Denial is the Best Medicine

When we went grocery shopping last week, we spent $12 on mushrooms.

These weren’t even the fancy enoki or morel mushrooms. There were a handful of shiitakes, but other than that, they were plain, white button mushrooms. Do you have any idea how many mushrooms it takes to add up to $12? A lot. 3.5 lbs., to be precise. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the fact that we had three and a half pounds of fungus in our cart! It totaled 13% of our bill. Does anybody else find this excessive? We may be in need of a mushroom intervention.

Then again, maybe it’s simply proof that I’m a fun guy.

When it comes to mushrooms, my motto is, you can never have too many. And this week’s dinner menu bears testament to that. We’re having beef stroganoff (with mushrooms). Chicken cacciatore (with mushrooms). Cream of mushroom soup (with mushr…well, duh). This isn’t all that unusual, either. Most weeks when we’re writing out our shopping list, we’ll put mushrooms (lots) because it always seems that we’re needing lots of mushrooms.

Today, we’re eating bugs.

As many of you know, we’ve been participating in a yearlong food challenge in which our goal is to celebrate daily food holidays for one year (there is at least one every single day). We’re something like 286 days in now and rolling right along. Well, October 14 just so happens to be National Chocolate Covered Insect Day, so we ordered chocolate covered crickets online a while back, and are eagerly awaiting dessert this evening. My parents were so intrigued by this particular holiday they asked if they could take part too, and when it comes to biting into a tasty, crunchy morsel of insect, my attitude is, the more, the merrier. I hope I get a big, fat, juicy leg in mine. And if I do, I promise not to let out a chirp.

The fact that we’re almost ten months through this twelve-month challenge just goes to demonstrate how fast this year is flying by. Next week, we’ll be in Denver!! Not so long ago, I had trepidations when it came to airline travel (which is really a carefully-worded way of saying I was afraid to fly). But a couple of trips to see Tara and visit Vegas (not to mention Bloody Marys at 30,000′) cured me of that. Now, I’m looking forward to a long weekend in the Rocky Mountain State and my first-ever NFL game. The timing, by the way, couldn’t be better. It’s great to be a Broncos fan these days!

What’s not so great is the fact that I’m sucking on throat lozenges today and insisting that I’m not sick despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. Tara developed a cold last week that put her out of commission for a couple of days. I remained my cocky, germ-free self, insisting on kissing her as usual because I never get sick. So when my throat felt like somebody was shoving a white-hot poker down it every time I swallowed Saturday night, I attributed that to “a little tickle.” Sunday, when I felt congested? That was simply the changing seasons wreaking havoc with my sinuses. And the cough that sprang forth soon after? Merely an annoyance brought on by turning on the heat. The furnace hadn’t been run in months, after all. Sure, I took some Nyquil before bed last night, but we were upstairs and the liquor cabinet was downstairs and my sudden craving for a shot of alcohol at 10 PM could only be satisfied in this manner. Did it taste good? Well, no…but neither does whiskey straight up. This was a hell of a lot more convenient. And if you’re wondering about the constant nose blowing this morning, well, let’s just say I’m testing the claims made by Kirkland™ Signature tissues, because I’ve got a scientific mind and want to ascertain if these really are “Premium Quality” and “Extra Soft and Absorbent” and “Convenient Dispensing” as the box claims. Think of it as research for the greater good.

Denial, baby. It’s the best medicine of all.

Related articles

• Peak Produce: Marvelous Mushrooms (inspiredhealthyorganized.wordpress.com)