Sunday, January 06, 2008

Guilty pleasures,

and miserable weather. I bought a quart of whole organic milk the other day, for something else, I think the cranberry pudding cake for the WiLS party, and the last couple of mornings I have been indulging in whole milk on my cereal - it's tasting astonishingly good.

As someone who routinely cooks with 2% milk (I hear 2% is now the "whole" at Starbucks) and has been known to say that I hate skim milk in coffee - it makes the coffee grey; I prefer 2% or whole - I have also been known to say that I like skim milk on cereal, because you can taste the cereal. I don't really think I'd feel guilty about the whole milk if I had not weighed myself this morning, and I was heavier than I expected. Then again, it could all be part of a dangerous trend, I started buying regular cream cheese instead of light or Neufchatel recently as well (at least for eating, I still use the light cream cheese for cooking).

But it's because it tastes better ... or maybe I could blame it on the weather. I've always had a theory that the Brits' taste for comforting, often full fat foods (their cream and butter both have more butterfat than ours) is because it's so damp and nasty there. And damp and nasty is what we have in Madison right now, even more depressing because our lovely base of 2 feet of snow is melting fast.

I guess I'll just have to be philosophical, as my brother was about the Steelers' loss last night; after all, "whole" milk, at least here in the U.S., is 4% fat, or 96% fat free.

3 comments:

nichole said...

Don't feel guilty! Whole milk is worth it, I think. Even though it's processed just like other milks to get the proper fat content, it feels closer to "real." I wouldn't drink it by the tumbler (and I don't eat much cold cereal these days) but in my morning coffee and evening cocoa, it's the only way to go.

Anonymous said...

Hi, Deb. You were my trainer for Introduction to Metadata, and as I was preparing my post-tenure review folders, I stumbled across your blog. Though I am also a librarian, my heart is also in food, and I loved reading all your postings and watching your amazing cookie slide show. You have links to some things I had not seen. Your food looks amazing! I'll check out your blog from time to time.

I'm getting ready to make brown bread--it's a good time in Lincoln to steam something on the stove for two hours, it being so cold and dry here. I always have it with regular cream cheese--the only way, in my opinion!

--Sue, Univ. of Nebraska

Lo said...

The best whole milk you can buy is "creamline" (non-homogenized). Not only better for you -- but truly indulgent.

Try it sometime!