Harder than I thought

"Nothing would be more tiresome

than eating and drinking

if God had not made them a pleasure

as well as a necessity."

Voltaire

Writing about food has proven to be more difficult to write about every day than I originally expected. Maybe it's because I've been depressed and writing about anything every day would prove problematic. But it could be that food is the proverbial thorn of my flesh. I have a love/hate relationship with food. While I don't consider myself a glutton and certainly am not by any standards a gourmant, but I do like to eat. Over the years, my once lithe, limber body has slowed down and spread out. Not an uncommon side effect of menopause, yet, truth be told, I can't blame all the spreading on hormonal sluggishness. Most of it has to do with eating too much and exercising too little.

Food is both a comfort to me and a challenge. The comfort comes from the eating, but the trial is in the preparing. How can you have one without the other?

Who can pass up a delicious bowl of homemade crusty-topped macaroni and cheese, hot and bubbly right out of the oven? But the cheesy delight is only possible after dirtying at least two pans, a colander, a cheese grater, measuring cups and spoons, and a stirrer of choice. Some days the joy is in the journey; the cheese and milk and pasta are the tools the artist uses to make a masterpiece. Other days pouring macaroni out of a blue box from Kraft is tiresome. Cooking and eating on the run leads to an indigestion of the soul as well as the stomach.

But what then of a medium order of piping hot McDonald's French fries and icy cold coke? Or the drive through equivalent of the creme de la creme - a DQ hot fudge Sundae topped with frothy whipped cream and nuts and cherry. Oh Lordy, I swoon at the very thought of such a treat.

My main problem with food is not really with the food at all. It is the requirement, in this house, that three meals be prepared every day on a somewhat regular basis. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, breakfast lunch dinner. Day in and day out. I realize we all have to eat and I'm the person who has the task of seeing that this requirement is met. Sometimes I just get tired of the sameness of it all.

Don't get me wrong, as whiny as I sound, I realize just how lucky I am to have food at all and the opportunity to cook on a stove in an air conditioned kitchen that looks out over a cool and inviting swimming pool. I am blessed. I am grateful. I am hungry.

May the blessings of each day, be the blessing you need most,

Merry ME



July 6: Snickerdoodles

1 cup shortening (part butter or margarine)
1 ½ cup sugar
2 eggs
2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. soda
¼ tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (med. Hot)
Mix shortening, 1 ½ cups sugar and eggs thoroughly. Blend flour, cream of tartar, soda, and salt. Stir into creamed mixture. Shape dough in 1 inch balls. Roll in mixture of 2 Tbsp. sugar and cinnamon. Place 2 inches apart on un-greased baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes. These cookies puff up at first; then flatten out. Makes 6 dozen cookies.

Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book, pg.23