You are quite right, I think, in your view that, “Unlike writing, great ingredients alone can make a perfectly adequate cook.” I think I miss the Italian cheese the most. I say this because you now live in Vancouver: I like Les Amis de Fromage, but the prices! Oh my!

I remember shopping for food in farmers markets and preparing meals fit for a queen in practically kitchenless dwellings. I am convinced that quality ingredients are key; the better the ingredients, the less work and effort is required.

I grew up on organic, local, seasonal, home cooked food by default, since the adverse effects of the Green Revolution did not reach the Eastern-European food supply before I left. My encounter with North American diet however, produced pitiful results; within one year I developed 11 cavities due to refined sugar. I had a hard time getting used to shiny apples, tomatoes and pears only resembling real food; I didn’t like grossly oversized meat portions that each could feed a family of four. With the exception of fish, my culinary adventures in Canada were nothing to write home about! I ate ordinary meals made with ordinary “stuff” requiring lengthy preparation.

Several years later I had the opportunity to live in Switzerland where my faith in real food was quickly restored. Just like in Italy, I was cooking great meals with superb ingredients. Today I live in Vancouver, grow my herbs in flower pots and I am very excited about the “Farm to Fork” movement sweeping North America. Unlike writing, great ingredients alone can make a perfectly adequate cook.

Savor each moment you have with them!

We still have all ours at home because we live close to a university. But that will be ending soon. Not looking forward to it….

I can see how it might even out in those later years, but intense! And, if as I’ve experienced, too quiet once they are gone.

Not sure raising triplets is much different from raising three kids — expect perhaps when the kids were 0-3. And we started getting some major economies of scale when the kids turned 6….

Happy travels, Tom!!

Love your story, Casey. As John Dewey said: “Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.”