There’s an old saying that there are two kinds of people in the world — those who eat to live and those who live to eat. I am one of the second types.
If you love to eat good food, love to shop at specialty markets and farmers’ markets, and occasionally pull something out of the ground and bring it, covered in dirt, into your kitchen; if you want to begin living La Dolce Vita (The Good Life) or just love to eat delicious food, my book tells you my secrets about how I transformed my life, starting with the Friday evening meal. You can do it, too.
They say that the Mediterranean diet is the healthiest diet in the world, but it’s more than diet, it’s the lifestyle. As you begin creating your own Friday evening La Dolce Vita menus and moments, you will begin reaping the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. I make everything from scratch, and I spend a lot of time during the day prepping for these meals. But I prepare them every day, while also walking my dog each morning, shopping for food 2-4 times a week, driving kids to therapy and school, doing many of daily needs like dropping off laundry, and frequently dragging a hose all over the yard, paying bills, and keeping some of the household books.
Many meals can be adjusted for faster preparation. You can, of course, buy many of the items prepared. I won’t be upset if you occasionally must sacrifice preparation time for your other demands. Think about living the lifestyle, not building a facade and populating it with take-out food. Strive to learn how to prepare your own basic ingredients and meals. The lifestyle is about spending time with your food and its preparation. If you must buy some items pre-prepared, try to use the very best ingredients you can find (while remembering that taking the time to find them is part of the lifestyle).
Spend time thinking about what you have to do and what you want to do, managing your time and starting a “holistic kitchen.” You may find you don’t need to pay someone to make your food. You don’t have to drive somewhere to get prepared food, and you may not need to join a gym because you’ll be carrying heavier bags of groceries, bending over to pick herbs, greens, and veggies out of the ground, and moving around your kitchen getting exercise.
The lifestyle I’m promoting centers around keeping the family at the table at the end of the day for seven or so courses of simply prepared and delicious foods, with wine, and, of course, a dolce (dessert), with spirited and intelligent conversation. This lifestyle requires thought about food, some time, and time management. If you merely adjust your habits, you can achieve happiness through this simpler lifestyle while still having time to pursue many of your other interests.”
Michele Carbone lives La Dolce Vita, in Santa Barbara, CA with her husband and two daughters. After her daughter’s catastrophic brain injury, Michele’s loss of her job her life’s priorities changed. Her love of cooking and eating sustained her creative urges and became the catalyst for a transformation into a new, simpler, and more rewarding culinary lifestyle, based on using recently harvested local seasonal foods. Her book, Friday Evening: Creating La Dolce Vita, one bite at a time, is available at www.fridayeveningthebook.com.
