I don't mind cooking; in fact I love to cook. Like everyone else in this hard economy, we've had to tighten our proverbial belts and curtail a lot of unnecessary spending. So we we don't go out for food as often and that means I cook more.

But since I've been contributing to the the Personal Chef to Go blog, I've not had to cook much AND we didn't have to go out. As someone who lives with chronic pain in my lumbar spine not having to cook on a bad day is like a 400 pound gorilla lifted off my shoulders. A girl could get used to this.

Personal Chef To Go,  is a web site where you can order super fresh gourmet cooking and have it delivered to you anywhere in the US for a very reasonable price. Chef Blair Grossman and Chef Gene Castelluccio sent me a mixed bag of singles, couples, family meals along with some green lunch salads. Everything but the salads are freezeable. We haven't tried that yet but we will.

Here's how it works from the Personal Chef website:

1. Determine which meal service is best for you: Busy Singles; Couples on the Go; or our Family Favorites menu and the frequency of delivery desired; one-time delivery or recurring weekly, bi-weekly auto-ship service.
2. Select either the current menu or the next week's offering and the quantity of meal plans that you desire.
3. Place your order online. We'll prepare your meals and rush ship them to your home Saturday (in some cases deliveries might arrive one day earlier) via Fed-ex Home Delivery.

Everything we've had so far is fresh and flavorful. Nothing about any of it has been like eating pre-packaged or frozen food. The meat has never been tough and vegetables are always steamed, never limp.

Last night, Manthing had Grilled Pork Loin Chops with fresh Rosemary Demi-Glaze and organic brown rice with summer squash and I had Chicken Cacciatore with cauliflower parmesan.

Your meals come packed fresh, not frozen. If you live local to their kitchen like me, your food is hand-delivered. If you live outside of the delivery area, your meals are packed with Thermal Shield ® lined shipping containers that are guaranteed to keep your meals properly chilled and flavor fresh:

Monika over on Slashfood posted an interesting article on airline food:

"Even back in the days when airlines weren't suffering like mad, I never thought there was much to the world of air food. I figured there were some powers-that-be types that picked some meals, most likely from an independent food distributor, and that was that. These days, I figured there was even less -- purchase crap, microwave and serve, if they even share more than a granola bar.

Then there was that infamous letter to Virgin Airlines chastising their sorry excuses for food, which led the airline to invite the reader to come to their "catering house" and give his input. Catering houses ... But that's not all -- FOXBusiness now reports that Chef Bryan Caswell, owner of REEF and Little Bigs restaurants in Houston, has been added to Continential Airlines' Congress of Chefs. Not group, not board, but Congress.

Before writing this, I looked up some Continental reviews, since I haven't flown them in a while and perhaps I was missing out on a culinary experience, but reading here, I don't think I have. Or rather, there's an enormous divide between the Business class menu, and the airline that has "won numerous awards for its international BusinessFirst service [and where] Continental's Congress of Chefs and Sommeliers carefully select menus and wines for each country the airline serves."

Read the rest...

The maker of the new Touch Book, a Netbook, says it boasts many attractive features: affordable price, very portable dimensions, excellent battery life, and “always on” instant start-up. So far, sufficiently geeky. But why mention it here? The Touchbook has a secret: You can detach the keyboard to create an even smaller, screen-only tablet PC that is controlled via touchscreen technology. Better still, the designers have made the display half of the device magnetic, which means that you can stick it to the fridge while you’re using it. So now you’ll be able to order your Personal Chef To Go meals, browse the Net for recipes and ideas in the kitchen without losing valuable counter space or risk spilling stuff on your computer. Touch Book, $299 (screen only) or $399 with keyboard, available for preorder now and due to start shipping in May or June.

An interesting article on SF Gate poses the idea that while President Obama is working toward "restoring scientific integrity to goverment decision-making", it should extend to America's dietary guidelines which have long been considered too fatty. The healthcare debate today is largely focused on who gets coverage and who pays for it rather than why American chronic illness rates are rising. Not surprising when you consider America's healthcare is crisis oriented rather than proactive. It's not a lack of coverage causing chronic illness.

"The No. 1 cause and cure of America's health care crisis is right under your nose - it's what you put in your mouth".

Read the whole article, here.