Cooking is a serious business

In our home, we take cooking seriously. Like this afternoon, we talked about a hour on what to cook the coming days.

We like to have variety in what we eat: sometimes meat, sometimes fish, sometimes poultry, sometimes veggie. And also a variety of potatoes (cooked, mashed or in the form of frites), brown rice or wholemeal pasta's or quinoa and sorts.

A lot also depends on how much time is needed to prepare the meal you want. There are meals which are ready in less than half an hour, others take longer. So when you're pressed for time, you don't go preparing something where you have to cut up vegetables for more than an hour, or make a marinade. You take something simple (like boiled potatoes with a vegetable and meat you bake or grill - or an easy pasta dish).

With us, dining is a family business. We've always had the tradition of eating all together, around the big table in the old days. Grandparents, parents and us kids. Eating was fun (still is). Sitting around a table with something good on your plate, sharing thoughts and plans, laughing and sometimes weeping, that's how it's always been for us. Even now I don't work anymore, I still wake up at the same time my sister does, so we can have breakfast together. And of course we have dinner together.

When we were young, our grandmother liked to bake. So every Wednesday afternoon (no school), a lot of kids gathered in our house to have some of the cake or pancakes she made! Guests were always welcome, as there was enough food to feed an army. As a result, buying food is still a big spending post in our weekly budget. As grandma used to say: 'As long as you have food in your stomach, sleep in a warm bed and keep dry, you're rich!'.