Cheeseburgers

Happy Tuesday!  Nothing very exciting has happened in my life since yesterday, but talking to my mom about going home for Easter dinner got me thinking.  Thinking about what?  Well, about all the amazing food she's going to make.  Like lamb.  Yum.  I seriously love roast lamb.  And tons of peach sangria.  I can't wait.  My mom cooks like an Italian in the army... when I brought my first boyfriend home, she made a 7 course meal.  I'm not even exaggerating.  I had one boyfriend, but by the amount of food she made, you'd think I had ten.  My family just loves food.  Until I was in middle school, my mom was a stay-at-home mom, and she would cook amazing meals from what seemed like nothing.  She was, and still is, one of the most resourceful people I know in the kitchen.  I think the only time I ever ate pizza was on Saturday afternoons for lunch, sometimes, and that was because my dad used to own a pizza place.  (Oh, yeah, and when Pizza Hut did the free personal pizza for a straight-A report card!)  Even after my mom went back to work, my sister and I learned how to take the reigns and cook.  Every meal was home made, every night of the week. 

In my house, fast food was a treat.  Most of my friends ate fast food on a regular basis.  Fridays were pizza night, or Tuesdays their dads would bring them McDonald's at school for lunch.  Yeah, right.  Not me, with my little home-made packed lunches in thermoses and actual Tupperware.  (Yeah, PB&J was not gonna fly with my mom for lunchboxes.  Try a fresh chopped salad, a thermos of leftover homemade soup, cheese and crackers, apple slices and peanut butter, pasta salad... you get the idea.)  The only time I ate McDonald's as a kid was on Saturday mornings before soccer games.  Not exactly the healthiest planning on Mom's part, but hey.  Taco Bell was the reward if my sister and I didn't smack each other with a nine iron when my dad "babysat" us at the driving range.  If my sister and I were eating anything out of a drive through, it was Chick Fil A.  (I was such a nerd back then, too, that I actually liked the Chick-Fil-A prizes.) 

So imagine my culture shock coming to college.  Sure, I know how to cook.  I actually know how to cook pretty well.  It's more cost-effective and healthy to prepare food myself.  But fast food is still a treat to me.  If I have to get up extra early and be somewhere on a day off, I'll bribe myself with drive-through breakfast as a "reward."  I just have issues with paying for something so unhealthy when I could make food at home that's already paid for.  In a country where fast food is a way of life for a lot of people, I feel weirdly out of place.  I'm always the girl skipping partial proceeds events to save money and eat my groceries at home.  College life has definitely pushed me further into the realm of paper-wrapped cheeseburgers and mystery-meat tacos, but it's still strange for me.  If I'm not drunk or dying of hunger, Dora my Ford Explorer doesn't go to McDonald's.  Maybe that makes me a food snob.  Maybe it just means I won't end up like the guy in the SuperSize Me documentary.  Who knows. 

Love,
N