Archives - Weekly Update

Last weekend my younger son and I made 3-D cookies with the cookie cutters that we got at Williams-Sonoma. Um, let's just say ours are going to be 2-D. There is no way the legs are going to fit on the body of the reindeer, the trunk on the tree or the rudders on the sleigh. I was in the store last night and told the salesperson there that we flunked cookie baking in 3-D. She told me not to fret since she thought they looked WAY too challenging. Nice to hear. I never knew cookies were challenging. I thought knitting was challenging.

While we have a very tasteful holiday display here at the house with the front columns wrapped in red bows, a big decorated wreath and hand-painted candy canes on the front walk, I have a confession. I love checking out the houses with really gaudy, over-the-top lighting displays. You know the ones I mean ---- they have been the subject of endless holiday movies and they are the ones where you just picture the electric meter whirring around and around when you drive by.

A book came across my desk the other day that got me thinking about food and the way I consume it in a whole new way. It's called MINDLESS EATING: Why We Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansink, Ph.D. Quick Fact: the average person makes up to 200 food decisions a day, including what not to eat or choosing what to eat. Reading made me think about the way I will heat up something in the microwave and then munch 4 cookies while I am waiting for it to be ready. And how when I am running out in the morning I will grab a buttermilk biscuit or two and chomp through them because they are easy to take when I have a whole bowl full of cut fruit in the fridge. And how I am known to work my jaws on sticky candies like spearmint leaves or orange slices as I drive and then look down and find half the bag is gone.