Heavy weather

Thunderstorms have been rolling through here for the past little while, and on Sunday it all got taken to another level. I've never experienced this particular form of Midwest weather until yesterday - storm cell after storm cell, bringing hail and wind and downpouring rain and truly impressive lightning and thunder. I like storms, but this may be a little bit much. At least the windows are open (the cats are pleased by this, despite getting slightly dampened by the rain) and the breeze that gusts through the house feels delicious.

Got back my three-month bloodwork panel, which had good results. My cholesterol and triglycerides are all in the normal range, down from levels that were Not Good. And my A1c has fallen nicely - a little further and I'll be taken off Metformin. That idea has made me happy (one less pill I need!) and scared (Metformin is my helpful friend! You want me to do it all BY MYSELF?). And, thank the gods above and below, the more focused exercise has finally started to work, and I've gone down another five pounds. If I had remained trapped on that plateau for much longer, I really would have been upset. Combine this with the fact that my dentist was happy with me and found no cavities, and I'm feeling a mite less doom-and-gloomy about my body rapidly decaying the second I hit my mid-thirties.

The good news comes at a good time, because I've been mired in those bad feelings. My brain likes to go drastic at every opportunity, so I've been moping around thinking dire thoughts about life and death. The message is: keep going. Keep doing what you're doing, because it's working and things are getting better. Sometimes that's exactly what you need to hear.

Food, glorious food: Perfection Salad, by Laura Shapiro (image-heavy)

Perfection Salad is a study of American diet, cookery, home-ec, and eating. It looks at a specific time period, the late 1800s into the early 1900s, where the theory of "scientific cookery" then in vogue serves as a good doorway into attitudes about women in the workplace, women in the home, feminism, proper nutrition, and eating. Much of the attitudes developing at this point in time would lead directly to the 1950s and its focus on food that was pre-processed, already cooked (just heat and serve!), or packaged scientifically. In recent decades, attitudes towards food and eating (and women's role as feeder of the family) continue to shift. In many ways we're trying to relinquish ideas about food and feeding that entered the culture at this time.

Behind the cut are some of the ideas discussed in the book, illustrated with images from a cooking magazine called "Table Talk".

( Better Ways, Lighter Burdens, More Wholesome Results )

I realize as I've been typing this that it doesn't work as a book review at all. Instead, it's cleverly disguised squee about how fascinating the subject matter is and how far into it I was drawn! Plus, a certain amount of "look at the cool things I bought off Ebay.)

At any rate, I highly recommend the book as a well-written, insightful study of this slightly wacky time period in the US, which is still with us in so many ways. I think about it every time I go to the farmer's market, actually. It also dovetails nicely with a book I've already recommended a bajillion times before, Caroline Walker Bynum's Holy Feast and Holy Fast, which also deals with social implications of women and feeding, but in an entirely different context. So cheers, and pass me a slice of that fish pudding. (On second thought, don't.)