Slow Life with Real Food

Want a great way to get a healthy dinnertime conversation started? Play the 'Table Talk' game!

It's not a game really, more than it is about being aware of where your food comes from. To play is quite simple. Make something to eat, eat it, and talk about it. Talk about where it comes from (the garden, the farmers' market, the neighbor's garden, Ecuador, the pond down the street, the community garden, the CSA box, a LocalHarvest farm near you, Italy, etc). Make a ritual out of it. Pick apart your ingredients. Talk, talk, talk! This is a wonderful way to include the whole family (kids, if you got 'em). Maybe the baby helped pick the strawberries...include the baby! Empty nest? Talk to your fish (no, not the one you are eating)!

For example... recently we had a dinner of steak, tabouli (tabbouleh, a type of parsley salad), pita, and wine (see picture). We prepared our food, sat down, started eating, and started talking. The steak came from Morris Grassfed Beef, which we bought from Rebecca at the farmers' market. The tabouli consists of lemon, olive oil, salt, green onions, mint, parsley, bulgur wheat, and tomato. The lemon was picked off a tree of an abandoned house down the street. The olive oil comes from Italy. The salt from Baja California. The green onions were from Everett Family Farms. The bulgur was bought at the grocery store and comes from who-knows-where.The tomatoes, mint, and parsley were grown in our garden. The pita bread came from a Phoenician bakery in Austin, Texas (of all places!). The wine...I forget.