Happy Thanksgiving!

It's amazing the minefield of mixed messages you find at Thanksgiving. So many people are agonizing over the conflict of enormous amounts of what they consider "bad food" and the inevitable guilt, actual guilt over what they eat. One of my theories is that the increasing social freedoms and decay of Mrs. Grundy has simply re-directed the angst. People need a new definition of correctness and propriety in life, so they re-direct it to food. Control issues maybe? All I know is that the office talk on Monday morning will be less about family, friends, good times, good jokes, good wine, good game, then it will be endless variations of "oh I ate too much I'll have to spend days at the gym to work it off...."

I wonder what would happen if we found a way to remove the guilt of food, and just learned to enjoy each others' company? Would all the "holiday stress" be halved? Would the dynamics of judgement by distant relatives change? Sure, there's still the stress of shopping, cleaning, decorating, putting up with weird uncle Al, but somehow all the magazine racks for the next two months will only go from screaming "How to stay slim through the Holidays" and "How to resist holiday treat temptations" to "How to lose those holiday pounds..."

Why would anyone want to trade days and weeks of inner torment and self-flagellation for a slice of pie and contentment? Why would I want to resist, regret, wonder?

Short blog today, I have to go and bake a luscious, carb-filled, calorie laden custard tart with carmelized pears, crushed pecans, and homemade cinamon cajeta......

And damnit, I'm going to eat a slice too :-)