I was 18, on a date at a remote (and romantic) country cabin, he bought the groceries for our cook-out. Hamburger meat and buns to grill burgers outside. He took the (minced) hamburger, formed it into patties and threw them on the grill to cook.

I thought… I was going to be poisoned - here I am, miles from home and it’s the last anyone would see of me. Where was the egg? Where were the breadcrumbs? Surely he is risking putting RAW meat without any additives onto flame. In my house, you had to prepare the meat with several additives to make it meal-worthy.

It was a transforming moment thinking that perhaps, the additional ingredients weren’t necessary, and maybe, my family did this to stretch a meager budget to feed 7 people and just maybe that’s how NORMAL families cook burgers. He was a pretty nice guy, healthy…maybe he wasn’t trying to poison me. :-)

I survived, and realized everything my family cooked was a relatively crap version of real food. Just like canned vegetables vs fresh and don’t get me started on cheese…