I made shepherd’s pie for dinner last night.

This isn’t a cooking blog. I’m not going to share the recipe here. I didn’t take any photos as I sautéed the minced lamb with carrots and onion or sealed casserole dish with mashed potatoes.

Shepherd’s pie has been one my favorite foods for as long as I can remember. I have vague memories of being quite little and having family members mock me for asserting that that was my preference.

I’ve never been terribly fond of meat. That’s a story for another day. But if you grind it up – pork or beef or lamb – it’s pretty tolerable. You aren’t confronted with the muscle or the fat in the same sort of way, either on your plate or in your mouth.

I decided to start writing down some of my thoughts and my memories about food because there are lots of issues I want to explore and unpack: my own tastes and habits but more broadly, some observations about how society interacts with food. I don’t really plan to start writing down recipes here – although I might. I’ve been toying with the idea of taking my wine drinking to a more serious, sommelier level. So I might use this as a space to list the adjectives that come to mind as I drink a glass or two or three. I might write about my family. I might write about other people’s families. I don’t know yet.