Virtual Living

In this new age of reality TV and "virtual" anything, I am constantly amazed at how smart human beings can get. You can go to "virtual school" on the Internet without setting a foot in a classroom, get a "virtual haircut and color" to try out different options before the hairdresser takes the scissors to your hair, get a "virtual 3D printout of your house" with optional shingle/siding combinations - just about anything goes. Well, my family has finally entered this new way of doing things!

It started with my obsession to Food Network TV. I am an addict. However, I don't really have the time to cook anything that I see. I watch while folding clothes, scrapbooking, prepping classes - anything that I can do in front of a television, Food Network is on in the background. I scribble notes and then go and buy the ingredients that I don't have, but that is where it stops. Mike has even started watching with me in the evenings. We get a bowl of cereal for supper and munch on it, while we watch Guy Fieri pig out on diner food in his show "Diners, Drive Ins and Dives". It was Mike that observed one night that we were having a "virtual food" experience. We watch, we buy, we go to bed hungry (but inspired). The photo above is actually a pulled pork sandwich, or rather, it would be if it had progressed beyond buying the spices for the rub.

The way that I look at it, virtual food can never be cooked wrong, always looks like it could be on TV (because it is) and never leaves a trail of dirty dishes. It is cheap (notice that I did not buy the pork shoulder) and there are great dining experiences every evening. Tonight we are doing Italian!