Guests

Being a foodie, even a fairly mild one, can get boring. There are days I spend a lot of time in self-ridicule because I spend more time with cookbooks than literature, more time on food porn blogs than following politics or even gardening, which somehow feels more virtuous to me. I certainly do want to remember to give more time to exercise, to school, to writing, and to activism, but the guilt about the food is slowly fading. It's not a passion to eat expensive ingredients, it's a passion for making things with my hands to feed to others and to eat. It's a passion for the physical act, a craft project or more broadly a creation. I'm creating a lifestyle, and while I have to be careful to make sure it doesn't entirely consist of food, life does literally revolve around food, and in New York it's too easy to let that food be rushed, overly expensive, and bad. Don't get me wrong, it's also possible to have wonderful, impossible food here at any hour of the day or night, but more often the results of my commutes and schedules are poor, and I just eat to put things in my face.

Thus my kitchen can be more than a fun project, it's the beginning of a larger revolution, one that's expanding to include the garden (such as it is), and the world out there. Some people, especially those I don't see on a daily basis, are taken a little aback by my obsessions with food, and I in my turn am taken aback when others who aren't so hooked in to the foodie world take perfectly reasonable exception to the constant use of butter, expensive ingredients, and meat. (I really am trying to create sustainable eating habits, especially now that there are fewer people in the house.) Other friends and I spend hours talking about our newest techniques mastered and dishes explored. I'd like to invite friends and relatives from all sides of that spectrum to contribute guest posts to Second Dinner. Some of them, probably the foodies, to be honest, may stay on as regular guest contributors. A few of the most eager have already volunteered, and I'd like to invite more.

Just leave a comment on this post if you'd like to participate, or email me your contribution, complete with photos. I'm opening this up because, as I mentioned above, this is a conversation I'm having, a conversation we're all having, and this blog is for discussion and also for proud display. I'll welcome individual contributors as they come, but for now, welcome all.