A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine and Overcoming Blogger's Block

There has been dead silence on this blog for almost a week. I feel like have been in the grip of blogger's block, a version I guess of writer's block or artist's block or the sort of miasma that grips any person trying to do something creative who feels like they have run out of ideas to write about or pictures to paint or everything is just sort of swirling around in there and the motivation to organize it and lay it out in a coherent way seems to be missing. It is like being swept along in the rapids of a river, sort of bouncing around and unable to get purchase with your feet and land and get free... and the days go by....

Part of it also has been a major project for work, and the fat lady is about to sing on that, and suddenly I feel a bit of an interest in getting back on track with writing. I was gonna say get "back in the saddle," but perhaps that is one too many cliches to toss out in a single post. And no, I am really not fat any more, but I have gained 10 pounds back since November, which will probably take me 10 months to loose that will put me back at Thanksgiving, to start the cycle all over again.

I remember within the last 30 years that chocolate has moved from being a horrible thing to eat -- do any of you remember when the health food people were pushing carob powder as the better alternative to chocolate  -- to a miracle food that everybody should be eating a little bit of every day.

Well, we should, right? Have you had your chocolate today?

And we all know that walnuts are very good for our health too. Right?

And recent studies have even shown that a little bit of alcohol has beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system. I know some might take a deep breath here to argue with me about this and whether it is appropriate to consume alcohol and I understand that. Abuse of alcohol causes untold suffering and the small health benefits of an ounce or two of alcohol a day are likely overwhelmed by the cost to the health care system of caring for people who have abused alcohol and destroyed their health in the process. I am not advocating alcohol - I have seen firsthand what alcoholism can do. The only first cousin I had on my mother's family destroyed his career, his family, and ultimately himself because of alcohol abuse. I had to say all that so I could proceed without a guilty conscience...

So why not put it all together - some chocolate, some walnuts, and a bit of alcohol -- and be really, really, healthy! We decided to do just that.

For a number of years, Mom used to order us bourbon fudge from the Trappist monks who run Gethsami Farms in Kentucky as a special treat at Christmas. We always enjoyed getting that fudge very much.

This year, of course, there was no bourbon fudge, and the LOML never got around to ordering any for us from the catalog. So he went on a quest to find bourbon fudge and he did. And I made it over New Year's weekend, using the recipe here, and it was good. Very good indeed.

And I feel so incredibly healthy!!