Life-Saving Mustard

I stepped on the scale this morning.

And, I expected to be somewhat pleased with the number I saw.  I have been eating better since the holidays, and I have been working out.

(Well, I started working out this week, and I only managed twice so far - but still, this is a significant step in the right direction.)

Anyways, the number I saw caused me to think, "If this is what I weigh now, I'd hate to see what I weighed before!!!"

And, as often happens when one steps on the scale after a long hiatus, reality traumatized me.

But - only for a brief moment.   Because I realized that the changes I've made this week will not be registered on a scale for awhile.  I've been in this ro-de-o before - I know how it works.  So, I gave myself a quick pep talk, and went about thoughtfully preparing a healthy lunch for this afternoon.

This is when my mind turned longingly to mustard.

You see, as I think I may have mentioned, my brother-in-law is a chef.  Well, not officially by trade, but his interests and abilities clearly place him in that realm.  Each meal he has presented to our family has been sublime, he has greatly expanded my culinary horizons and also raised my expectations of what truly "good" food is.

This trend continued over this past Thanksgiving, where he not only prepared a wonderful meal that nicely straddled the line between tradition and innovation - but he sent us home with a jar of mustard.

Not just any mustard.  A Brown Stout Mustard.  And I'm not kidding when I say that this mustard improved the overall quality of my life.  Spicy, flavorful, complex - it turned anything it graced from "simple" to "delightful" with one smear.  I began to put it on my normally hum-drum lunchtime lean-deli-ham sandwich on low calorie bread - and I went from tolerating my lunches to greatly looking forward to them.

And as you can imagine, eating a lean-deli-ham on low calorie bread is a much better choice than the deep-fried-fried from local eating establishments.

But alas, we ran out, and inwardly, I cried a tear of abandonment.  And I thought that perhaps I could fill the mustard-seed-sized hole by purchasing Grey Poupon.  I remembered the commercials from when I was a kid...they made an impression on me, so I figured it was worth a try.

No dice.  I couldn't even taste it on today's sandwich.  And I used a lot of it.  This is clearly not acceptable.  I feel as if I've swallowed the red pill of mustard awareness, and can never go back to the state of ignorance I blissfully endured before.

My mission - should I choose to accept it:  I will make Brown Stout Mustard.

And the world will be right once again.