Thursday, December 20, 2007

Wanna date?

My decision to stop eating sugar last month [38 straight sugar-free days, but who's counting?] didn't eliminate my sweet tooth. I suppose humans are born with one, which sometimes makes me wish I were a cat. I've never seen a cat rummage around the pantry looking for lemon drops or chocolate kisses.

Anyway.

In my quest to find something sweet to eat that isn't also loaded with artificial sweeteners [which I think tend to reinforce the desire to eat sugar, but that's just my wacky opinion], I've found dried fruit.

I started with a simple package of apricots. I expanded my selection when I made the Mincemeat Log Rolls for Thanksgiving. [A link to the recipe is in this post.] Last week I bought a package of dates.

Oh. My. Goodness.

Do you have any idea how sweet dates are? Dates are extremely satisfying, have fewer than 20 calories each and are very portable. They're not particularly low-carb, though, if that's your thing. But the best part is, the list of ingredients on the package is one word: Dates.

The simpler the food I eat, the better I feel. I'm sure you can do some fun things to jazz dates up [I've heard that wrapping them in bacon and broiling them produces a tasty cocktail-party snack], but so far I'm pretty happy with just plain dates.

I wet-blocked the pink sweater; the wool relaxed to the point that the sleeves
were six inches too long and if I were Twiggy-shaped [which is to say, no shape at all] I could have worn it as a mini-dress. So I had to soak it again and then I – gasp! – put it in the dryer. I have a knits cycle and I watched it carefully but it was still too big. So I did it again. I finally have a sweater I can wear, but it's going to have to be an awfully cold day. I literally had to full it a bit to get it the right size. Next time I use good old Patons wool, I'll be sure to make the item a size or two smaller. I will confess right here and right now that I didn't block my swatch, so it's my own darned fault. But the resulting sweater is nice and I'll certainly wear it. Maybe even on Christmas Eve.

I'm not going to go on and on about how fat I look or what a bad photo it is. It's both of those, but there's nothing I can do about it this very minute. The nice thing about sweaters is that they really do look good when they're a little roomy. Next year I'll take a better photo – I'll be smaller, it'll be bigger and I will have figured out how to focus my camera.

Maybe.

7 comments:

M@rla said...

Wow, that looks cozy! Nice color on you, too.

OK, I've seen better photos of you, but you look happy and attractive and blurry - that's not a bad look!

Grumpy Chair said...

I agree, it is a great color on you.

I miss wearing sweaters, gave them all away when we moved to Houston. We are supposed to have a high of 78 degrees today.

I love dates, but haven't bought any of them in a long time. The idea of wrapping them in bacon sounds like a good appetizer on Christmas Eve.

When you figure out how to stop the blurry - let me know the trick.

LME said...

Very pretty sweater, and pink really looks good with your coloring.

I like me some dried fruit. Especially dried figs.

Laura N said...

I've never had a date in my life. You sure do a good selling job on them, though, so I may have to try one one of these days. Your sweater is gorgeous. I bet it feels so cozy. You are gonna love it the next time it's snowing and cold in the middle of nowhere.

Merry Christmas!

Anonymous said...

For a special treat, just insert a blanched almond into the centre. Crunchy AND sweet... mmmm.

Jess said...

Great sweater!

I don't think I've ever had dates. Aren't they what's poisoned in "Indiana Jones"?

mehitabel said...

Pretty sweater--and it does look nice and cozy! We've got chilly rain today so cozy looks appealing. It's a great color, too!
My husband loved stuffed dates--I've never been able to get "into" their flavor, though. My fruity fix is raisins, dried cherries, and dried apricots. The kind with only one ingredient listed on the label!