Cooking with Intention!

Years later around the age of 11 my whole family got sick hit with that years flu just as thanksgiving was about to happen. For the first time i made a major family meal, cooking everything by myself long before the internet was the amazing learning resource it is now.

Cooking for my family those years helped me develop a love of the craft, making meals for my siblings with what we had on hand as I baby sat them at an age that would probably be illegal now but in the early 90s was just the eldest son helping out. I created all sorts of little treats and recipes for my brother and sister, one of there favorites being Snow Whites apple, which was a hollowed out apple with what ever we could find to make it more fun. Fillings tended to be Peanut Butter and Jelly or Marshmallow fluff.

Eventually when I moved into my own place in my early 20s i found myself hosting dinner parties for friends, and family. Be it friends-givings or other holidays even just because day. Making food that made people happy, food that was brought up or asked for over and over. Some of my favorites were my Hobo Stew, or the Venison Stew my wife still talks about years later (I like stew). Other friend favorites were options like make your own pizza bar, chili (with and with out beans) and lots of experimenting, most of which turned out with some semblance of success.

Eventually i purchased my own home and would host all day bbq’s and hosting our families for holidays. Five years ago we made a big life change. We moved to California then Texas for work and my big dinner parties a growing distance memory. Sometime last year I started trying to find a way to rekindle my love for the craft, my cousin moved from Michigan to Texas and we started working on adding more foods to his diet as he rebuilt life in quite honestly a whole new world for them.

My relationship with food has been tumultuous to be honest, At one point using food as a mood stabilizer and having what I would call food black outs, were I would eat multiple fast food meals with out remembering doing so. Before moving i started the long process of changing my relationship with food, i had hit almost 400 Lbs and I did not like who this person was I was seeing in the mirror. I started changing my relationship with food and myself. Initially i found the Keto lifestyle. Eating mostly Keto, also known as lazy Keto I very quickly was able to myself loosing weight and living a much better life.

I found myself hitting the 310s and then injuring myself in a way that made it hard to even walk. Luckily I had developed new habits with carbs that have stuck and was able to keep most of the weight off, only hitting 340 a few years later. Hitting weight again and at the start of covid i suffered a stroke. Strokes run in my family and I had long since trained my wife on what to watch for and thankfully we were able to get to a hospital quickly.

A quick reversal from the doctors and my brush with one of my greatest fears put me back on the path to fixing my relationship with food and myself. I started to loose weight again if though because of my job and the travel requirements sticking to Keto or any other diets became difficult. Later we moved to Texas for work and a doctor suggested Ozempic to get my diabetes under control. Of all the things they say about this drug, for the first time i learned what it felt like to be full. For the first time in my life I could read what my body was telling me about what I was eating and could tell what my body required.

I very quickly was able to get my blood sugar under control, i was able to drop several medications and lower the doses of other and I was able to get my relationship with food in order in a way that through the years of fighting I never could. Now i found myself eating much much less and feeling full and satiated with so much less intake than i had in the past and my stalled weight loss kicked back into gear. At the beginning of 2024 I hit my first goal, i broke the 300 lb barrier. For the first time in almost 20 years I was in the 200s.

Now I find myself not able to gorge on food anymore which is amazing and I have decided to make what i do eat taste amazing. I am returning to my relationship i had with food while on Keto, a relationship of exploration and finding new and interesting ways to enjoy the process of eating. After talking to my wife and my friends i decided to finally after years of talking about it start recording my cooking adventure.

So now we come to, why the kilt. Simply put they are comfortable and i rock the hell out of it. Yes i wear it most days, i go grocery shopping and to events in it. You will see me in public head held high strutting my stuff. It’s that simple

What does Cooking with intention mean? Cooking is the oldest form of magic, the first steps of alchemy and science. One of the most important aspects of magic is intention, be it mixing ingredients in a bowl or wishing for some good out come it all starts with intention. Progress in life, relationships and really any activity starts with our intentions. Even if you dont believe magic is real, you can’t say that food does not bring people together be it a cook out, a holiday meal. We look forward to eating and it is always better as a shared experience. I cook with the intention to bring joy to those around me, to cook food that enriches the spirit and the lives of those i care about and even those who find themselves falling into my life for what ever reason.

So that’s what I want for everyone, to live with intention to love with intention and to cook with intention. And Most of all, Enjoy!