It's candy corn season

I say this in case you missed the one aisle of the store COVERED in orange and black. You know the one right before the 3 aisles of Christmas stuff (WAYYY creepier than the talking skulls).

Anyway Saturday is Halloween and regardless of how you feel about this ghoulish holiday, I hope you are going to at least enjoy our families Halloween tradition, Reeses Peanut Butter pumpkins. In my family we never got dressed up, and we lived so far out in no-wheres-ville that no one even came to our door. Right around Halloween, during one of our weekly grocery trips, my mom would pick up the Peanut Butter pumpkins. I really can't explain to you how much this moment was looked forward in my life. We never got candy all to ourselves. If my dad brought home a candy bar, we all split it. This might be why the day I was on my own at college I would devour bars of chocolate, like I had years of eating only a few squares to make up for it.

There is of course another candy that is probably a better representative of spooky season. Candy corn was invented in 1880 by George Renninger for a Philadelphia candy company. Yeah Philly does it again, or did it again. Anyway it was an instant hit, because it looked like corn, Renninger actually made it to be the same size as a kernel of corn.

8.3 billion candy corn are produced every year with an impressive 80% bought/consumed in September and October. The funny thing is though, I really don't think that many people actually consume candy corn. It's the candy I always equate to a candy dish, and not the candy dish candy that actually disappears.

Put M&Ms in a dish and they're gone by the end of the night. Put candy corn in and yeah they'll probably get dusty. Now I may be totally off on this and people may really like eating tons of candy corn. I'm a fan of eating one or two pieces and thinking YEAH FALL and then moving on to the Reeses pumpkins.

Because I took my ethics midterm today and could tell you the 3 parts of Kant's categorical imperative, I am feeling a little philosophical. So what is it about candy corn that makes me try one or two pieces and then move on. I guess I'm really not a huge fan of candy corn. It's not like Hershey's chocolate. I don't really crave it. I just feel the need to eat it, like it wouldn't be Halloween without crappy candy corn. Yeah I said crappy; it's so crappy that I need to eat it when it's sitting in front of me.

Ok it's a fact, all of this ethics stuff really isn't applicable. I mean if I can't figure out why I need to eat candy corn (the important stuff) then what in the world is it supposed to teach me? Oh yeah, how to be so stressed you scream while crying at Matt because he called you 45 minutes later than normal (stress oh stress). My poor boyfriend is a saint.

Well I hope you find a candy dish with candy corn in it this Halloween. And remember you're only required to eat one or two pieces; we all know they're gross.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Don't worry I pinched myself and i'm still alive

Weeks like these teach you many lessons. What kind of weeks are these? Ugh I am so very glad you asked. This week started with a ten page paper, an article for beat reporting, an ethics midterm, and silly little things along the way. The ethics test was by far the most stressful. I finished the 10 page paper in 4 hours on Monday, so Ethics was the one awful thing just looking over me all week.

I have woken up every morning with an neck ache. This morning I bent over in the shower and my lower back felt like it was about to die on me. Stress does dirty things to my body. But I still got up and took a shower and started doing whatever needed to be done to end the day on a sort of happy note.

Lesson from all of this? Yeah I'm telling you, in the thick of it there are lessons galore.

Lesson Number One: Things have to be done with tomorrow in consideration. I was hungry for a meal Monday night, so I made fried chicken and rice. I knew that Tuesday I would be leaving my apartment at 7:15 in the morning and not getting back till after 8 at night. Instead of dirtying the pots and pans Monday night for one meal, I made enough for Tuesday as well. I'm getting pretty good at this concept. Tonight I made amazing ghetto mac and cheese (what else would you call Walmart's version of Kraft mac and cheese?) with some fried up hamburger meat in it. I put half in my bowl and half in a plastic container for lunch tomorrow. It really works seamlessly when you get used to it.

Lesson Number Two: Responsible people don't save the world, but they sure do make it an easier place to live. I had the privilege of joining a study group for my ethics midterm. 4 out of 5 of the girls in the group (I'm on of the 4 in case you were wondering.) had extensive notes and knowledge of the material. It made my life sooo much happier. All of us worked together and came up with amazing answers. I would not be nearly as confident in knowledge of the material for the exam tomorrow if it hadn't had been for the responsibility of these girls. Some people have dreams and visions of saving the world. We all can't be Superman, but we can all be responsible and make someone else's life a little easier.

Lesson Number Three: Sugar is so much better when you're dealing with stress. I have gone through a thing of Vanilla Coke, two packages of gummy bears, and a Hersheys bar. I feel like if I hadn't enjoyed all of those things I might not have survived. That is just a theory at this point, but I'd rather not test it.

Lesson Number Four: Razers are dangerous tools that most women and men use every day. This doesn't really sound like a lesson, but it's just what I need to keep telling myself as I feel both of my shins stinging with pain. I guess being stressed out is not the best time for me to shave my legs. Some of you might not want to know that, but I really feel like it should be public knowledge that at the age of 21 after shaving my legs for probably 10 years I still manage to shave my skin instead of the hair on my legs. Matt would call this a fail.

Lesson Number Five: One of those weeks makes me love every other week. If I can make sure that I have breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day during this gross week; I can definitely do this on a normal week. If can make all of my deadlines and get help from people, why not during a normal week? During a week that I have free time, I am not nearly as good with time management as I am when I am crazy busy. Stop being lazy. If you can do it with no time, you can do it when you have time. This is probably the most important lesson of the week.

After doing a practice ethics test and making dinner, I finally sat down to relax. I caught the end of ABC Nightly New. Charlie Gibson told me all about the horrific things that happened in the world today. At the end of all of this he said, "For ABC News this is Charlie Gibson and I hope you had a good day." Charlie you make my heart melt. I hope you all had a good day and week. If you didn't and you haven't sat down to think about what you've learned from your awful day, then you've totally wasted a terrible day.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Here we go again

I woke up this morning with a list of things to do that should have taken me a week. I had a day. On my way home from my Beat Reporting class, i.e. only class I have on Mondays (nothing like waking up and getting to class at 7:45 to turn around and leave 2 hours later), I decided that it was going to take drastic measures to keep me in my apartment till I had 10 pages written for my Moving in Moving out (I've shortened it to MiMo; kind of catchy don't you think?)class.

Emergency College Kit:

Vanilla Coca Cola - I know I know I'm normally a soda hater, but by not drinking it all of the time I actually am affected by its caffeine content. A little bit of sugar and a little bit of caffeine in a tasty treat, kept me going even when I hit my 7 page slump.

Gummy Bears - I am really not sure who doesn't like gummy bears. These little guys are just so yummy and they can be sucked on while an important thought is about to be thrown on the page, or they can be chewed while you're trying to think of the right word.

Dorritos snack mix - Sweet and salty is such a beautiful combination. I didn't want to eat all of my chips or snacks for the week. This week is going to be hard enough; I won't have the time to run to the store for extra food. The snack mix was perfect. It had pretzels and Dorritos and Sun Chips. Really you can't go wrong.

College does awful things to people. Just when you think that you have everything under control you walk into that only class you have Monday and the professor dumps an 800-1,000 word election story on you. In a matter of minutes, I can go from happy to stressed. Thankfully I know what I need to get me through, and the people I love stay extra close to me understanding my instant mood swings. My mom and Matt are better than all of the Vanilla Cokes in the world. They are sweet with a little bit of energy added.

After accomplishing as much as I possibly could today, I knew that I needed a good meal. While answering my ethics questions for my midterm (over and over out loud; my poor neighbors got quite the ethics lecture), I breaded and fried some chicken and cooked up some rice. This may not sound like that much of an accomplishment, but I was able to make enough for dinner tomorrow. When I have a study session after class, my tummy won't be rumbling now. I also cleaned up all of the dishes and left my kitchen completely clean. I doubt that I will ever accomplish as much in a day as I do now as I attend Emerson. I guess as long as Walgreens sells Vanilla Coke, Gummy Bears, and salty snacks I will survive with a full stomach.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Fruit Loops may not be the "Smart Choice"

Much to my surprise and chagrin Fruit Loops and Cracker Jacks are not nutritional. Ok ok I already knew this, but supposedly the FDA is going to start getting stricter about what they let companies like General Mills and Kraft say about the food they produce. Supposedly the FDA is worried that people might have been confused by the labeling in the past, and now they want to make everything better.

Really guys, really? Did anyone really believe that Fruit Loops were nutritional? Well I guess if you did, I hate to break it to you, but it doesn't matter what the label on the box says, they aren't!!!

I give the FDA props for standing up to this false marketing. I know a lot of parents are smart enough to read beyond the label, but some aren't. There are some people out there who read "low calorie" and never bother to check the sodium level or all of the added preservatives.

My favorite falsely advertised item is the fruit flavored sparkling water. They advertise 0 grams sugar, 0 calories, 0 grams fat; but they always neglect to mention, that the empty calories in the fake sugar they use will, in fact, cause you to eat more. Your stomach thinks it's going to get calories and then when it doesn't it causes you to be hungry, to fill the emptiness you created by tricking yourself. Same thing happens when you drink diet soda.

Matt actually makes a true low calorie version of one of my favorite meals. It tastes good, and you almost don't miss the calories.

Matt's Chicken "Parm"

Chicken Breasts
Adobo
Spaghetti Noodles
Tomato Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese

Sprinkle adobo on both sides of the chicken breasts. Broil the chicken. Yes I know this landed me with a burned hand and chicken on the floor, but just give it a try. You probably aren't as klutzy as I am. Broil them on either side till it is done in the middle.

Cook the noodles to perfection (whatever that means to you). Heat the tomato sauce. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on the chicken when it's done and put it under the broiler for a few more minutes till the cheese is melted. Put some noodles, as much sauce as you like, and the chicken on your plate. No it's not breaded and no Matt's version is actually completely void of Parmesan cheese (you can add some of that onto your pasta if you like it; Matt doesn't), but in all honestly it tastes good. You will forget that you're missing the breading and the frying and the baking. It takes half the time that chicken parm normally takes, and I think the FDA would agree with me; it is low calorie.

Be on the lookout for less marketing lies on your food labels, or more advanced ones. And remember make your favorite foods low calorie. If Matt can do it on accident, you can definitely do it if you try.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Dentist ruin everything

I work with a very exuberant theater education major at my work study job named Andy. I say overly exuberant only because last year he was taking this class where he had to pretend to be a 5 year old boy and he pretty much drove me CRAZY!!! I drove him crazy by feeling the need to alphabetize everything to be fair. But he's a good actor and having a 20 year old guy whining at you like a five year old boy...Oy Vey!

I found at a wonderful bit of information about Andy this week when I brought in Princess fruit snacks. I don't know of many people who would refuse such a fun, tasty treat. But Andy was overly excited about these fruit snacks. Supposedly Andy's mom bought him fruit snacks and fruit roll-ups until the dentist told her that they were bad for Andy's teeth. He went from enjoying all of the gummy deliciousness that he could, to being forced to drop the habit cold turkey. Ugh dentist ruin everything. But here, right here is the infuriating thing about Andy. I said out loud, being completely understanding to his horrible lack-of-fruit-snacks childhood, that dentists suck and his response.

"Well they are bad for your teeth." UGH!!! So I smiled agreed, made a comment about how this was probably especially true when he was young and growing in new teeth and bowed out of the conversation.

Yesterday was the opening night of the play Incorruptible. Andy was the lead role. It was totally a big deal. What did I bring Andy to wish him luck? Mom and dentists please close your eyes for a minute. PRINCESS FRUIT SNACKS!!! Yeah he was pretty excited.

Against my sleepy judgement (this play started at 8 and I didn't go home till 11; I'm totally normally asleep by 9) I went to Andy's play last night. I was so proud of my fellow work-study. He was amazing.

The play was set in this medieval monastery that got their relic stolen, or sort of stolen, by this jester (Andy). The monks then started digging up bodies and selling the bones as relics to make some money with Andy's help. Add in some of Andy's bad singing and fake bad juggling (he actually can juggle, but he faked being bad at it pretty well. It was hysterical, and the acting was wonderful. But of course my favorite part was this subplot about one of the monk's father, who was a baker. When times started getting hard in the town, supposedly this monk's father told his kids to add sawdust to the bread. Even when times got better, they kept adding sawdust until someone got a splinter and the diabolical plot was found out.

Sawdust in bread???? I really did wonder if I would be able to catch the difference in flavor. I guess it's the same texture? I guess we just never know what we're eating.

I spent the last 5 hours typing answers for my ethics midterm. Now I have 9 pages of typed notes to memorize before Thursday. I just made some peanut butter cookies, so I guess it's time to start the 10 page paper I was hoping to start earlier today. Always remember, you can do anything if you have some princess fruit snacks or peanut butter cookies at your disposal. Otherwise, good luck!

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Life lesson number 3,456 : Always double check that you have your keys

And keep leftovers in the fridge.

My feet and dead. I am not over-exaggerating. They have died and if they were to come back to life they would probably SCREAM and tell you all how I abuse them and how I don't deserve them. My poor feet. The culprit today: my ballet flats. I love these shoes. They look perfect, they are mostly comfortable, and they match pretty much everything. The problem is that I've worn them down so much and the inside of the shoe by the heel is down to the inner workings of the shoe (They are funny plastic things that must build up the heel or something. They are really hard and kind of hurt after long walks). It's really terrible, but because it's the inside of the shoe and no one sees it I continue to wear the shoes. If I wear socks or stockings with them my feet don't hurt, but if I walk a few miles in them with no socks or anything my feet die.

Why did I walk a few miles today? I was so excited about getting an interview that I repacked my purse neglecting my keys. The good news is that I climbed the fire escape and found that all of our windows are hard to break into. Our neighbor's window really isn't (I am glad no one was home because I wasn't entirely clear on which window was ours and might have gotten their window entirely open before realizing it wasn't our furniture). Some more good news, my roommate Ariel is amazing and responded to my "PLEASE SAVE ME FROM SITTING OUTSIDE THE APT TILL YOU GET HOME AT 2 A.M." text, and let me go down to school to get her keys. The bad news, after schlepping to Harvard and back to my apt (about a mile each way) I had to schlep down to school one more time and then schlep back home. I was tired guys, really really tired.

When I got home all I wanted was food. I was tempted to stop and buy food, but my final piece of good news kept me from spending money on something fatty or greasy or not filling. I had leftovers. It is not often that I am excited about leftovers. In fact I am hardly ever excited. But today as I was walking home, all I could think about was how I would have a homemade meal in 1 minute and it wasn't in the freezer or a can. Because I'm cooking for one a lot, I tend to have a lot of leftovers. Sometimes I don't eat them and waste the food, but on a day like today when the bad news tended to bring me down a lot faster than the good news could make me feel better, it was so nice to know dinner was all ready to go.

I pride myself in being prepared. Every morning I wake up, make a lunch, eat breakfast, and leave for class so I will arrive 15-20 minutes early (just in case the T is late). I am neurotic about remembering my keys and locking doors. When I do make a mistake, the important part is solving the problem, right? If that's the case, I aced today. Unfortunately it didn't feel like that. At least I had leftovers; I'm always more prepared when I have a full tummy.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Baked Macaroni and Cheese please

I think after a day of thought I have actually solved the mystery of why Matt did not like the baked mac and cheese yesterday. First of all, I took an unofficial poll of a bunch of my guy friends and not one of them liked baked mac and cheese. I think it has to do with a lack of meat, but that doesn't make me less sad for them.

How could you ever not enjoy 15 kinds of cheese, noodles, and milk with a bread crumb top. Well that bread crumb top leads to the second reason Matt did not appreciate my culinary creation. Matt just doesn't like bread crumbs. Really I do not understand this at all, but he doesn't (bread toasted and crumbled up, did I tell you my brother refused to eat butter for a good ten years...it's a first boy kind of thing I guess). So pretty much one of my favorite meals is out when Matt's around and the reason, oh yeah just my favorite part of one of my favorite meals...THE BREADCRUMBS!!! Have I said how much I love this boy today?

Ok well let me back track now and go back to how to make the baked mac and cheese. It is so easy and probably not how you would ever make baked mac and cheese from a cookbook. I tend to just make things up as I go along.

Cook up a bag of noodles. I always mean to make them less cooked, but then I forget to pull them out in time. Just cook the noodles. Cut abut half the block of cheddar cheese into smallish squares. Place the cooked noodles into a pan (all I had was a 13x9 pan, but my mom has these wonderful casserole dishes that would work good too). Add mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese, and about a cup of milk to the noodles. Sprinkle on some Parmesan cheese. Cover the top with breadcrumbs and a few tablespoons of butter. Cover the mac and cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes. The cheese should be all melty.

I honestly have no idea how this could not make anyone happy. It is just a melty dish of deliciousness to me. The other amazing thing about baked mac and cheese is that it fills me up so much. All I need is a bowl and I'm happy as a clam. It's also great for a reheated meal. I had some for lunch today.

You are probably wondering what was up with the video I posted yesterday. Matt really wants to create videos, so that all of you can see what we're creating. He's very good with video, but as it turns out I'm not. I might have just been tired yesterday, so don't worry we'll try again. I kind of had a few fails before I nixed the whole video idea. Matt was very good to cut me off before anyone could hear me telling the world that he was making me do the video. Again how I love this boy.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

I might not have been a very good sport

Multimedia has its limits and I was terribly over it tonight. So instead of telling you all about Matt's first taste of baked mac and cheese (and probably his last...he wasn't a fan) and how I made what I thought was a fabulous baked mac and cheese I am going to leave you with a grocery list, some video, and some pictures. I promise more will come tomorrow.

Grocery list:
Block of sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup of milk
Parmesan cheese
Mozzarella cheese
On bag of PA Dutch wide noodles
Italian bread crumbs
3 tablespoons butter

Wish you were here...

Old country store met barn in the store at Meadow Ledge Farm in Loudon, New Hampshire. Apple picking was at it's peak, and the store was packed with groups of families and friends and of course every apple picking, maple syrup slurping, New Hampshire foodie delight known to man. Somehow all of the clutter created more of a feeling of a crowded petting zoo at the town fair than a Hallmark store that was invaded by an after school program. It was homey.

The scent of apple cider donuts enveloped the air. A line of people on the far right side of the store seemed to have formed from the magnetic pull of the aroma. I knew of the phenomenon of the apple cider donuts. Matt had no clue. He started drifting towards the fryer the second we stepped into the store.

A worker stood over a doughnut machine stuffing some sort of shortening/white fat into the top of the contraption. Doughnut machines are such beautiful pieces of machinery. The fat is heated to the perfect temperature and the batter is placed in a funnel like contraption that pushes out the perfect sized and shaped "pre-donut" and plops it right into the oil. The soon-to-be-donut floats down the river of fat right onto a water wheel (well of course it's not a water wheel, but picture that and try to follow me) that flips the doughnut so the other side fries as perfectly as the first side. It floats along right onto an edge that brings the perfect doughnut out of the oil.

Some doughnuts make the coolness of the doughnut machine completely unnecessary, but for the line of people out of the door at Meadow Ledge Farm the doughnut machine was creating a masterpiece, a family tradition, an apple picking treat. Meadow Ledge's website warned about the line for their doughnuts. It actually said people could wait for 45 minutes. I would guess that I waited for about 35 minutes on the day Matt and I went apple picking.

In a store full of apple pies, caramel apples, and New Hampshire made soda, why would I wait 35 minutes for fried dough? While Matt was enthralled with the scent of the doughnuts, he did look at me a little shocked when I was set on waiting as long as I had to, to get my hands on one of these treats.

Dunkin Donuts has nothing on these fried delights. Apple cider doughnuts from Meadow Ledge farm have a soft sort of crumb cake texture, with mildly mulled flavors. The outside is a little crispy with a hint of oily; but it is clear the people at Meadow Ledge have a little practice with this doughnuts thing, because the dough isn't soaked in oil (this would happen if the oil wasn't hot enough when the doughnuts were being fried). One bite creates a believer.

Visiting Meadow Ledge farm is not the time to consider your diet. Because of the high demand for the doughnuts the most one person can buy is one dozen. My advice, bring a few friends and give them the money to buy a dozen each. These doughnuts blow my mind, and I grew up in an area of this country that devotes a whole day to the eating of doughnuts (Fasnacht day - don't worry more about that one come February).

Not everyone will have the opportunity to travel to Loudon, New Hampshire to try these seasonal creations. Rent a car, walk, hitchhike, take a train, book a flight, do anything you can so you won't miss my newest fall favorite. I promise you will not be disappointed.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Mmm the kitchen has that burnt toaster smell right now

This weekend I had a laundry list of homework. 5-7 page paper on Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, rewrite on an article I wrote, Nietzsche quiz, history reading...yeah if you aren't pitying me by now you are heartless and cruel.

So long lists of homework demand extreme measures. I am a professional procrastinator; to fight my serious flaw I decided I would bar myself in Matt's apartment and not leave until all of my homework was finished.

While this whole plan may sound strange, it was actually working. I had almost all of my work done before dinner. I knew that I didn't want to spend a long time on dinner, so I had bought a frozen stir fry thing at Trader Joes. I'm not very graceful in my own kitchen, so you can imagine the grace I possess in other people's kitchens.

All I had to do was heat the rice and heat the chicken and vegetable. I get the chicken and vegetables going. I reach over and turn on the burner for the rice. GAAAAAAAAHH!!! I turned on the wrong burner and Matt leaves his toaster on his stove. Yeah the burning plastic smell pretty much filled the kitchen. I was hoping beyond hope that somehow the burning plastic didn't affect the actual workingness of the toaster. Yup not so lucky. I tried to toast some bread. I clicked it down and down and down again and it just kept popping up.

Oh yeah dinner, it was burning by now. I texted Matt and told him that I needed to buy him a new toaster. I don't think he's ever going to leave me alone in his apt again, and I just found a cure for my procrastination. Oh life!

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Are you hungry?

Today is World Food Day. It is a day meant to bring about awareness of food issues around the world. According to the Huffington Post, 1 billion people are hungry in the world, and 4.5 million Americans are getting emergency food assistance from Feeding America.

I ate three meals today, and snack or two. I think it would be fair to say that, though I remember saying "I'm starrrrrving!" as a little kid, I have never really experienced true hunger pains. I may be going out on a limb, but I doubt many of you have either. In fact most of the time, I am overly full after eating a meal.

While all of this is great, I had to wonder as I started reading information about World Food Day if I was really thankful for the food I eat. A lot of times I think I take for granted the fact that when I'm hungry I have money in my bank account to go to the store and pick something up for dinner. Many people don't have stores full of food and many more wouldn't have the money to afford the food anyway.

Pardon my soapbox, but WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!! These are tough times. I don't think of one person that I know of who hasn't had to make some sort of cut back in their lifestyle, but buying the cheaper brand of bread isn't really that much of a sacrifice.

I was at a journalism panel at Emerson and one of the panelists told the story of a family she covered. This family had two little children. They did not have enough money to support both of the children, and had to decide which child would live. The panelist described an immaculately kept household, and the child which was basically being starved to death who was kept in a pristine white dress. The panelist refrained from naming the country this occurred in, because she didn't want people to make generalities. But does it really matter? This shouldn't be happening anywhere. No parent should ever have to make the decision of which child they can keep because they don't have enough food to feed both. This is 2009 right?

I guess I'm just wondering why we can make progress and create robotic vacuums that work on their own, and we can't come up with a way to feed everyone in the world. Now that seems like something that would deserve the Nobel Peace Prize (don't worry I won't get started on that soapbox).

Practically speaking winter is coming, so if you live in a city like I do, it wouldn't kill you to buy a sandwich for the homeless person you pass every day. Most towns and cities have food drives or soup kitchens. Give your time. No it won't solve the problem of the child in India scrounging through trash for food, but at least you will be doing something.

At the end of every post I wish you all happy eating. I hope today it is extra happy. Stop for a second to consider and be thankful for all of the food you have; we really are so blessed.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

How did I miss this?

I am a big proponent of candy holidays. What is a holiday without candy, really? But those holidays that are completely centered around candy...aaahhh heavenly. I walked into my work study job today and the registrar peeps were all having a meeting. The other work study looked awkwardly up from the computer. He had obviously sat down before the meeting and had no way to escape. I hid in the back office, eating goldfish and waiting for the meeting to be done; so of course I had time to be nosy and scan all of Amy's stuff (it was her office that I decided to take residence). I promise there is a point to this story. There wasn't much in Amy's office so I started carefully examining her calendar. And there on her calendar was a holiday on October 17th. It was called Sweetest Day.

What in the world is Sweetest Day? I asked the other work study, after handing him the note I started writing him, ("Dear Andy, Don't you like this pink paper? I think it's expensive because it's such a pretty color." - We hung it up. It really was a work of art.) what Sweetest Day was and he said it was probably just a joke. Amy took my question a lot more seriously; she wikipediad it for me (don't be a snob about wiki, because you know you would have at read what it had to say too). According to wiki(don't worry I did look up other sources to see if this info was correct), Sweetest Day was started out in Great Lakes area of the US. Candy makers in Ohio in 1921 gave out thousands of boxes of candy to orphans, poor people, and older people. It was a way to give back to people.

The idea of a Sweetest Day never really spread. I guess dentists managed to quash it. Honestly it seems like such a sad thing to me. Here is this adorable little holiday full of newly reformed Scrooges running through the streets passing out packages to all of the poor and needy passed every day, and no one knows about it!!! Why do all of the good holidays go unnoticed?

I'm not going to lie, I kind of feel like someone who has been given this amazing little present and now I get to enjoy something I never got to enjoy before. Saturday is Sweetest Day and, while it might not be a good idea to hand candy to homeless people in the Boston Common (doing such things normally results in injury or death; Bostonites don't trust nice people), I am going to have a nice little celebration, even if it means eating a cookie and yelling "Happy Sweetest Day" in the middle of Matt's apartment.

Since Sweetest Day is basically unknown, I might even make it a two day affair. While I'm in Providence on Friday writing the 5-7 page paper my history professor still hasn't given me the specs on, I might celebrate a little. Every page or so I may have to jump up and down and yell HAPPY SWEETEST DAY. I have a feeling Matt won't like the idea, so I'll probably have to whisper it until he leaves for work.

If you want a more streamlined food holiday for the weekend, you can celebrate National Chocolate Cup Cake Day on Sunday October 18th. It wasn't on Amy's Calendar and it has too long of a name to shout out and bounce around rooms. It also kind of restricts you to one sweet, but some people like to be a little more ordinary than me. I understand. I will be celebrating my virgin run of Sweetest Day, depending on my mood chocolate cup cake day might make my schedule on Sunday. We'll have to see. Either way it is looking like a busy weekend.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Out spreading smallpox

I have been absent this weekend(as in I literally have answered my phone for only my mom...apologies to those trying to get a hold of me). Matt and I escaped to New Hampshire and have been taking in the leaves and the cold air. It really has been cold up here. Last night the low was 27 degrees Fahrenheit, and when you're 95 pounds soaking wet that feels like -15.

As you can see from the pictures Matt and I did some apple picking. We also made two apple treats. Baking apples are such an intriguing fruit. They have to be just firm and sour enough to turn into a sweet soft dessert. It really is odd.

There were some unmarked trees at the apple farm, so Matt took a bite from one of the apples to see if he liked the variety. I knew we had found a perfect baking apple when he spit the apple out "GROSS that's so sour!" I personally am a big fan of sour baking apples (my tummy is not), but most people wouldn't want to just eat them off the tree. Another sign that they were good for baking was that they didn't have a nice white flesh. Apples that are good for baking are sort of greenish on the inside; they don't have that perfect whitish red fresh of a red delicious apple.

After about an hour of picking, tasting, and goofing around in the apple trees, we went to pay for our apples and I bought apple cider donuts. I would love to tell you about these treats, but honestly I think they deserve a post to themselves. Yes they are that heavenly; you'll just have to wait for my ode to their fried doughy goodness.

You may be wondering what treats we were making this weekend. I had breakfast duty Sunday morning, so I made stuffed french toast with caramel apple topping. You really can't go wrong with my stuffed frensh toast. I have made it with strawberry topping, fresh orange syrup topping, and now these apples. It's so easy. Look at the fresh fruit of the season and just run with it.

Stuffed French Toast:

Cream Cheese (Mascarpone, Ricotta…I used ricotta the first time I made it and everyone loved it, but either of the three cheese work just fine. I normally make enough for 4-5 people and use maybe ¾ of a container of cream cheese.)

Bread (I’ve used sliced French bread and regular white bread. Because you use two slices of bread make sure that it is a thinly sliced lighter bread (the kind that if it was made into a pb&J you could smoosh it till it's paper thin) and not anything heavy like 12 grain bread.)

Granulated Sugar, cinnamon, honey or corn syrup (You can use whatever you want to sweeten the cheese. A jam or jelly would work too. I use the honey or corn syrup to make the cream cheese a little more movable to spread and the granulated sugar and cinnamon for taste, but if you’re using a jelly then that kind of takes the job of all of the sweeteners. Taste the cheese to make sure it’s sweet enough or not too sweet.)

3 eggs and a little bit of milk (To make about 5 servings I use 3 eggs. Mix in a little of the milk and whisk with a fork.

Sweeten the cheese. If using the honey, granulated, cinnamon combination, start with the honey to soften the cream cheese and make it easier to mix everything in.
Spread some cream cheese on a slice of bread. I normally spread about the same amount that I’d use for a peanut butter sandwich, maybe a little bit more. Place another piece of bread on top of the piece with cream cheese. Dip the bread in the egg mixture and fry in an oiled pan till golden brown on either side.

For the caramel apple topping, I just peeled and cored about 3 apples. I cut then fairly small and started frying them in a pan with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. In a saucepan, I put about a cup of sugar, maybe 2 cups of water, and just a pinch of cream of tartar. I let that mixture boil till it started turning color. When it had just a slight color (there is nothing worse than burned sugar so always ere on the side of caution), I added a few tablespoons of butter and 1/2 a cup of milk. I put it back on the heat till it was all smooth. I then added the caramel to the apples. This all may sound like a lot of work, but make the apple mixture before you start the stuffed french toast because it can sit and be reheated fairly easy.

We couldn't spend the weekend in New Hampshire without Matt's mom's famous apple crisp. It truly is legendary and one of the only apple desserts I will eat. After a short hike through the woods yesterday Matt and I got out the apples again and started making it.

The Best Apple Crisp You Will Ever Eat:

2 cups of flour
2 cups of brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
Cinnamon
8 cups of apples
1 cup of butter
1/2 cup of nuts (optional, but pretty tasty)

Peel and core the apples. Cut them into apple pie sized apples. Grease a 13x9 inch pan and fill the bottom of the pan with the apples. I don't think we actually scaled out the 8 cups of apples. We used 6 apples because it filled the pan pretty much. Sprinkly the apples in the pan with cinnamon. Make sure you cover them; don't be stingy.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, nuts, and salt. Add the eggs one at a time. The mixtuer will be crumbly. Pour it over the apples. Melt the cup of butter and pour over the crumb topping. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 50 minutes.

I am serious when I say this is heavenly, but really what isn't heavenly when a cup of butter is involved.

To say we ate well is an understatement. Between the stuffed french toast and the apple crisp, Matt's dad and friend John were having an outside tailgating party. They made us ribs and shrimp and corn fresh from North Carolina. I was so full I felt sick. It is not often that I can say I have ever felt like that. But it was so good.

I am going to be so sad to head back tonight. My breakfast of oatmeal just won't taste the same tomorrow. I suppose that is why you enjoy vacations so much; you don't get the good food and good company all of the time. If we did, we'd probably think it was boring.

It's Columbus Day, so I hope you all are out discovering new lands and spreading small pox. Or just enjoying some good food and wonderful company.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Mi Abuela

I was not a pretty child. My sister was gorgeous. She had these adorable little ringlets and this round perfect face. But every Sunday when we visited my Abuela she would grab me first and give me a smothering hug. You would think in a state of being smothered one would find it hard to hear, but my Abuela's beautiful voice cooed in my ear, "Ay que linda." I had no idea what that meant. I wouldn't know till many years later, when I was in Spanish class, what this phrase meant; but when she said that phrase to me I felt like the most beautiful girl in the world. I was my Abuela's princess.

I wanted nothing more than to please my Abuela, to be like my Abuela. She was the perfect hostess. Every Sunday her family would come and she created what seemed like mountains of food. No one could make the amount of food she made every week with such ease. She might have, but I never once heard her complain. When everyone was fed and happy, she really had no interest in jumping into the family debate of the day. She would sit down next to me on her big cushy chair and hold my hand in hers. Her favorite place was watching everyone; she never needed to be the center of attention.

Her hands were the most beautiful thing in the whole world. Those hands that chopped and diced and prepared the best rice and beans that have ever existed on this planet, were so soft. They weren't soft like the hands of someone who never knew work; they were soft like the banister I still tend to swing on a little as I run down the stairs at my parent's house. They were worn down like my mom's wedding ring, to a smooth and cool touch.

The tip of her thumb was missing. When she was very little, she had cut it off with a machete while harvesting sugar cane in Puerto Rico. She would hold my hand and rub the tip of her thumb on my hand. I loved her.

All of my interest and need for food in my life can be traced back to my Abuela. I think she invented the true passion for food and then passed it on to all of her children and their children. My Titi Stella is one of the best cooks I know. My cousin and brother were the pickiest eaters (they decided they didn't like butter for a while and normally fed off of each other's dislike of certain foods) and somehow she persevered creating incredible culinary creations accepting the silence of chewing as her sole reward. My Titi Carmen makes amazing desserts. When my mom was new to the family (she married my Abuela's baby, so her cooking skills had to be up to par), she made these amazing Swedish meatballs. My Uncle Tony looks at her and makes a snarky remark about her being the new competition. My mom tells that story so proudly. I think it was one of her finest moments, feeling like she could impress this family so steeped in good food.

When I was 12 my Abuela passed away. Sometimes I wish that I could bring her back for just one day so she could see me now. I would love to have her hold me and tell me how beautiful I am (sometimes when I'm having a terribly ugly day I look in the mirror and imagine her hugging my awkward bony frame and still thinking I was pretty). I would want to eat her food just one last time.

Once someone dies we never get that one more day. It's probably the only thing that can still bring tears to my eyes with no notice. I don't know why I couldn't get my Abuela off my mind tonight, but she just felt close for some reason.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

The sky cried and I made peanut butter bars

Well I would say the sky more or less spit all day, but after a lot of discouragement today it kind of felt like it was crying for me. I don't know if the sky really cries, but somehow I feel like it does(so don't bust my bubble).

In the event of the sky crying, I decided it was time to bake the peanut butter bars that I had been putting off baking for the whole freaking week. Why would one put that off for a week? I don't know. Sad, but no good answer for that one. Obvious fail on my part.

There totally was a purpose for me meaning to bake these delicious sugary treats. Tonight at 1 in the morning my knight in shining armor(or a silver Ford Focus) will be driving down my road (and only waiting for about 20 seconds for me) to put my bags in the car and run off to New Hampshire. It's only an hour from my apartment to Matt's parent's house, but at one in the morning I'm sleepy and sometimes cranky. The only thing to make the whole experience better are the sugary treats and cheesy popcorn that I buy before our trip. This time I felt like I should make make the sugary treat; you know it's only right.

You don't need a New Hampshire trip for an excuse to make these delicious treats. Possibly the best part was that I baked one in a pie pan and the other in a loaf pan. Necessity really is the mother of invention.

Peanut Butterlicious Bars

2 and 1/4 cups of flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar (I honestly didn't have brown sugar, so I just used all white.)
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup or 1 stick of butter
1/4 cup of peanut butter
Mini peanut butter cups (I found these at Trader Joes. If you don't have a Trader Joes near by, add chocolate chips or more peanuts or a broken up candy bar)

Beat the peanut butter and butter till soft. Add the sugar and beat till mixed in and lighter. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla to the mixture. Mix the flour, salt, and baking soda together. Add the flour to the butter/egg/everything else mixture. Add whatever yummy thing you are adding.

Press the mixture into a greased pan. It's probably not big enough for a 13x9 pan, so get creative and use that 8 inch square pan you never use. Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes or until fairly firm on top and golden brown.

I haven't actually tried the bars yet (well except for my usual raw dough taste test). You have to try the dough. If it tastes bad you want to know before you bake it. Anyway I will have to wait to try the bars until tonight in the car at 1 a.m. I'm going to be so tired.

I had every intention to take a nap, but now I am just not even feeling the nap. Say Yes to the Dress is on and then Monk and Psyche will be on. There's no time for naps. I can't wait to run away to New Hampshire. Tomorrow we're going apple picking, so stay tuned for pictures and posts about all of the fun food I'm going to make. According to Matt the plans for the weekend are "apple picking and baking." I can't wait.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

When the winds of autumn blow

one may never know what can happen. This morning it was pouring rain. I walked to school with an umbrella wondering why in the world I was even bothering to go into work. I just wanted to curl up in bed and fall asleep. Within minutes of me being at work it was sunny...SUNNY!!!! At noon I get ready to leave work and it's pouring. The other work study said look at the sky and, as if he were the creepy little kid in all of the horror movies, it rained. It just started to pour. After bragging about how real men don't use umbrellas he waited for me to leave, so I could escort him in the down pour.

After that rain died down, it rained again, while it was gorgeously sunny outside. The wind was blowing and the weather was sporadic to say the least. I ventured out again for a panel on the future of journalism. Ha! future is such a creative term. Honestly the panel went well and, while I still don't have my lede for the article I have to write about it, I am hopeful that I will come Friday, when I sit down to create a masterpiece.

I had intentions to write this masterpiece tonight. I got a thing of chicken out of the freezer, defrosted it, baked some sweet potato fries, and when they were done I turned on the broiler to start the chicken. Matt is a super fan of the broiler chicken, and I honestly hadn't given it a chance yet, but I thought I was ready.

When the winds of autumn blow one never knows what may happen. After opening the broiler the first time my fire alarm went off. This is why people take the batteries out of those things and they aren't ready for the real fire. I swatted my fire alarm with my oven mitt, it turned off, and I went back to check the chicken. It wasn't ready, but my nice newish looking pan was beginning to burn. GAHHHH!!! I took the fries off my already burnt pan and put the chicken on that pan. Back into the broiler it went. I am starving by this point, just so you know.

I was getting kind of restless, so for the last time I pull the chicken out of the broiler. The problem. I had broken the cardinal rule of cooking by letting my oven mitt get wet while cutting the chicken to see if it was done. It sizzled. The tip of my middle finger sizzled, through the oven mitt. In what seemed to take 5 hours I dropped the pan and the chicken slid onto the floor. My meal, my sanity, fell on the floor. I placed the pan while my finger was sizzling on top of the stove and bent down with a spatula to pick up the chicken. One burn a day is enough. I wasn't up for picking up sizzling chicken. My finger is in that throbbing, burning, ouchy stage and any good thoughts I had about life just didn't exist anymore.

I am starving and that stupid chicken is sitting on the spatula. I would like to tell you that I threw it away. My floor is a cesspool of dirt. It's gross really. Just this week I thought to myself that I hadn't swept it in a while. Even if I sweep, scrub, and clorox the entire floor I would not call this floor safe to eat off of. I live in an old apartment and the dirt on these wooden floors runs deep.

But I had to eat the chicken. My finger was throbbing. I was still starving and it was just not fair that all of that work should just end badly. If it makes all of you Monkish people out there feel better, the chicken did not taste good. I swallowed it. It didn't satisfy me and my finger still hurt. In fact it still hurts. And I really want a soda. I am still tempted to walk to Trader Joes to get something to make me happy, but I really am trying to save my money since this weekend I'm going away. So here I sit, hoping I'll feel more enthused about my story Friday, finger throbbing, wishing I had something to eat that would make this ball of dirty dirty chicken feel better in my stomach. The winds are blowing. What will happen next? I'm hoping that a lot of leaves fall on the ground and nothing else.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

R.I.P. Gourmet Magazine

I am sure you all have heard by now that Conde Nast has decided to shut down Gourmet magazine. This news is obviously devastating. Gourmet magazine is a food icon that is going to leave a giant slice out of the chocolate cake of my life. Of course a celebration of everything they have done and accomplished is definitely in order. The new dilemma, who will take their place? Who is going to look for food trends? Who is going to find the hottest new items on the market? They say the internet is taking over print industries. I just don't know if any internet source is capable of doing the research Gourmet has been known for.

As if that wasn't bad enough, I have had the worst day. I know this seems rather egotistical of me to compare my bad day to the end of a magazine that probably supported close to a 100 employees. But I didn't sleep at all last night. I kept hearing this bang bang bang. I don't know who was being so annoyingly loud, but I silently cursed them and their children. Waking up seems like a silly thing to say of this morning, because I more or less just got out of bed. I was exhausted all day, but after last night's dinner of eggs and toast I needed to make a real meal tonight.

Luckily for me I had bought fresh pizza dough when I went shopping with Matt in Providence. I froze the dough, for a moment just like tonight. I was totally cheating by buying the dough, but really it's a great alternative. It came from Calisi's bakery in Rhode Island, so I knew it was made fresh and would taste good.

I am a big proponent of an easy everything pizza. I stretched the dough onto a sheet pan, and sprinkled it with garlic salt and Italian seasoning. I put some sauce on the dough. I'm not a really saucy pizza person, so not too much. I still had a little bit of the Boursin Garlic cheese left from my "meal" Friday night, so I crumbled that over the sauce, and then I filled in the rest of the spaces with mozzarella cheese. I had some ground beef that I had intended on using with the pizza, but I was more tired than I expected so I just fried up some frozen steak sandwich meat.

I baked the pizza at 400 for about 20 minutes. I was starving by the time it was done, so of course I burned the roof of my mouth on some hot pizza. It was terribly worth it. The pizza was not only delicious, but I also felt accomplished because I had actually made a real meal for once. Go me!!!

After a good 20 minutes of some phone time with my mom, I am feeling a little better about life. At least I don't have parent's of students harassing me by email. I love my mom. Terrible day for me today, terrible day for food yesterday. Over all it can only get better from here.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Is this how the rest of the world lives?

Beyonce sings about being single when she's not really single, so I can write about eating as a single person without being single, right?

Tonight for all extents and purposes I was a single eater. Normally I make a nice meal for Matt and I on Monday nights, so this was a bit of a change for me. Honestly I didn't know what to eat. I didn't need to create a masterpiece. I didn't need something with a meat, starch, and vegetable. I didn't have to consider if Matt likes what I'm cooking, or if he was going to say we should try something different next time.

"Emily you don't make meals with Matt every night. Is it really that hard for you to break a routine?" YES YES YES!!! It's not that it's a routine I have; it's more that Monday nights are the nights that I look forward to a good meal. Without Matt to make me want to make a good meal, I just am not into it.

I suppose if I were really single I would be used to not having anyone other than myself to make meals for. I also think that I would not often take the time to make a complete, balanced meal. Without company, cooking is just kind of like work. Even the eating of it is semi-anti-climatic. "How do you think it turned out?" "Wow it might just be your best meal yet Emily." "Why thank you Emily I thought so to." Yeah it really is not at all gratifying. How do so many people live like this?

I was really not hungry for lunch. I didn't have Matt sitting next to me ready to go out to eat. By 3 I was getting pretty hungry, so I made some macaroni and cheese my mom's way. I had 1/2 a bag of egg noodles, so I cooked some of them till just done. I drained them and put them back in the pot. I then added maybe a 1/4 cup of milk and whatever cheese I had in my fridge. Today I had cheddar and mozzarella. Normally my mom has Monterey jack; it is a staple to her grocery list. I put the heat on till the cheese was melted. I added salt and pepper, put it in the bowl, and ate it all.

For dinner I resorted to fried eggs and toast. Like I said I just wasn't feeling inspired. My normal day of a nice meal turned into my mom's last minute macaroni and cheese and breakfast for dinner. I think Matt shouldn't skip coming up on a Monday anymore.

For all of you who are wondering why Matt didn't come up, you should probably tell yourself to stop being so nosy. This weekend is a long weekend for me thanks to Columbus thinking that he discovered a short cut to India. Matt and I are going to make the trip up to visit his parents in New Hampshire. It will be a wonderful weekend full of apple picking, relaxing, and breathing in some fresh air. There will be plenty of cooking and baking and good food, so stay tuned for all of our New Hampshire fun. It should be worth my bad food Monday, but we shall see.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

I'll have an Italian please

Whether you call them hoagies, grinders, or subs, every one loves a good Italian. Provolone cheese, salami, ham, prosciutto, capicola, onions, tomatoes, oregano, and maybe some oil and vinegar makes a typical Italian sub. Last year I bought an Italian hoagie at Boulevard Pizza in Cranston, Rhode Island. Boulevard is right up the block from Johnson & Wales and I was over at a friend's apartment on campus, who suggested we get something to eat. I thought the hoagie was really good, but I eat like a bird (it's just a fact of life). I gave the rest of my hoagie to Matt and he loved it. (Now in order to understand the recent events you have to understand that during the beginning of our relationship Matt told me that he liked a lot of food. The first time we met I made chicken packets; it took him almost 3 months before he told me that he didn't like that meal, and was lying when he said he liked it.)

Fast forward to yesterday. I love a good Italian hoagie, and I had been dreaming of one ever since I left Pennsylvania. I asked Matt if when I was in Rhode Island we could run to Boulevard Pizza and get a hoagie. On the way he laughed at me for calling it a hoagie and we discussed how he really doesn't like Italian hoagies. I already knew this, because he had told me this summer when we were buying hoagies for a day trip we were taking. The problem was neither of us knew if Matt really liked the Italian hoagie I had given him from Boulevard Pizza or if he had just told me that he did. This is why we don't lie about liking food kids. No seriously we were having a dilemma.

After thinking and thinking about what Matt was going to get for dinner, he ordered a chicken parm sub. It was a good choice and we both decided safer than him not liking the Italian sub. The sad part of this story, Matt took a bite out of my hoagie just to see if he really liked the Italian or if he was lying, and he liked it!

This got me thinking. What made Matt like this hoagie and despise the other ones? The ham on Boulevard's Italian is sliced extra thin. They use American cheese, and they leave out the capicola. All of the flavors of an Italian hoagie really blend together, because it has kind of an evenness of flavors. You don't really get a strong bite of salami or a strong bite of ham. Matt said the reason why he didn't like an Italian hoagie was because he didn't really like ham, but this blend of flavors proved that he liked the overall flavor of an Italian hoagie just not the individual flavors. Is this really possible? I think it is (why else would I spend all this time coming up with it?).

After a deliciously salty hoagie what would be better than a homemade chocolate cupcake with cream cheese frosting. Kids in New York City schools are going to find it harder to find these bake sale favorites. The school districts have banned bake sales and the sales of other types of junk food at the school. This change was made in June, but the lack of cupcakes is becoming more and more apparent as the school year goes on.

I originally read this story preparing an angry tirade on how people need homemade baked goods. The further I got down the story the more I felt that maybe this school district was justified. According to the Omaha Herald's article 40% of New York Cities elementary and middle school aged children are obese or overweight. Woah America it's time to wake up!!! Unfortunately I don't think banning baked sales is going to solve this problem. These kids have bad eating habits. Telling them they can't get homemade cupcakes is not going to make them lose weight and become healthier kids.

Honestly that story was a total downer after finding the perfect Italian hoagie, but I guess it's something we should all be aware of. We're all being watched by somebody. Are our eating habits pulling someone else down and making them unhealthy? I guess that's some interesting food for thought.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Why didn't I think of that?

I am so thankful for facebook and people who have randomly come across things then post them for all of their friends to see. It is a beautiful serendipitous moment when I look on my mini-feed only to find that someone won an Ig Nobel Prize because they found out that cows that have names produce more milk.

The Ig Nobel Prize is an award given to people who find things that make us laugh and then make us think. How brilliant of an award is that! And the scientist who studies cows deserves every last bit of that award because I laughed and thought. One of the possible reasons for the Edna (Edna seems like an ideal name for a cow) phenomenon, is the fact that the farmers who named their cows knew and paid extra attention to their cows. DUHHHHHHHHHH No seriously I love these scientists who found this out, because I felt like a little girl who just picked out the bright red gummy candy and found that it was delicious.

Speaking of candy I was reading the Metro this morning (I am not ashamed to say that I tend to love the shortened news source that is the Metro.). Anyway back to the paper. I was reading it and there was an article about a study that found kids that ate a lot of candy normally ended up being arrested for crimes as adults. Can I tell you how thankful I am that my mom created a one sweet a day rule for my brother, sister, and I. I mean seriously, less sugar is obviously the way to go (and you will not find me saying that very often, or ever again so treasure it).

I don't know where the one sweet a day rule came from. I just remember that, as a kid, we had to decide which sweet thing we would eat. A sweet could be a piece of candy, 3 cookies, a glass of soda, or a piece of cake if that was available. This rule may sound silly or overly healthy, but my mom instilled in me eating habits that would (when Hershey's chocolate is not involved) stay with me for the rest of my life. Eat things in moderation. Love them, savor them. When you only eat a sweet once a day, it is pure ecstasy when you pick that sweet and bite into it and realize that it was the perfect choice.

Kids who just gorge and gorge on sugar never experience that ecstasy. They are never satisfied I guess, in some ways. The study felt that the reason these kids who eat a lot of candy end up getting arrested was because of whatever is in their psyche that makes them want more and more. I guess my explanation is just a variation of the same thing.

Tonight I have not practiced the good eating habits my mom taught me. I have been kind of stuffed up the last week, and not very hungry. I roamed the aisles of Trader Joes in search of something I was hungry for. Boursin garlic cheese and a small baguette of French bread was all I could decide on. Well I did buy mini peanut butter cups and Chai tea mix, but the cheese and bread was to be dinner. Maybe it wasn't a complete balanced meal, but it was food so I was happy. Now I need to go make a mental note to make sure my kids don't over eat candy.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily