Old So What

  OMG my cat is bleeding to death!! But it was just some blackberry jam from breakfast…

  In 1869, a French chemist named Hippolyte Mège-Mouries created a new “butter,” made from beef fat.   It was supposed to have a longer shelf life than real butter, and be an overall hardier product. So, in 1895, the butter industry, or whatever it was called, banned yellow margarine. This meant that you could only buy white margarine. Segue to the early 1950s… Now, I’ve seen white margarine. It’s not appetizing, but that’s the point. So, you had to mix the yellow coloring with the white margarine glop. They came in a plastic bag, but in two different compartments in the bag that you had to squish together.   I loved to do this.   It was a fun job when you’re five! (I, myself, prefer the taste of butter.)

  Dark   chocolate that is at least 70% cocoa. Blueberries Pumpkin seeds and Tumeric Curcumin

  That whatever tastes good (such as taco chips) is bad for you, whereas whatever tastes bad (such as Wheatena [hot] cereal) is good for you but tastes like eating a woolen blanket. I don’t think they make Wheatena anymore, but the child in me (who was forced to eat it) would say: No Loss!

  Every spring I’m confronted with the same problem: Bugs.   Relatively easily solved by the annual, sometimes biannual, calling of the exterminator (who sprays only in the basement and around the outside of the house). Now picture a Warner Bros. cartoon of an ant.   This would have the mandatory huge anthropomorphic (having human characteristics), cartoon eyeballs of exaggerated size. And a large head, wearing a big smile. With the beginning of the spring season comes the scout ants. They burst upon the scene to literally scout the scene.   What’s happening, any predators around, is this safe, any food? I envision one specific ant who I actually saw appear on my kitchen counter in a ceremony of great expectation on its part.   It was heaped in the enthusiasm of the very young. As it actually was. How did I respond to this appearance? I crushed the little twerp! Right there and then. But not without any regret. Here was a tiny being whom I always r...

  Sometimes, called leaf cabbage, kale is primarily grown for its edible leaves, and is also used for decorative purposes. (It’s that stuff that the supermarket sticks around vegetables in display cases in the hope of adding an appetizing touch, which kale almost never does.) This is a cabbage-like vegetable, part of the mustard family, related to broccoli and Brussels sprouts. It contains vitamins A, K, C, folate and minerals such as potassium, calcium and magnesium. One of those leafy greens whose sugars help to fuel intestinal health. Kale can help with weight loss, heart health and protecting against diseases. Consumption of kale in excess can, however, lead to problems, such as stomach irritation and constipation.   And kale can increase the chance of getting kidney stones, and the risk of iodine deficiency. This is not a definitive list about kale, so please don’t quote me. You might not want to eat kale every day, if at all, because, in my personal opinion, ka...

  On dry foods, such as tuna or chicken, always have a glass of water nearby to supply moisture. (This simple rule has helped me many times.)

  Is that you can never have enough chocolate! As soon as you start to eat it, it’s gone, so always buy a little extra.

  To leave jars of things, such as mayonnaise, too near the edge of counters. Why I started to do this I haven’t a clue.   Just another one of life’s mysteries. But that’s how the oily stuff got all over the carpet, never to be removed completely, anyway, by me. So, keep track in the kitchen or wherever.   Items on the edge almost always find their way to the floor. They like it better there.

  Chocolate milk enhances all food:    Savory, or sweet food, chocolate milk just makes it taste better.   Honestly, for most chocolate lovers I suspect:   We love Chocolate Milk. Invented by Sir Hans Sloane, an Anglo-Irish physician, naturalist and collector in the late 1600s. (His history is fascinating!)

  Perfume, freshly cut grass, just baked cookies? I think BACON tops them all, doesn’t it? (With apologies to all with dietary restrictions who can’t eat it.) You can just have eaten BACON, left the room, come back later, savored the BACON scent once more, and then still want more BACON!    

  My husband when we got married before our first meal, that I would never cook him cauliflower or tuna casserole. And I never did, as we disliked both items…a lot. The marriage lasted 45 years. ⚭