The Eating Season is upon us! We’ve put away the swimsuits, and pulled on our sweat suits. The flag is down, and weeeee’re off! If we’re prepared and have a game plan, we’ll survive.  

Why do thoughts of food consume us?

My mother (a diabetic) called me the first week of November with BIG NEWS! We just HAD to come see her treasure. She’d happened upon a woman at her grocery store with her grocery cart stacked so high with grocery bags, she could not see above her cart to navigate to the check out counter. Not one to resist a bargain, mom inquired, “what is it”? The woman pointed and indicated the leftover Halloween candy, “five dollars a bag, as much as it will hold”. Mom bragged that her bag was so heavy, the handles broke! Now, I am the official guardian of the loot, making sure my kids don’t overdose on chocolate. Not to mention myself.  

Each year around this time, I get what I call my nesting urge. I pull out and dust off my cookbooks and peruse them for yummy, warm, cozy comfort food. I started a tradition as a newlywed, of rating the new recipes, making a note or suggestion, and the date. My husband, not wanting to offend his bride, would say everything was great. Suffering through one particularly inedible meal, I told him to be honest, or you may have to eat this once a week for the rest of your life. Once the kids came along I would ask each person to rate the new recipe and to give me a one word description. My cookbook collection is a treasure of dates and memories, with the kid’s descriptions, phonetically spelled when they were young, such as “dee-wish-us”.  

Every year Mom says she can’t do Thanksgiving dinner anymore. And, each year she says, “I already bought the turkey, of course I’m cooking!” I’ll bring the green bean casserole; my sister will bring her homemade pumpkin pies. We will all agree that this was the best year ever! We’ll stuff ourselves, and laugh about anything and nothing at all. Mom will say this is the last time, and we will appreciate that at 80 something she provided a lovely family experience for us.  

The baking begins the day after Thanksgiving. Holiday parties and gatherings, cookie exchanges… on an on it goes until the big bash for New Years Eve! Whew!  

Time to begin thinking about swimsuit weather…  

Dana Hall is the founder and editor of Passionate for Life online magazine, http://www.passionateforlife.com.