Pumpernickel

I don't know about other people, but there are some things I just cannot put down. I love bread and the better the bread, the more difficult it is for me to eat it reasonably. Like not eating the whole loaf at a single setting!

As a child I would go to my grandfather's restaurant and while the other kids might want this, or that, I wanted the hot rolls in the warmer. I didn't even care if they had butter, I loved them just the way they were.

Go to one of those restaurants where they have unlimited bread sticks and I could actually skip the meal. Especially if they are garlic bread sticks. It's the same way with one of the local pizza places that sends garlic butter with their pizzas. Friends, siblings, and all others, give me your crusts! And I don't even care if you eat all the pizza!

Yesterday I bought some pumpernickel bread to go with the soup I had made. Good, dark, rich, pumpernickel with butter on it, yum. Right now, as I write, I am finishing off the rest of the loaf! I know better than to buy it for this very reason. I have worked so hard to lose this weight and it isn't going to last if I eat an entire loaf of bread in two days!

I'm trying to decide what to do with myself. What is the appropriate punishment for eating bread? This isn't just gluttony. This is specific gluttony. I love everything about bread, that hot warm smell when it is baking, the texture of good bread as it is cut into pieces for eating, the way it tastes when toasted and how good it is with honey butter, or strawberry preserves, or even garlic butter! I love it with swiss cheese, or for sopping up eggs. I love sandwiches made on big Italian rolls, or crusty French bread. I like croutons, toasted with garlic butter and adding tons of calories to salad and hot rolls dripping in butter. I even love bread pudding with its caramelized sauce.

If there is a perfect food, for me it is bread and I truly do have to be very careful about how much I eat. Not only can it make me fat, but it could take the place of all those other things we are supposed to eat every day. The food pyramid that I prefer is solidly weighted down by bread. It's the fruits and vegetables I need to work on.

Tomorrow I will walk a little bit extra, but tonight I am savoring the pumpernickel.