Last Place

We were having dinner tonight and I happened to glance over at my son and I noticed that he was finished with his dinner. DH was taking his last bite. I still had about 1/3 of my meal on my plate. YES! Score. I came in last in the race to eat slowly. And it really did take me by surprise. You might remember that I set a goal this week to slow down my eating at dinner. I've been doing that. At first I kept watching the clock and intentionally setting down my fork for long spells. The first day, I stretched things out for 15 minutes; then 17; tonight I took a pokey 20 minutes to eat my spaghetti and salad. Yay me! I don't claim to have conquered this bad habit of mine, but I now know that I can eat more slowly if I try.

The benefits of eating slowly are manifold. I have actually had a time or two when I didn't want to finish my dinner in the past few days--that's unheard of. Last night, when we ate out at a fancy restaurant, I was a bit alarmed when my order of grilled scallops came and I found there were only 4 scallops! [you know that feeling you get when the other person's order comes and his/her plate is overflowing and you get one of those tiny 'artistic' plates with a bit of food in the center and lots of colorful dribbles of sauce filling in all the white space on the plate?] First I was disappointed because there wasn't very much food and I was hungry. Then I worried about how in the world I would drag out eating 4 scallops, 3 red potatoes, and 4 leaves of spinach [yes, I counted] for 15 minutes. But you know what? The food was wonderful. I cut my scallop into several pieces and savored the flavors. It was perfectly cooked. I probably gave DH at least half a scallop to taste. I cut pieces of the spinach leaves and tasted the fresh bitter flavor. I noticed the herb (tarragon?) on the potatoes. DH and I had a good time remembering our first married dinner 37 years earlier. Before I knew it, the waitress was refilling my water glass for the 4th or 5th time and it was an hour later. I was perfectly satisfied with my meal and enjoyed every bite--slowly. I had a skim cappuccino and a few bites of DH's creme brule for dessert. I have a friend who is a proponent of the "slow food movement." I'm going to borrow a page from her book and declare myself a member of the "slow eater movement." Next, maybe, I'll tackle eating slowly at breakfast and lunch. Maybe.

The answer to the question in my last post. The photo was taken at The Cloisters, overlooking the Hudson River in NY. The pink buttons are from the Metropolitan Museum in NY to show that we had paid for our admission. If you've never been to the Cloisters, I highly recommend it. They built a medieval cloister/monastery in NY city from the remains of several French and Italian monasteries. It's incredible. They have authentic gardens in each of the five cloisters. Here are a couple more pix: