Food

Maybe it began with eat pray love and her descriptions of the pizza in Naples, maybe it has to do with being pregnant, or the winds that recently blew through southern california, or sheer boredom, but for the last two weeks, I have wanted to EAT. Not just snack, but eat. And I am not talking about a boneless, skinless chicken breast or frozen yogurt eating but a rich creamy chocolate ice cream, homemade macaroni and cheese, and whole milk-in-my-cereal kind of eating.

So, as of this week I have a new food philosophy. I've decided that instead of resisting these fatty demands as my conscience and culture well advise, I will cater to them. I will whip up a big steak and cheese sub, put lots of butter in my grits, eat white-flour pasta with butter and parmesan for lunch. The hope is that once I give in, these cravings will run their course. (Yes, do tell me if this strikes you as outlandish wishful thinking).

Part of this hungering -- if we could give it so much credit as to call it hungering -- I think has to do with wanting real and rich ingredients rather than the quick and less satisfying ones I often settle for when cooking. So last night I broke out Bon Apetit and Barefoot Contessa (which is what I would like to name my daughter, the whole thing, Barefoot Contessa, if it made any sense to name someone Barefoot -- what a perfect name) and made pork medallions with lemon caper sauce for dinner, a potato basil fritatta for breakfast, and later wandered over to Stater Bros and bought some more Ben and Jerry's.

I can't tell you yet whether all of this has hit the spot, but maybe at the very least it will usher me into better cooking. In the meantime, I will rejoice at the first forkfull of chocolate goodness from Alta (c/o Andrea -- thank you!) and try to listen closely enough to my body to stop when it says full...

Cheers to the Fatkins Diet (as Ben has fondly named it)!