Mary keeps telling me that I need to stop getting so upset about things I can’t control and take some pleasure in the small things in life.
So, with that in mind and as I was making my morning toast, I was lucky enough to be at the end of a loaf a bread, and there was the crust.
The little things in life don’t get much smaller, so I stop to enjoy the crust.
When I was growing up, the crust was the most sought-after slice of bread. Not so much with the store-bought bread, but the crust of Grandma Schultz’s homemade bread was the holy grail of bread.
She would get upset when she would discover both ends of a freshly baked loaf of bread had been sliced off, leaving the rest of the loaf.
So that made me think of other little food treasures that I enjoy, and maybe this will spur some food memories for you as well.
Here are a few of my favorites:
•the skin off a baked potato with lots of butter.
•the chocolate tip of a waffle cone.
•the crunchy top of the Thanksgiving stuffing —not to mention the crispy skin on the turkey just out of the oven.
•the graham cracker crust remnants of a cheese cake.
•the charred piece of fat at the end of a rib-eye steak.
•the middle roll of a freshly baked pan of caramel rolls.
•the first tomato of the season — as well as the first strawberry and the first asparagus.
I also take pleasure in the smell of opening a new container of coffee.
I have a gas grill and an electric smoker, but nothing comes close to the smell of lighter fluid on Kingsford charcoal when you throw a match on it. That, my friends, is the smell of the summer barbecue season.
You know, Mary is right; I need to enjoy the little things in life a bit more. So, pardon me while I eat my toasted crust of bread smothered with chunky peanut butter.