It’s About Eating Well - Real Food, Good Eating, Good Living, Never Depriving

August’s Cookbook had me at watermelon tomato gazpacho

Jul 31, 2025

I love being my age.

Maybe it’s because I finally feel good in my skin, and have crafted an ‘ideal’ day that I live almost every day.

That takes time to figure out. It’s not something I had in my twenties or even thirties. I was too busy. There were too many influences for me to settle down, figure things out.

A recent search in AI had this to say about our decades:

Twenties are about figuring out who you are, what you value, what you want in life. It’s about establishing career foundations and learning important life skills.
Thirties are about gaining clarity about career, health, relationships, and personal values. Learning to face challenges with grace and strength.
Forties are about embracing your authentic self, accepting imperfections, and letting go of the need for external validation. Becoming more adaptable and resilient in the face of inevitable life transitions.
Fifties and beyond are about cultivating a sense of gratitude for the life you’re living and finding joy in everyday moments. Drawing on a wealth of life experiences to navigate challenges with strength and resilience.

Yes. I agree.

I’ve been having a ton of conversations lately about changing from go-go-go to slow-slow-slow living. What if we got it all wrong?

I think about where I started changing. And a lot of it came from getting back in touch with food.

Not just wanting a good meal. But from really digging in and understanding food. Where it comes from. How it supplies energy.

Why it matters.

I never even thought much about food in my twenties and thirties. Too busy.

But that was the time when my daughter declared herself vegetarian at the age of three. I scrambled. I had to figure things out.

And it led me down this gorgeous road.

Back then, good vegetarian cookbooks were hard to find. I picked up a few, and had little success. They were so difficult! I didn’t understand half of what they said.

But it didn’t stop me from trying. My little three-year-old meant what she said. She’s been vegetarian for almost three decades, vegan for over ten years, and well-vested in the plant-based lifestyle. (She got her pastry chef certificate because of her love for good food.)

She’s an excellent cook.

I think that’s why I love picking up cookbooks from authors who went down a similar path.

This month’s cookbook author grew up ‘granola’. The hippy food shops were a part of her childhood. They influenced her to become a chef; she worked for Martha Stewart, and has an amazing way of crafting her recipes.

I get most of my cookbooks for the Cookbook Club via recommendations these days. (Have a plant-based cookbook to recommend? I’d love to explore it.)

I do my research. Check them out from my local library, if possible. Glance at a few recipes, make a recipe or two, and know instantly if it’s one of my ‘keepers’. Then, I buy, and add it to my shelf.

This is one of those cookbooks. It had me at Tomato and Watermelon Gazpacho.

Health Nut
By Jess Damuck

It’s simple. Yet complex. Just the way I like my cookbooks.

You know she’s got what it takes to be a chef - she worked for Martha Stewart for years.

But that’s not what made me fall in love with this cookbook. It’s solely based on food.

One look and you can see the ingredients you love, only played up in a new way.

Case in point, the Tomato and Watermelon Gazpacho. I’ve tried so many tomato gazpacho and melon gazpacho recipes throughout the years. Never did I ever think of combining the two main ingredients. I do think this is one of my favorite gazpacho recipes ever.

Or the Zucchini and Corn Fritters. This time of the year, I have more zucchini than I know what to do with. And I pick up organic corn on the cob whenever I find it - you can only get it a few weeks a year. So this was an obvious choice for me to use up some of the zucchini - it was gorgeous!

Damuck grew up in a health-conscious household. (Like my daughter!) She states this cookbook is “a fresh take on hippie health food,” and she doesn’t disappoint.

She talks about food vibrations:

“... I want to remind you that you should pay attention to the energy associated with the source, preparation, and eating of food.
Think about where your food comes from. Growing food is the best way to really feel a connection to where your ingredients originate.
Whatever energy goes into the food is what comes out of it.”

Maybe that’s why I gravitate toward feel-good cookbooks these days. Maybe that’s why I’m taking this time to slow down, appreciate life for what it offers, gardening, cooking, and all the other things that are part of a gorgeous life.

Or maybe it’s that now, in my fifties and beyond, I am cultivating a sense of gratitude for the life I’m living and finding joy in each moment, no matter what it holds.

Picking zucchini from the garden. Slicing it up, knowing I had a part in creating it. Crafting it into a gorgeous recipe that someone who truly cares about food put together. Then enjoying the meal in a gorgeous environment.

I didn’t have time for that in my twenties. I was too busy chasing dreams.

But here in this moment, it looks truly Gorgeous!

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