Growing up my house was the one without sweets. This was not because my parents were opposed to sugar - my mom was and is an avowed sweets lover. It was more, as I recall, a position of frugality. They didn’t want to buy things at the grocery we didn’t need, so our house was free of the snack food and cookies I’d find at a lot of my friends houses.
The closest thing we had to potato chips were saltines, and that’s not really close at all. Our sweetest cereal was the occasional box of Honey Nut Cheerios. My best friend used to say we didn’t have any food, just ingredients. This all led to a dangerous habit of gorging myself on Oatmeal Cream Pies any time I had a sleepover at another house.
Now that I’m an adult, I’ve adopted a similar position to my parents. Rather than arriving at this place as a manner of penny pinching, it’s a matter of health. As I’ve educated myself about food and nutrition over the last 20+ years of working in the restaurant business, I’ve found myself getting “crunchier” with each passing year. By 50 I’m certain I will be a complete fucking buzzkill and dinner invitations will surely dry up.
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