Let's Eat!

G has finally picked up on the fact that the different meals of the day are called different things. She just can't seem to keep track of what is served when. Like any good Southerner, she came into the kitchen around noon today and announced that she wanted to eat dinner.

I stepped on the scale yesterday and saw that I was up a couple of pounds and outside the range where I like to be. Yesterday I was pretty good in limiting my portions and foregoing the sweets. Today PMS has kicked in in full force and I type this with a bucket of cookies in front of me. At least I had a small portion for lunch and a plate full of farm-fresh tomatoes doesn't have that many calories, does it?

One of the things I like about living in a small town in the midwest is the close proximity of farms and ready availability of fresh-off-the-farm produce this time of year. One of the farms sets up a big trailer in the local Rite-Aid parking lot and can always be counted on for an everchanging buffet of good things to eat. Today was strawberries, early tomatoes, and cucumbers. I passed on the onions (having 2 in the cellar right now), the new potatoes, and the cantelopes. Everything looked so good; it was hard not to go a little wild.

Which brings me to the real reason behind this post: to tell you about the book I just finished. The Omnivore's Dilemma : A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. I don't remember exactly how I came to place this book on my reserve list at the library. By the time it came in, I had forgotten all about it. It's a huge, several-inches thick book. One day I picked it up from my to-read pile and was going to put it back in the bag to return when I started flipping through it. I was hooked. I read almost the entire thing in a matter of a few days. He lost me on the last section but the first three sections were utterly fascinating to me.

I won't spend time reviewing the book as the reviews are pretty complete on the amazon page. If you have any interest whatsoever in the quality of your food or in organic food, I would highly recommend checking it out. Prior to reading the book, I was a die-hard "organic wherever possible" type person. I've since shifted my view a bit and would now classify myself as having more an "eat local wherever possible" view.