Why Nourish Me?

Good question.

Nourish Me grew out of a search for direction. Food, obviously, was going to have to factor in somehow, so I took a course in nutrition, studying ‘Food as Medicine’ at a local natural health college. Wholefood was my buzz word; healthy living my mantra. ‘Brown rice’, I cried, ‘there shall be no other way’.

But I love eat and love to cook. Ethics, health and good eating can, should, and most definitely do go hand in hand.

Having relaxed a little you’ll now find things like good, organic dairy, expensive but oh-so-worth-it biodynamic eggs and even the occasional piece of fish sneaking into these pages. Partly because of the children in my life, partly due to the shelves sagging beneath the weight of well over 200 cookbooks, but mostly because of the endless delights a wide diet offers, some things that were off ‘the list’ have found their way back on. Of these things I am far too fond to say good bye forever. They are now the occasional flirtation and rarely the focus of a meal.

Compelled to impart health-based wisdom as it arises, it is just as important to infuse my writing and recipes with a light hand and the right words to tempt and seduce you, dear reader, into adding some (or even more) vegetable meals to your life. There is nourishment in food, yes, but nourishment can also be found in other places.

For me, visually, the process of cooking, the tools we use and the produce itself is at least as interesting as the finished product. Often more so.

Who?

Armed with an über-useful BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts), my career has been largely based in the flogging (sorry, selling) of books for various chain and independent booksellers as well as writing about children’s literature for magazines like Good Reading and Magpies. Cooking has dominated my thoughts and ‘free time’ in the multitude of houses and flats I’ve shared for as long as I can remember. That’s why at parties, you’ll invariably find me in the kitchen – give me a prep job, a glass of something red and I’m happy. Looking back through my sketchbooks it’s hardly surprising that at some stage writing would take over – words dominate all. Words and images. Two of my favourite things.

I have two teenage step-sons, a tiny, scruffy dog, a fat cat and a partner, The Artist, who paints and draws beautiful things when he isn’t doing his day job.

Likes: A fondness for silence and solitude; birds; Twombly, Rauschenberg; growing my own as best I can; cookbooks; good sourdough, alternative grains, lentils, spices, potatoes and coaxing out the best in every unloved vegetable. Both cabbage and okra are, however, works in progress. I have a love/hate relationship with coffee. I love it; it loves me a little too much. Oh, and I love every single site you see in my list of links – go wandering and find out for yourself.

Dislikes: Plenty. But I won't bore you. Parties (unless, of course, I’m on kitchen duty), the choko and rock-solid, flavourless tomatoes in the middle of winter.

Get in touch. You can contact me at:

lucindadodds[at]yahoo[dot]com[dot]au

Home