Food Is Love!

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day! A day for romance, a day for love, a day to celebrate. While preparing some divine chocolate raspberry creme brulee today, I was thinking about food and it's relationship to love. To me they are inseparable. 
Food is frequently associated with love. Chocolate is given on Valentine's Day to show your love. Aphrodisiacs are foods that are eaten to increase your libido and get you in the mood for love. On special days, we slave away in the kitchen to prepare food for those that we love. How many of you have made that special birthday meal or a favorite dessert just to say "I love you."?
For me, food is the epitome of love. Love soothes and comforts. So can food. I unabashedly love food. The flavors, the textures. Every birthday and Mother's day, my husband (who is NOT a cook) pulls out the flour, butter, and cream to make my favorite breakfast treat, Lemon Blueberry Scones. Over several years, he has learned to make an awesome scone, light, fluffy, and flavorful. This treat shows me how very much he loves me because he steps out of comfort zone, takes over my kitchen, and slaves away to produce something wonderful just for me. It says "I love you" in one wonderful pastry! For Reid and my boys' birthdays, I make their favorite meals and desserts just to say "you're special and loved."
So many of our special memories in life are associated with food, because it was an offering of love. I remember my grandmother dishing up another helping of chicken and dumplings for me because I loved them and that's how she showed me she loved me. She always made me my favorite cake for my birthday. My Grandpa would pick me up from school and have a Pepsi in the car waiting for me. Again a small way to say "I love you."

Tomorrow, we celebrate love. Show someone you care with a special treat, even if you don't make it yourself! Reid's getting chocolate raspberry creme brulee... :D

The Flu Epidemic of 2011

They were dropping like flies. Fever, chills, body aches, tummy aches, coughs, sore throats... No one was safe. Man, woman, child, teacher, student... were all the same. It took out a full 1/4 of the population. Cans of Lysol, Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer... nothing seemed to destroy this beast. It struck randomly and indiscriminately. This is the Flu Epidemic of 2011.
4 out of 5 in the Harmon house have been hit. Chase was first. Then me. Ian came down with it at school and I got the dreaded "your child is sick" phone call from the office. Matthew's temp went up an hour after coming home. Will Reid succumb to the virus? Only time will tell.
For now, the rest of us are pitifully wrapped in blankets and living from dose of Motrin to dose of Motrin. Chicken soup and o.j. are our friends. Rest and letting it run its course the only weapons... Will report from the trenches later... But for now, it's time for some Motrin and hot tea...