GRATITUDE POST, November, 13

I am grateful for food, and electricty, and how those two things make life easier. Let me explain.

On one of my research trips to Williamsburg I picked up a replica of a colonial cookbook. As I thumbed through the recipes I was impressed by the variety and sumptuousness of the foods.  Of course, our forefathers could only eat what was in season, or what could be preserved. No strawberries in February, and no iced drinks during the dog-days of summer.

One of my favorite cooking shows was "Dinner Impossible." Each week the star chef would be dropped in some impossible setting with the challenge to prepare a feast using what was available. My favorite episode involved the preparation of a colonial feast in Williamsburg, using only the utinsels, cooking methods, and ingredients common to a colonial home, garden, pantry, and farmyard. They had to dress their own meat.

Let it suffice to say that watching that show gave me a new appreciation for pulling up at a drive-through window to buy a bucket of fried chicken. In our forefather's day, a similar meal would have required a hard day's labor and a compound of skills ranging from the athleticism required to catch the bird; the stomach for killing, gutting, and plucking its carcass clean; the woodsman skills to build a sufficient fire, and the culinary ability to turn it into something delectible. And that's just the meat for the dinner!

So today, I'm giving thanks for fruit in and out of season, for pantries, and refrigerators, and stoves, and everyone in the food chain who makes the earth's bounty available to me.See More