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Health & Fitness

The Nose Knows! Really!

The smell of something delicious cooking is almost as good as tasting it! Take a moment to savor the scent of foods around you....

The greatest compliment a wannabe chef like me can get is someone telling them how delicious their food tastes. The second greatest compliment?  Neighbors texting to say how GOOD it smells outside my house when I'm cooking! 

You may think I'm hallucinating or patting myself on the back (I can, I'm double jointed) but I assure you that this happens. Many times when I have been cooking up a storm in my own kitchen (mostly when I've got double ovens and a stove all going at once and look like Beaker during a science experiment on "The Muppets.") one of my lovely neighbors will be taking a stroll down the street, or runing an errand, or running after their children's bikes and then a text comes in. "BING!" I wonder who could be interrupting my whirring food processor and eggy, floury hands! I look at my iphone (Siri refers to me as Princess Jennifer.  She does.  Ask my daughter). I wipe the sweat from my brow, and wipe my hands on my jeans to find the loveliest text from a neighbor saying how DELICIOUS it smells outside my house, what am I cooking and can they taste?  I beam with pride.  I share my food (I do!)  I show my children the text and ask them to step outside and sniff the air. 

"Doesn't it smell YUMMY"? I ask. 

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They shrug and ask if they can play Wii.  What do they know anyway, they get to experience the deliciousness I create almost every night!  Spoiled!  My daughter was eating homeade quesadillas with black beans before she was a year old.  She's now 8 and loves to pick out her own hummus at the store and help me make homeade guacamole. 

My son, who is 5, is really really good at licking the brownie batter spoon, and making a tremendous mess in the kitchen when he "helps" me. The foodie gene is dormant in him right now but I know one day it will just kick in!  I sometimes ask for "Serenity Now!" a la George Costanza from "Seinfeld" when the kids help me in the kitchen, but I remind myself that they're only little once and these days go by fast.  One day I will be wishing for their sticky little hands back in my kitchen making messes.  But for now, I'll have patience when they help me for about 10 minutes, then let them play Wii while I finish what I'm cooking and pour a glass of wine.  It's a win-win situation in my book. 

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So next time you're out and about and happen to run into me at either Dunkin' Donuts (all coffee addicts say "HERE") or the library, or the kids school, ask me what I'm cooking! When I'm cooking it! Feel free to sniff the air in my neighborhood! You never know when the next "Culinary Creations by Jenny" care package can show up on your doorstep. 

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