Keeping My Nuts in a Better Place

*Whilst away on business travel, I am pleased to welcome one of the most insightful and eloquent people I know as TDT195's first guest blogger. Take it away, Auntie H.

Those of us who follow this blog with some degree of regularity have come to anticipate its informative style, the irreverent wit, the enticing recipes, and the mind-blowing honesty of the author.  Get over it.  There will be none of that today.  Auntie H here, subbing for an airborne Mike on business assignment.  Agreeing to fill in has forced me to seize upon a topic, and that got me to thinking about my own relationship to food—something all Mike’s readers have undoubtedly, even if only secretly, considered.

We all use food as at least a dozen things other than mere nutrition and body fuel.  It is comfort when the tide turns against us, celebration when we gather together, reward when we achieve, gift when we want to please, seduction when we seek to prevail, rebellion against whatever “shoulds” (dietary or otherwise) have been imposed upon us, denial when we indulge against our better judgment, punishment when we eat to the point of discomfort, and occasionally, food is sheer pleasure, untainted by subconscious drives or fears and laden with sensual stimulation—the kind of experience Epicurus thought we all deserved, all the time.  (I am quite certain I would have been an Epicurean instead of a Catholic if only I had lived in Athens in fourth century BCE.)  

“Cuisine” has become one of the defining elements of “culture,” joining the fine and performing arts and literature in characterizing various peoples and places, though I suppose we should credit the Romans with starting this one.   The hors d'oeuvres, the main course, and the dessert were all part of the proper Roman dinner and what got served was intended not only to satisfy the guests but also to impress them.  Elaborate table service, exotic foods, legally prohibited  treats (like sow’s udders . . . yum), and fanciful methods of presentation all pointed to the affluence of the Roman host.  Not that anyone would have questioned his social superiority, Emperor Nero’s legendary banquet hall has been recently discovered in the Golden Palace, and it turns out to be a large circular space that rotated day and night in imitation of the Earth’s movement.  I think Martha Stewart will have to consider herself one-upped. 

For myself, food is a way of extending my boundaries (pun noted).  The preparation challenges me, and hopefully the outcome pleases you.  If I cook for you, it means I love you.  Food is, above all, a way of connecting with the people I care about.  Feeding my family all these years has been a great privilege, and also a great responsibility.  When my first child was born I made myself a food rule:  Never use food as a punishment or a reward.  “No dessert tonight because you didn’t clean your room” struck me as being as wrongheaded as “You can have some chocolate cake because you cleaned your room.”  They both made food into the wrong thing, and I was acutely aware that the eating habits of a lifetime begin just after strained peaches, when we pick up the spoon and hold it on our own.  I cannot claim to know what “the right thing” is—that is, the “correct” role that food should play in our lives.  I open the floor to debate here and hope some of you will post your thoughts on how we should or should not use food in our lives.  But first I will answer the question I know is on everyone’s mind:

Why did I title this post “Keeping My Nuts in a Better Place”?  Two answers.  First:  I was cooking dinner for-and-with Mike and he noticed me putting the pignolis back into my kitchen cabinet.  Deftly, gently (he’s that kind of guy), Mike ventured to make a suggestion:  Keep your pignolis in the refrigerator or freezer, he said.  They have a much shorter shelf life in the cabinet, he offered.  This struck at the heart of the matter.  I would have to rethink my pignolis.  I have always kept them in the cabinet, double bagged in a Ziploc.  But new habits don’t have to be difficult; they just have to be conscious.  If I keep my nuts in a better place they will last longer, taste better, and look prettier on the plate.  Hard to argue with that logic.  And my second answer is that I am not above a cheap and sensational headline as guest blogger to get you to stay with me till the end of the post.

Mike returns tomorrow to recount his adventures while still in Boise. 

What I Ate Today and How I Exercised (Keeping the Mike Tradition Alive!):

Breakfast/Lunch:  Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal with ¼ cup whole milk

Afternoon Snack:  Ten-or-so raw baby carrots dipped in artichoke/spinach hummus

Dinner:  Pasta with sundried tomato pesto and a salad of mixed greens with balsamic vinaigrette; rosemary focaccia

Exercise:  25 minutes of yoga stretching followed by 5 minutes of meditation