Transitions for the Contemporary Cook

Cooking for those with special dietary needs requires an added level of attention to the process of making meals. That's what I've been writing about in this blog – addressing special dietary needs in my own family. I've posted about some of the problems encountered during the years, and I've posted recipes.

Now, my husband and I are a few short years from retirement from our day jobs and our kids are pretty much grown. Our lifestyles are changing, and so to our eating habits.

Of course, Bob and I still adhere to the low-fat, low-sodium mantra of good health. And our son follows the gluten-free diet faithfully. Our daughter is now and always will be a vegetarian.

But I don't have to cook every meal now, and food makers and manufacturers have stepped up their game to capture the gluten free market. Bob's Red Mill, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, and others all provide high quality baked good mixes; I don't always have to bake from scratch. Flour blends are also readily available and in some cases, are cup-to-cup substitutes for wheat flour.

Fresh and healthy, with a bit of dessert

So I'm going to move along, and explore the world of food from a different perspective. There's still dietary restrictions to deal with, but healthy eating is now a standard and gluten free is the media darling. For those of us dealing with specialty diets for the last decade, the rest of the world is just catching up.

Now, I want to look at how we can simplify the process of providing meals, in particular to a mature family. Cooking for kids and busy parents is different from cooking for adults, but the techniques and methods aren't mutually exclusive.

JustAz.com Productions has various projects in the works; among them, a series of videos for Contemporary Cooking focused less on recipes and more on ingredients. We'll also be looking at some renovations in the just az gardens, focused on providing some fresh herbs and vegetables for this cook.

 

Over the next few months, we'll transition from the more singular focus of recipes and techniques to a broader approach toward providing meals, looking at more than just cooking in the kitchen. Healthy take-out, make-ahead meals, and product reviews are all on the menu. Sorry, couldn't resist.

Celebrating Vegetarianism

October is Vegetarian Awareness Month...and no, that doesn't mean you have to buy cards or gifts for the vegetarians in your life. It means you, as a meat eater, should spend a little time trying to understand why someone chooses to follow a vegetarian diet, and how such a choice affects other aspects of their lives.

One example is how some vegetarians also opt to eliminate other animal products, such as leather or fur, from their lives. They may do this because they feel that killing animals for the sake of clothing is inhumane. These are compassionate people. What these people are not are zealots.

They do not leave pamphlets on your doorknobs touting the re-emerging practice of Meatless Monday, a practice born of war. How ironic that something that is now considered humane started from a most inhumane action.

Vegetarians do not gather in front of the meat counters at supermarkets and terrorize those perusing packages of top sirloin or rump roasts. They do not picket or protest or otherwise engage in acts of culinary disobedience.

Vegetarians just don't eat meat. It's that simple, and that complex. As anyone who reads this blog with any frequency knows, my daughter is a vegetarian and has been all her life. Her father and I have teased her, good naturedly, about this lifestyle choice, as she has teased us about our food choices. But her decision, from the time she first started eating solids, to reject meat has presented me with challenges that have proven to be opportunities.

All of us in our family eat healthier because I've always had to include meat free dishes in our family meals. When my husband was put on a restricted diet because of his heart surgery, I was challenged even further, but it would have been all the more difficult if I hadn't already been familiar with cooking from a vegetarian point of view.

With food trends being so well-publicized now, thanks to Food Network and Food Channel and all the foodie magazines, blogs and websites, one would think vegetarianism would be no big deal. But as my daughter points out in her blog post, "5 Ways to Help Vegetarianism While Not Giving Up Meat," some people still don't get it.

She tells of eye-rolls and heavy sighs, and people trying to trick her into eating meat. Shame on them. Shame on them for their deliberate ignorance and their disrespect. Food is essential to our lives, to our well-being, and food choices are a part of who we are as sentient beings.

So take a little time this October to set aside any food prejudices and make a few meatless meals, and offer to break bread with your vegetarian friends. You just may find that they are presenting you with culinary opportunities you hadn't yet imagined.   

Introductions

First Published February of 2010

Update - As I look at this post now, in August of 2025, I can see the goals are the same - avoid fat and salt, avoid wheat products and keep a focus on vegetarian dishes.

And now we can add a diet for me... pre-diabetic. I weigh 105 pounds, so I have to gain weight, but I also have to control my blood sugar and my cholesterol. 

As we age, and our bodies rebel against the habits of our younger years, we adapt new habits in cooking and eating. This is one of the core ideas behind Contemporary Cooking, so I'm reviewing and updating old posts, and hopefully, will add new posts with new ideas for you, the 21st century cook.

Thanks for reading. September, 2025

Original post- My kitchen is like a restaurant kitchen. It's a working kitchen. And I'm chief cook and bottle washer.

I need to bake gluten free foods and cook low fat foods and vegetarian dishes. I need to keep it fresh and diversified and avoid cross contamination between wheat flours and non-wheat flours. I need to keep the salt out and the flavor in.

For all you young parents out there who are just starting to raise your kids and need to cook in the 21st century, this blog is for you. For all you older folk who need to pass up the fried chicken to keep your arteries open and lose the salt to lose the pounds, this blog is for you. And for you vegetarians, new and seasoned, this blog is for you.

What this blog isn't is a collection of recipes, though recipes will be included in posts from time to time. But we'll focus on techniques and products for contemporary cooking. We'll focus on food sensitivities and specialized diets and designer diets. We'll explore what it means to feed your family in the 21st century. We'll explore what it means to be a contemporary cook.