Shake Hands With Beef!

Fearful that the government wasn't telling us the truth about the real story behind mad cow disease, and mindful of the fact that the #1 killer of women in the United States is heart disease and the #1 culprit of heart disease is excessive consumption of red meat, I took beef out of my diet in October 2003. Between then and Sunday night, I didn't have a steak, a burger, or even Gram's beef stew (it's really good, too!) I didn't feel good after eating it, either, so it wasn't a huge loss. Occasionally I would be served a dish with beef in it and politely eat it, or try a bite of someone's awesome looking hamburger, but I never actually sat down to my own piece of meat. That is until Sunday.

I woke up thinking "Cheeseburger". I worked all day, thinking "Cheeseburger".

Sunday night I ate a cheeseburger. It was amazing.

I have a feeling I had some sort of iron deficiency that made me crave red meat, which would make sense since my diet now is mostly espresso shots and leftover Starbucks pastries.

Tonight I had another cheeseburger, from Maggies in Southbury. It was incredible. I put ketchup on it and picked it up. I didn't put it back on my plate once. It was that good. When I finished, I looked over at Phil. He was stuffed, and there were two bites of hamburger left on his plate.

"Gonna eat that?" I asked, eyeballing it. He "couldn't eat another bite". Well I could! I finished his burger and began picking up tiny bits of beef that were left on my plate. I didn't lick my plate because we were in public (but really, Philip, would you have cared? Probably not.) but I did lick my fingers on the way out.

So. Is this the end of my "oh-I'll-just-have-a-Boca-burger" era? We'll see.