I recently had a birthday. Like we all do, every year. Another year older and hopefully wiser? Celebrations aside, the aging process is weird.
In a society where youth is synonymous with beauty, being a 37 year old woman feels strange. Part of me likes it when people think I am younger but the other part (the part that talks more) says things like “I have earned these years”. And I have. Aging is not easy. Everything changes in the process from our bodies, to our circumstances. Nothing ever seems to stay the same. But how do we live fully if we are dreading our next birthday?
We are in the height of summer’s delicious bounty. Eating food that is so fresh and straight from the earth is incredible and delicious. But yet there is something unique, beautiful and complex about the things that we let age. Beyond fine wine (that literally gets better with age) I do not want to live in a world without parmesan cheese. Coffee, kombucha, prosciutto and bourbon have all needed some time to mature to be there finest. The list is essentially endless. Some foods just taste better as they get closer to their demise.
Are we really getting wiser as we age? I would like to think so. A key turning point for me was in learning how much I did not know. In the heat of my youth, I thought I had it figured out. I thought that I understood. But life has a way of teaching you things. As I spend more time in this aging process what I have come to understand that I do not really understand. And patience, I am learning A LOT about patience. Potentially though, certain things cannot happen until you are ready, until you have aged some. And everything happens at different times for different people. There unfortunately is no script.
We really need everyone. We need your youthful energy and vibrance and your maturity and wisdom. Each year we will say goodbye to people we love and invite the joy of new life and love into our lives. There is no mistake that sometimes it feels like life is a constant flow of baby showers, weddings, birthday parties and funerals. Let’s just hope they hired a decent caterer.
I digress. We need it all. We need those youthful delicious vegetables with that incredible aged vinegar. Cue my recipe for a quick impromptu lunch today where I used scraps of veggies from last weeks CSA share, fresh herbs from my “garden” and that beautiful hunk of cheese that has continued to age in my fridge. Key takeaway: tarragon does not get nearly enough play.
Honestly, I am going to be fine with this whole aging process as long as I get to continue to eat delicious things along the way.
Pasta with fresh herbs and aged cheese
1 pound of pasta
1 zucchini, shredded
1 summer squash, shredded
2 turnips (or any other weird vegetable that you have been putting off eating), shredded
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
Olive oil
Red chili flakes
Salt and pepper
1-2 cups of any and all fresh herbs you can find (or steal from your neighbor)
Parmesan cheese
1) Heat oil in pan and add onion, red chili flakes and some salt. Cook down and then add in two smashed garlic cloves. Cook on low heat until soft.
2) Meanwhile bring water in a boil and drop in pasta. Add a little salt to the cooking water.
3) Put shredded vegetables into pan and cook until they soften
4) Chop herbs and set aside two Tbsp for garnish
5) Put herbs in pan with vegetables. Add salt and pepper to taste
6) Drain pasta and add to pan, stir throughly
7) Serve pasta with grated cheese and fresh herbs