I don’t know what this blog will turn itself into. All I know is that over the last 27 years, food has been a necessity, a desire, a complexity, a difficulty, a joy, and a complete fascination in my life.
I graduated from college with a degree in psychology and creative writing, with no desire to enter the field of psychology, nor the desire to attempt writing as a profession. In the last four years, I’ve found myself increasingly curious about cooking, food, meal-preparation, and culinary arts.
My learning has mostly been self-taught, in between various memories of my parents’ cooking and lots of reading. Food and cooking has become a welcomed preoccupation for me. It’s such a basic need… one that can bring such a fulfilling joy and a complete fullness that can so easily be filled.
I live in Southern Oregon with my vegetarian husband, and half of the time, his two kids (a 14 year old vegetarian and a 7 year old self proclaimed “meat eater and a vegetarian”). My style of cooking varies; during kid-week, we eat a lot of Mexican-influenced meals, simply because they go over well with everyone and make it easy to provide a pretty balanced diet for our family. On the weeks we don’t have the boys, I experiment more and often include fish in our meals.
When I think of food, I reminisce about family gatherings, I think about places I’ve enjoyed and loathed meals, I wonder where recipes have originated. I desire learning, appreciation, growth. I want more. Not more food (well, not always, at least), but more connection. More understanding. I want to know how to cook, what to cook, where ingredients have come from, where recipes have come from. I want to know what your great grandmother or grandfather, parent, sibling, lover, spent hours in the kitchen preparing… the things they adamantly avoided preparing.
I don’t always make good eating decisions. I don’t always make it a point to cook healthy things. I crave meals, desserts, snacks, things, that are definitely not good for me. I don’t always want to prepare something elaborate. Sometimes the only thing I am hungry for is a bag of Thai Spice Kettle Chips for dinner. I try to remember moderation… and give in to cravings without feeling too guilty.
What does food mean to you? What do you cook? Why don’t you cook? What do you enjoy about eating? What are your most loved and most hated foods? I want stories, musings, memories. Maybe you aren’t as obsessed as me. I still want to know! I’m starting this blog, because over the last couple years I’ve gotten requests from friends and family to share recipes I’ve come up with, or questions about what I’m cooking at home. Plus I’m addicted to reading other peoples’ food blogs.
Happy reading (and eating). Thanks for stopping by.
Note that all the photos and words on this site, unless otherwise noted, are the work of Julie Hashimoto-McCreery. They represent a lot of time and hard work. Please do not use any photos or text from Forbidden Rice Blog without first contacting julienaomi ‘at’ gmail ‘dot’ com and receiving written permission.
For any other inquires, feel free to contact me at the above e-mail address as well.
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Julie Hashimoto-McCreery
Hi Julie,
Did you attend Kapaa Elementary School on Kauai? If so, I was your 1st or 2nd grade teacher, can’t remember which. John was also in my class. I came across your Meyer Lemon bar recipe. But more later. Please confirm or “deny” if you’re the Julie who was in my class.
Joyce Takahashi
Hi Mrs. Takahashi!
You DO have the right Julie! And yes, I remember you being my 1st grade teacher. John remembers you, too! :) Are you still on Kaua’i? Did you continue teaching at Kapa’a Elementary through the years?
Thanks for writing!
Aloha,
Julie
Hello,
I live in the Midwest, a beautiful lake community of the Twin Cities.
I love to search for unique and healthy ingredients to cook for my family.
Fresh ingredients make everything better! Food challenges that I’ve conquered in the last year include: roasted whole fish ( rainbow trout
and Bronzino), roasted pork butt ( carnitas ), and beer can chicken witha spice rub. Perhaps easy for some but a new adventure for me!
I find chicken to be somewhat boring so the latter was a big deal.
I will not cook any organ meat. Anything else is worth trying.
I enjoy your blog and hope you’ll continue!
Hi Diane!
I am glad you enjoy reading – sounds like you are also enjoying some fun cooking! I’m with you on fresh ingredients making everything better – it’s my preferred method of cooking as well.
Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog. Happy cooking to you!
I was relaxing today — poking around on the internet and found your blog. I love your recipes — I very much enjoy Mexican and other Latin flavors from Costa Rica, Brazil and also have a love for Asian – esp Thai, Korean and some Japanese. I live in Roseburg so I like to visit Medford every now and then to get out of town for shopping. I also go to Eugene (love their farmers markets) will even go way up to Portland for the H Mart — LOVE that grocery store. I wish I could find some really good Latino markets but so far, not a lot of that in Oregon.
Thank you for your website. You have put some very nice effort into this and I plan to look thru it much closer!
Hi Julie,
Thanks for checking out The Whole Dish blog. I just wish the format of mine was as visual as yours. It’s always interesting to see who else is blogging in Southern Oregon. Hopefully, we can trade some ideas!
Hi Sarah,
Sorry its taken me so long to respond to this. I love checking out who else is blogging around here, too. I would love to swap ideas sometime or even work on a local piece together. Feel free to contact me anytime. The Rogue Valley offers so many opportunities for that sort of creativity.
I hope you’re well,
Julie
I found your site on foodblogs.com and thought I’d stop by and check it out. Just subscribed to your feed and can’t wait to see what your next post will be!
Thanks so much for stopping by and subscribing!
Hey…..just signed up to receive your blog. It is very interesting, in fact, I just sent it to two of my friends. One is on a gluten free diet and one loves to cook. I think you are doing a wonderful job. The pictures are great. I will go back over the holidays and look at the archives.
By the way, you do realize you are now my niece!!!!!! Thanks for being so great with the boys (all 3 of them)……pal