Process Writing

Just to look at my writing process, it goes something like this:
write in stream of consciousness spurts
stop
come back, write
edit, revise
review, submit

Then my revision process looks like this:
let comments sink in (may take a few days)
go back to piece and reread
then edit bits and pieces
let it sit (a few more days)
go back, review piece, edit some more
review
submit

Overall, I found my writing process to resemble that of a flurry of creativity, though not always good work, and the revision process to be slowing going. I would find myself frustrated at not being able to express myself clearly, so those sections in my work that were confusing got the most editing.

In terms of workshops, feedback is always useful to pinpoint areas in a piece that need strengthening or changing altogether. I sometimes find myself embarrassed by the quality of my work when under scrutiny, but one has to separate the wheat from the chaff somehow. Readers comments are a good way to do so, however, the author has final editorial right. Sometimes I would read a sentence aloud, and change it to my vernacular, rather than a more formal suggestion.

By taking two English classes at the same time, both with workshops, but having a different focuses with either fiction or nonfiction writing challenged me to think outside the box in how these forms of writing are complementary. I would not think a food review, which could be just a telling of the facts, required storytelling to make the piece interesting. Thus, I sometimes tried and failed blending the two types of writing, but sometimes the piece came out better than the part, i.e. my memoir.

The usefulness of the texts for this class was in their structure. Because I haven’t written a lot of non fiction, I used works like the Omnivore’s Dilemma or Stealing Buddha's Dinner to format what good nonfiction should look like. I may have not reached the quality of published writing, though I’m glad I tried.

I guess what I learned about myself is I have perfectionist standards, though that’s not really realistic to hold myself to it. Writing, and learning, is a process that continues with time, much like any good revision.

Have a great summer everyone!

Perfect Meal Revised Draft

Both my mother and father come from large families of five. I am an only child. This creates tension every Christmas or Thanksgiving when large amounts of cooking are involved. To offset said culinary overdose, the extended family would gather at someone’s house, sometimes ours, and there would be at least twenty people, including the children. The best dinner parties were organized by a military wife cum aunt. She would have a whole turkey, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, and three types of pie for dessert. For Christmas, there was sometimes a goose, but always a chocolate cake. The shining achievement of the meal however was not a food item. A fir tree, usually the largest on the lot, sat in the background as an imposing guest in its own right. The grand dinner parties of my youth made me want to throw one of my own, but for college students.

Reality and my expectations however, were on two different planes of existence. A dorm kitchenette cannot compete with a house that has more than three pans to its name. I asked a friend, Clare, if I could borrow her kitchen to cook instead, where she had two refrigerators and enough plates for all the people I wanted to invite. Her one request was to include all her housemates in the final number of guests. Including many of my friends, the total number of people planned for was twenty five. Nonetheless, a good hostess knows that about half the people invited won’t show up. To test the theory I created a Facebook event, where if one didn't RSVP, they didn’t get food. In the end, eleven people came, though not the all of original eleven who said they would, as two guests were friends of friends.

Part of the difficulty of cooking for said college students is my own lack of a car. For this, I needed the help of my friend Emily, and her rusted out mom-esque soccer van. She, and her not so trusty steed, was someone I could count on, as we had been on many theatre adventures together. Because of the number of guests, and my desire to keep the cost of feeding people low, I wanted to go to Meijer. I got a call on Saturday from Emily if I wouldn’t mind going shopping then, instead of Sunday like we planned. Hence for the Monday night meal I had a two day in advance shopping run.

For some reason, Emily and I thought it would be a good idea to share a split tier cart. While she was in the cereal aisle, I would be in the salad dressing aisle. We played a game of text tag, Were R U?, which was more fun for me than her because I had the cart. By the time I had everything I needed, salad packs, fettuccine noodles, alfredo sauce in cans, frozen shrimp and peas, garlic bread, gelato, and milk, and by the time Emily had everything she needed as well, the cart was stuffed to bursting.

“Do you really need a whole gallon of milk?” she had asked while shoving around groceries.

“Of course!” I replied. “It’s for both cooking and drinking.”

Emily had given me the side eye at that, and motioned for us to self check out. In the end the total for everything was fifty three dollars, which wasn’t too bad for eleven people. What I didn't truly think through was how much of a logistic problem cooking would be, for I had invited two vegetarians, one vegan, and and a girl allergic to shellfish, Emily.

On Monday night, I got started at 5:30 for a 7:00pm meal time. In hindsight, that was too early and I was fretting about the food getting cold because I was cooking in stages. I knew I was going to cook the vegan food first, so it wouldn’t get ‘contaminated’ with dairy products everyone else could eat. I used vegan soy ‘butter’ to sauté the onions, and the smell of garlic permeated the kitchen. In the ‘normal’ meal when the onions were clear, I would add one bag of frozen shrimp. At this point, my friend Clare butted in to avoid doing homework. She took over stirring, while I worked on the sauce. I drained the pasta into a colander, and raised it with cold water and put it aside.

Into the pan went two cans of Ragu cream sauce, some milk to thin the sauce, and a helping of paprika and oregano. Meanwhile, Clare was faithfully stirring, and had added another bag of shrimp in the first. I threw the bread in the oven and looked at her. The vegetarian and vegan sauce additions of onions and peas were resting in their own dishes.

“When do I add the peas?” she said.

“Is the butter boiling?” I responded.

“Yesss?”

“Now then,” I had said.

I then added the sauce to the pasta, and mixed it together. My friends had the set the table and by then, dinner was ready. There were Christmas lights, but no grand Christmas tree. At a table normally used for studying, we squished two chairs each at the heads of the table, and five chairs on either side and everyone was to serve themselves family style. The concept was one would take a serving of pasta and then add the appropriate topping. The salad and garlic bread were on the table in a free for all. We all settled down to eat and I looked around at the strange conglomeration of people my meal brought together with, Emily on my left and Clare on my right. There were only two men at the table and the avocado green walls seemed to suck the light from the room, creating a darker atmosphere than I would have liked, but it was my dinner party and my fettuccine shrimp alfredo on the table.

The first bite was good, but under salted. The noodles were well done, and had a soft texture, but the sauce tasted of milk. The shrimp had shells that need to be peeled, and left the stink of shellfish on the hands. The best part were the buttery peas and the soft crunch of onions, which lent a strong flavor to a dish that needed a little contrast. I realized by trying to please everyone with dietary restrictions, I had limited my cooking ability by spreading myself too thin. Nonetheless, the choruses of “it’s so good!” served to bolster my flagging spirits. As I looked around the table, I realized it was less about the food, and more about the friends I had. But dinner still needed salt.

The Perfect Meal Draft

The perils of college living in part involve the college cafeteria. The food can vary from weird, buffalo chicken lasagna for example, or inauthentic, like pad thai made with alfredo noodles. Sometimes one longs for food that is different, or cooked by oneself. For a sophomore seminar, I had been giving the task to create the ‘perfect meal’, no simple feat. To begin to understand what’s perfect for me in a meal involves the meals of my childhood.

Both my mother and father come from large families of five. I am an only child. Thus every Christmas or Thanksgiving, the extended family would gather at someone’s house, sometimes ours, and there would be at least twenty people, including the children. These grand dinner parties would have a whole turkey, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, and three types of pie for dessert. For Christmas, there was sometimes a goose, but always a chocolate cake. The meal was crowned with the largest fir tree on the lot in the background, an imposing guest in its own right. The grand dinner parties of my youth made me want to throw one of my own, but for college students.

Thus, I had to cut corners somewhere, because dormitory kitchens are a sad sight to see. One stove, and the pots and pans have to be scrounged up. I asked a friend, Clare, if I could borrow her kitchen instead, where she had two refrigerators and more than three pots. Her one rule was I had to invite all her housemates. Including many of my friends, the guest list was a staggering twenty five. To combat that, I had created a Facebook event, where if one didn't RSVP, they didn’t get food. In the end, eleven people came, where two were friends of friends.

Another friend, Emily, had a car. People with cars on campus are royalty in my mind, and she was someone I could count on. Because of the number of guests, and my desire to keep the cost of feeding people low, I wanted to go to Meijer. Thus, Emily and I had a grocery run on Saturday evening for the Monday night meal. For some reason, we thought it would be a good idea to share a split tier cart. While Emily was in the cereal aisle, I would be in the salad dressing aisle. The game of text tag that we played, Were R U?, was more fun for me than her because I had the cart. By the time I had everything I needed, and so did Emily for her Chinese dinner, the cart was stuffed to bursting, and I had to get leverage by pushing the cart forward with one foot stabilized by floor. The looks she and I received were well worth the bickering.

“Do you really need a whole gallon of milk?” she had asked.

“Of course!” I replied. “It’s for both cooking and drinking.”

I then faked a dramatic death scene, and continued to checkout. I think Emily was afraid I would embarrass her further at the conservative Meijer, so she pushed for self check. In the end the total for everything was fifty three dollars, which wasn’t too bad for eleven people.

My menu went something like this: salad starter, fettuccine alfredo with shrimp and peas, garlic bread, gelato for dessert, and milk or water to drink. The shrimp was the big ticket item, but it was part of the grand dinner plan, as chicken would be too boring. What I didn't truly think through was how much of a logistic problem cooking would be, for I had invited two vegetarians, one vegan, and and a girl allergic to shellfish, Emily.

In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan states “A vice president of marketing at General Mills once painted me a picture of the state of the American family dinner...Mom, perhaps feeling sentimental about the dinners of her childhood, still prepares a dish and a salad that she usually winds up eating by herself. Meanwhile, the kids, and Dad, too, if he’s around each fix something different for themselves,because Dad’s on a low-carb diet, the teenager’s become a vegetarian, and the eight-year-old is on a strict ration of pizza... Families that eat this way are among 47 percent of Americans who report to pollsters that they still sit down to a family meal every night” (302). My perfect meal was becoming the perfect American meal, with dietary restrictions galore.

On Monday night, I got started at 5:30 for a 7:00pm meal time. I pulled the garlic bread from the freezer, and put the water on to boil. I rinsed and washed the salad packs, and put it in a pretty bowl. The salad then went back into the fridge. I knew I was going to cook the vegan food first, so it wouldn’t get ‘contaminated’ with dairy products everyone else could eat. I used vegan soy ‘butter’ and sauteed the onions with garlic, then added the frozen peas. Next, the spices went in, oregano and smoked paprika. After that was done, I put the mix in a bowl to rest, and repeated the process with real butter for the vegetarians. At that time the water had been boiling a while, so in went the fettucine noodles. I also put theveggie mix into a bowl, and put it aside. Now came the hard part, cooking with the shrimp. Onions were sauteed, and the smell of garlic permeated the kitchen. When the onions were clear, I added one bag of frozen shrimp. At this point, my friend Clare butted in to avoid doing homework. She took over stirring, while I worked on the sauce. I drained the pasta into a colander, and raised it with cold water and put it aside.

One side note, I am a fond food user of the concept of cheating. To cheat is to often substitute, when one is one a budget or a lazy chef. Sometimes I am both. For the alfredo I had bought Ragu sauce, a cheap 1.49 a can special I planned to doctor.

Into the pan went two cans of Ragu, some milk to thin the sauce, and a helping of paprika and oregano. Meanwhile, Clare was faithfully stirring, and had added another bag of shrimp. I threw the bread in the oven and looked at her.

“When do I add the peas?” she said.

“Is the butter boiling?” I responded.

“Yesss?”

“Now then,” I had said.

I then added the sauce to the pasta, after removing enough for a serving for the vegan, and mixed it together. My friends had the set the table and by then, dinner was ready, and everyone was to serve themselves family style. The concept was one would take a serving of pasta and then add the appropriate topping. The salad and garlic bread were on the table in a free for all. We settled down to eat and the first bit was good, but under salted. The changing of hands of the salt shaker made my heart sink, but the choruses of “it’s so good!” served to bolster my flagging spirits. As I looked around the table, Emily on my left and Clare on my right I realized it was less about the food, and more about the friends I had. But dinner still needed salt.

Omnivore's Dilemma Part Three

The most beautiful state park I've ever been to is Mount St. Helens, located in the Olympic Mountain Range in Washington State. The volcano erupted in 1980, and changed the landscape significantly. When one visits there, there are now patches of growth and wildlife but the destruction is still clearly visible in the toppled trees and the changes in the shape of the mountain. On pages 381-382, Pollan describes the landscape of Eldorado Nation forest as "the same landscape exhibited a tranquil, almost modernist abstraction that was just beautiful". That kind of natural destruction is a harsh beauty of our natural world. Without fire, there would be little new growth in forests.

Thus, the third section to me, and the foraging of mushrooms in general, was the most beautiful section to me. Pollan also earned my respect when he finally shot his own pig, because for all his talking he finally proved his worth and willingness to see his omnivorousness to the end.

In a quick side note about the smell of mushrooms, there's a perfume about that that's one of the more amazing things I've smelled. One can find it here. Yes, it's hippie-dippie, but it recalled the feeling of section three's writing to me.

Overall, my dissent with parts one and two of the Omnivore's Dilemma was negated by the third sections, and Pollan's reverence towards food. He may not have a solution for the American food industry, by he knows nature is a good place to start looking for a balanced ecosystem and inspiration of life. Corny, I know, but soothing enough.

Recap of Food Reviewing (Part 3 of JGF Review)

Originally I expected Just Good Food to have fresh, delicious, and not too expensive food to eat. Only two of those things are true. The food was fresh and inexpensive, but it didn't meet my high bar of deliciousness. If the highlight of the meal is a dessert, then the rest needs some work. Also, I was worried it might be dead inside. It was. I'm not sure if the nice weather was to blame, or if JGF is a more eat and run kind of place.

The was dissonance between my expectations and assumptions too. I did not expect there to be cool jazz playing in the background. There was, and it fit the mood of the place, but the nature of the music startled me at first. I think of jazz as lounge music, not deli music. I also assumed I would not need to go back twice to get a feel for the place, but I did and it slid my original feelings into a higher bar of positive mixed review.

The view of "authentic" as a claim to fame for restaurants is a complicated one, based on location and inhabitants of that area. For JGF, they are an authentic wedding catering business, though that is not what they claim, it's just a service they offer. In that case, the food I'm eating can be served at a large scale, and be transported easily well. Am I thinking that as a consumer? No, because that's not my focus, maybe I just want a sandwich, not a wedding lunch. In terms of dining in restaurants as a kind of tourism, JGF is a local business. Maybe I want to experience the culture of Kalamazoo through its food. By eating food that comes from the area, an individual can taste the "flavors" of that area.

In the future, experiencing "tourist" like actives, such as eating, I now know not every experience will have "good" food, though it's a learning experience all the same. I also know how distracting pictures can be, and what a crutch they are when writing reviews. Plus, I really dislike cameras at a dinner table, along with cell phones. Technology and food are just a distracting combination. For a review, removing oneself from the experience makes a better written piece about said experience, but it deadens the whole memory making aspect. It becomes a job, and it's not quite so fun anymore. Food reviews, and blogging too, are quite a bit of work.

Just Good Food Revised Review

Eating at Just Good Food can often be overwhelming, as there are multitudes of choices. In fact, one can eat dessert first, as I did. In the dish of Marinated Strawberries, the soft crunch of strawberries was augmented by their pleasing to look at fan shape and vibrant red hue. The marinade was sweet, and tasted as if it was made from brown sugar and honey.  

In terms of entrees, there are sandwiches that be be ordered in half or whole sizes, or anything from the deli case. There is a soup of the day as well and desserts. Vegetarians and vegans will also be pleased by choices catered to them, as half the sandwiches are veg friendly and the deli has an assortment of vegan items.

One such thing was the Health Salad, a relative to coleslaw without the mayo, that had a vinegary tang and was made up of cabbage, carrots, red peppers. On the whole, it was colorful to look at, and low in calories, the reason of my dining champion to order it.

There is also a section of Mexican food in the deli, which includes chicken enchiladas. A single enchilada can be ordered for two seventy five, although I had two. They were served hot, with melted cheese on top. The corn tortilla hid the mildly spicy shredded meat, and the cheese came away in strings.

For refreshments, there are assorted soft drinks stored in an upright cooler. They also have water with a suitably cheesy sign, “Just Good Water”. Prices for sandwiches range from five to eight dollars, around five if you get a half sandwich. You can also split a whole sandwich for an extra dollar, which is very economical. Sides are four dollars.On average, the cost for lunch is about thirteen dollars per person. Their hours run from 9am to 9pm, except Saturdays, which are from 9am until 4pm. On Sundays Just Good Food is closed. There is handicapped access by an elevator, and there are kids chairs as well.

To get to Just Good Food, it’s about a fifteen minute walk from K College’s campus. If one is so inclined, it’s a straight shot down Academy and then a left at the end the park. The marker one is looking for is the Radisson, where one goes straight through the intersection at Rose St. until Rose Street Market comes into view. It’s on the left side of the street, about two blocks down from the Radisson.

When inside the building, follow the signs down into the basement, as the first floor is part of Just Good Food’s catering business, which is busy from May until December. What first greets guests in the jazz soundtrack, sometimes salsa or rhythmic. The walls are white with blue trim, and the tables and chairs are wooden and very clean. Looking up, there are ribbed glass domed deli lights that are fluorescent that make the whole place feel retro. The star of the show is the deli case though. It glows white, and the glass front covers all the refrigerated choices you could want. On top of the case are signs for sandwich selections. Meat sandwich signs are on the right, and vegetarian options are on the left. The cash register is to the right of the deli case, and so are the drinks. Just Good Food takes cash or credit, and is willing to split the bill for groups of people, i.e. students.

On a normal day, fellow diners are office workers from businesses downtown. The rush is usually around 12:30 in the afternoon, and when I was there at 11:30 there were maybe three tables full. One can also order and go if it’s nice day outside or if in a hurry. The service is friendly, and willing to wrap up leftovers if there are any. In comparison to their paper serving dishes and plastic containers, Just Good Food recycles the glass bottles drinks come in.

Overall, if one wants someplace to eat downtown that is uncomplicated and not very expensive, and also a local business, Just Good Food is a satisfactory place to do that.

Omnivore's Dilemma Part One

I don't think I've even been so bored reading about corn. Now, I've been to trips to Arizona and gotten the state parks ranger's spiel about how Native American thrived on corn. That was not boring. This was so tedious it became boring. If one sees the title in a book called "corn sex", one has gone too far and needs to pull a u-turn. Maybe because I also have a farm family background, the marvels of corn are not nearly so marvelous. Washington farmers in the 50s still fed their dairy cows grass. I've gone back and seen corn rows in Custer County, but there are still farms that grow alfalfa hay.

I would also like to point out how the author goes from waxing poetic to "oh noes! petroleum!" That kind of gave me whiplash reading that. He also offers no potential solutions, but instead talks about the dismantling of the New Deal programs. I get it, that was important. But why can't something be done? Bemoaning the fate of an industry designed to be highly prolific doesn't do much. Maybe in the scope of the book it's the readers who are being educated.

The section about beef cattle and the author's response made me sneer a little. He's so far removed from the process that his gets easily righteous. I want to tell him to go kill his own cow and to buck up boy.

There was a wave of farmers in the 70s that came from the hippie subculture. They were often called "gentleman farmers" because they didn't want to do any work, only reap profit, or in this case food. My father has stories of people who needed help, and still couldn't make a go of it. Many moved out after two seasons.

But enough about my own history and context. Maybe section two will be better.