Friday, October 22, 2010

Safety in Nutmeg

I find it strange yet endearing that my husband often says and does things that remind me so vividly of my mother.

For example, my mom had this thing about kidney beans. She always kept a steady inventory of 15 cans of kidney beans.

"Mom, what's with the 15 cans of kidney beans?"
"I might make chili."
Which would account for 2 of the 15.

My dad was quite vocal about the fact that he didn't like her chili. But maybe that was the motive. Maybe she kept the kidney beans around for when he was being a tool and she could say, "I'll make chili. Don't think I can't do it."

The other day allrecipes.com sent me a recipe for "famous" pumpkin spice lattes. Considering how much I like "famous" pumpkin spice lattes, I thought I would give it a try. Because my husband will bake pies from time to time, I didn't doubt that we would have the cinnamon for it.

My search in the spice drawer went like this: nutmeg, red pepper flakes, nutmeg, more nutmeg, celery salt, more nutmeg, star anise, more nutmeg. My husband has been compulsively purchasing and hoarding nutmeg.

This will come in handy the first time we are snowed in this year. I can just picture the neighbors trudging through the snow drifts to our door: "Excuse me. We wouldn't ask this unless it was an emergency, but do you have an eighth of a teaspoon of nutmeg?"

Also, I just realized that I have mentioned to him before that nothing makes me angrier than somebody making a perfectly good dish of creamed spinach and ruining it by adding nutmeg. Perhaps he has purchased all this nutmeg in case I am ever acting like a tool. He'll say, "I'll make creamed spinach with nutmeg. Don't think I can't do it." However, I so very rarely act like a tool. It's everybody else around me that is off kilter. Clearly.

5 comments:

  1. I had to laugh out loud. My mother is/was a food hoarder - I found canned goods under the bed in the guest room once. (And 10 year old venison in the freezer - ugh. That was a disgusting find.)

    Until I started grating my own nutmegs, I think I had three nutmeg boxes around, because I always thought I was running out of it. Too funny!

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  2. In my spice cupboard, I have several jars of cinnamon sticks, because I can never find a cinnamon stick when I need it. Fortunately, I can put them in cups of hot cider and use them up. Of course, then I will be out of cinnamon sticks again...

    In the garage we keep an entire shelving unit of Things We Don't Want To Run Out Of In The Event Of A Zombie Apocalypse. (OK, maybe not zombies, but a major blizzard, epidemic, run on the banks, tornado...something that might prevent us from getting to the store for three or more weeks. Or, I concede, the detonation of a biological weapon of mass destruction with the unfortunate effect of reanimating the dead, you never know.) We did this several years ago and usually rotate things in and out to keep them from getting too old, but not everything. Way in the back I discovered five 2-liter bottles (probably now flat) of non-diet Sprite. Since neither of us drinks Sprite, I don't know what was going through our minds when we were heading down the soda aisle at Meijer back in 2005. But I do know that, if civilization is ending and we are among its increasingly savage remnants, at least I need not regret that I didn't drink Sprite while I had the chance.

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  3. 1. EH, fresh ground nutmeg is awesome.
    2. Staircase Witch. I love your comment, and the way you write.

    Thanks for being here you lovely ladies.

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  4. AG, you stole my comment! I was just about to write that you are the best and my most favorite writer in the blogosphere.

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  5. Oh Juliet! Thanks! That made my weekend. XO AG.

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