green bean versus meaty-cheesy or the ethopolitics of your mother-in-law's cooking

Food. Okay I must write more about food. My intervention is about food and I just read all your blog posts, my head is full of food.

ethics
politics
economics

To veer away, for a moment, from organics and all that (though I won't get too far away) I would like to address the sensitive subject of in-laws and food.

Instance one: my sister-in-law, Jennifer, did not grow up here and so was deprived in her childhood of the glorious thing known as Green Bean Casserole. It is a foreign and disgusting substance to her. I see where she is coming from-- the cans, the weird creamy mystery soupiness, the crunchy weird onion things, also from a can. But still, I, the one who brings loads of weird vegetables to grill from my CSA box whenever we all visit my parents in WI in the summer, love to eat green bean casserole. Only once or twice a year, but for that weird dish I put aside my politics and supposed standards. Why? Nostalgia, mainly, and, I think, because of my vegetarianism beginning at age 14, that was one traditional family food that I could eat throughout my career with my family. Yes, I unabashedly defend the green bean casserole, coming from the Jolly Green Giant's very own black box. Those "french-style" green beans just taste totally different than a regular green bean, and they meld perfectly with Cream of Mushroom soup, and are complemented so perfectly by crispy dried up onions. Thank you Campbell's, for inventing such a food of celebration. (However I cannot promise to keep you in business with my few servings a year, I apologize. And if I ate it more than those times of year I would probably realize it doesn't actually taste good.)

Switch kitchen tables and I become the daughter-in-law in question. My mother-in-law, for pretty much EVERY gathering, makes this meaty-cheesy-casserole, sometimes topped with more meat. For the first years in my career as her daughter-in-law, I luckily was vegetarian, and I could easily opt out of the meaty-cheesy-casserole beloved by her clan, without causing any suspicion. (sometimes she would make a cheesy broccoli-y version for me, however). Now that I sometimes eat meat and made the mistake of letting the in-laws know, it is usually the main food option. Some times a side of meaty-cheesy-potato-y casserole, and occasionally a salad from a bag contributed by my sister-in-law, the other Julie. There is no nostalgia for me in meaty-cheesy casserole. No tolerance for the can or the creaminess or the lack of actual vegetables. It is not part of my family history, and therefore it is really hard for me to make the exception, or if I do make the exception I feel really sick for many hours because it is just not "my" food, and it doesn't agree with me--and I guess I don't agree with it either.

The casserole is a pretty economical dish--you put a bunch of cheap canned things, whatever's in your pantry, really, into one pan, heat and serve. Mom--just got home from working all day, need to tidy the house and help kids with homework, and have dinner ready? Perfection in Pyrex! Or maybe you just don't really know how to cook or how to cut vegetables or prepare fresh ingredients because you were born after the 1940s? No need to worry, the Jolly G's got your back. Purification through helpfulness and convenience.

Food suddenly requires very little thought (how to grow, cook, store, prepare it) and golly, has that allowed the food industry to blossom. Put your mind to rest and they'll do the work for you, no need to lift a paring knife. Alas, maybe that wasn't the best plan, as Michael Pollan so kindly helps us realize.

Food as something we buy I think is often not a matter of rational acting. I think we often try to make it so, but our basis for making the choices is constantly changing--what was healthy is now deemed unhealthy, what is ethical turns out to be super-bad, what is higher quality turns out to be only over-priced. (darn!) And really, even when we are trying to be rational about food, there are so many things which can affect our ability to "maximize the utility" of food.

When I maximize the utility of my food, there are tons of factors going into the decisions I make, the same sorts of things touted in the blog posts thus far...and this includes maximizing enjoyment of food. We are so good at ruining the enjoyment of food, and I think that is part of what's allowed it to become more industrial--if an eater is only concerned about counting kcals, they won't necessarily stop to care that it is "food" made out of pulverized such-and-such. In this way my food decisions are very qualitative--it is hard for me to shop somewhere like Rainbow--maybe intellectually is part of it, but also the sensation is very different from shopping somewhere where I have a better idea what the food is made from and where it's from. The sheer size of a Rainbow store disturbs me on a visceral level. So I end up spending more on my food (maybe? I've never run a report) but I also feel like I have more of a part in my choices, and I enjoy them more. I have a little bonding time with my food as I learn where it's from and what to do with it. Is this part of being a rational actor? Oh maybe it is, maybe that is why we have 12+ co-ops in Mpls--lots and lots of rational actors? Or suckers succumbing to peer pressure and marketing (the real invisible hand?). Hard to say for sure.

Back to the casserole--is it the labor of my dear mom that makes the Green Bean Casserole acceptable and even delicious? (and then oh, crap, am I seriously disrespecting my mother-in-law by not embracing the meaty-cheesy casserole, thus endorsing all the mother-in-law stereotypes of the world?) Do I "see" the green bean casserole differently than the meaty-cheesey casserole? Yes. Do I legitimate my mom's casserole while de-legitimizing my mother-in-laws? Mmmaybe... Does Cream of Mushroom soup perform an act of circulating reference towards the Mushroom? The Rainbow Paradigm versus the Seward Co-op Paradigm?