. This borderline obsession is one reason of many reasons I'm very glad I met my husband, a man obsessed with food almost equally, but in different ways. I eat to satisfy; he eats to enjoy. I have no backbone and cannot refuse seconds, even if they're not offered; he seems to understand this feeling of "fullness" that I have only recently begun to get acquainted with, having spent most of my life thinking I wasn't full until I had tasted everything and the button of my pants was going to pop.
I will take this opportunity to say that I am healthy. I don't have an eating disorder - much of this relationship with food I've described is a response to my anxiety disorder, which I am treating. I generally eat too much, but what I eat is (usually) healthy. I'm a healthy weight, and my glucose numbers are beautiful (they were checked last week). My big problem is stress, and this blog is an attempt to do something that satisfies my soul to help ease the stress response that eating can be, and help me enjoy that which I am very passionate about: good, simple food.
My husband is an adventurous eater, and while I wasn't picky, I had never thought about all of the culinary possibilities of the world until I met him. A huge part of our lives together is exploring and enjoying and creating food. We are enjoying the process of learning about this world. I wouldn't classify myself as a "foodie;" that term seems to presume I am a bit of a know-it-all. While I'm confident about the knowledge I do have, I understand that this food journey is a journey. If I encounter information, I want to absorb it. To be honest, I haven't felt this excited about educating myself since my freshman year of college.
Lately, I've been reading a lot about food: books, websites, recipes, magazines, etc.... Recently, I have finished both The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, and Julie & Julia by Julie Powell. I am in the process of reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, and I am moved by the connection in each of them between food, personal spirituality, personal fulfillment, and personal ethics. As a woman who struggles with her place in the world and her path, I've let these authors inspire me. Rather than use this space for the purpose I created it for in October (which I obviously haven't been), I thought I would use it for a project similar in purpose to the project in each of the above books. Instead of a special project, or travel, or intensive research, however, I will use this as a place to muse on my own meals, simple or complex, to look at the history and story of those meals in the spirit of actively considering my life and my actions. I hope to be inspired and motivated by this space. I hope to relieve some of my angst (and extend the life of my Ativan) in this space. If you're reading along, and commenting, great. If not, I will still be writing.