FOREWORD

In February 2010 I enrolled in a beginners cooking class, with Natália, at Instituto Macrobiótico.

After the beginners’ course, I enrolled in the advanced classes, also with Natália, and then I decided to enroll in the annual course, which I attended in 2010/11.

This blog was created by Matilde during the annual course, five years ago.

During these last five years, Portugal went bankrupt, asked for international finantial help, then suffered a severe austerity regimen (which consisted mainly of taxes on the higher salaries and cuts in state aids)  and is currently working hard to go bankrupt again in the very near future...

On a personal basis, I have suffered two too great losses but also realized  that macrobiotics is the home where I have returned to and should never leave again (though I had never been there…). I have stuck to it in these last five year – although not always very strictly and orthodoxly – and in this blog I have posted recipes and I have posted stories about recipes and food and I have had lots of fun.

I truly believe that food is essential in family lives. Had I not seen my mother and elder sister around the pans, the oven and the cooker, had I not had three sited meals every day and I would probably had never learned how to cook – or even bothered to try – and the story of my life would have been a different one.

I recall Babbet’s Feast novel and movie as an example of how food gathers people in family reunions and, if it is outstanding, how it can melt even the hardest heart, the pain-in-the-ass relatives who are always complaining about something (although, in my experience, the later – usually males – are quite difficult to satisfy, probably because they have never laid their hands on kitchenware…).

I would like to post on a more regular basis, but not every day – this is supposed to be a hobby, not a job! -, and have decided to do so in English.

I took the decision to thoroughly review all the recipes I have collected in my cooking classes since 2010, some of which I have never tried.

Both the recipes and the teacher shall always be identified.

Alea jacta est!