What Remains

Scroll down to the previous post to see what Moose's Thanksgiving pies looked like on Thursday morning. Here is what they looked like at 3 PM Eastern today:

(Photo, Food Prep, Styling, and Considerable Eating by Moose, 11/28/10)

That is all, darlings. It's been a long, long weekend. There's laundry to be folded and a certain amount of decompressing to be done. And the last two teaching weeks of the semester begin tomorrow. Time for a couple of Tums, a deep, cleansing breath, and some quiet time before the fire to steel ourselves for what lies ahead. We hope you had a joyous holiday and managed to avoid ending up with, um, stitches in your lip.

Speaking of what remains, if you are trying to figure out what to do with the rest of your bird, here is a great recipe for a white chili with turkey from our good friends over at "Food Porn for the Conscientious," Cooking Light. Just 217 calories per one cup serving!

If, on the other hand, you've decided to stay on board the party train and are looking for allies in the noble cause of pursuing pleasure, we highly recommend this fascinating piece by Richard Klein that was in the Chronicle last week. "The Case Against Health" (an adaptation of Klein's contribution to this cool-looking new collection from NYU Press) argues that "the official version of health" peddled in the United States today is a deeply moralizing, complexly political, and potentially noxious Puritanism that "views the least indulgence in adult pleasure as the sign of a nascent habit on the way to becoming a dangerous compulsion." Klein locates an alternative and, as it were, healthier model of health in the pleasure- and body-affirming tradition that comes down to us from Epicurus. We were tickled to see that Klein holds up Julia Child as a contemporary exemplar of Epicureanism, noting that "Whenever anyone asked [Child] to name her guilty pleasures, she responded, 'I don't have any guilt.'" Go read the article. And then, dammit, go polish off the last of that pecan pie. You deserve it!

Ah, Julia, a woman without guilt? No wonder we heart you so! Peace out, pleasure-lovers, and have a happy tomorrow.