That seems like such an odd statement for someone who is trying to make healthier choices in her life. I have a sweet tooth. Not just a sweet tooth, a sweet and FAT tooth! It can't just be sweet, otherwise a couple of teaspoons of sugar would take care of cravings. It's got to have something more, usually something creamy or fatty to help with the satiety level of the dessert.
If you asked most people who know me what my favorite dessert is, I guarantee the vote will be pretty evenly split between cheesecake and anything chocolate. What most of them don't know is they are WRONG. Those are the two desserts I will usually order when I'm at a restaurant and we are getting a dessert. Occasionally I'll get an apple crisp, or a slice of pecan pie, or pineapple upside-down cake (Thanks Megan for adding that to my list of yummies!).
No, my favorite dessert of all time is Strawberry Shortcake.
It seems so basic, really. Strawberries and sugar, a biscuit, and whipped cream or vanilla ice cream if you are REALLY good. It's so much more than just the sum of it's ingredients. The sugar makes the strawberries release their juicy goodness without losing all of their tartness. The biscuit soaks up the strawberry juice, making it a flavored sponge of goodness. The whipped cream adds the creamy fat flavor I crave. Strawberry shortcake may be available all year long, thanks to the wonders of intermodal transportation and the California growing season, but it's only really, really good when it's June, the local strawberries are in season, and it's too damn hot out to move or think. So strawberry shortcake is what I eat until it cools down enough to eat a real dinner.
One of the reasons I don't do well when I'm dieting is I feel deprived. I understand there are sacrifices one must make to achieve a goal, and I'm willing to do that, most of the time. Every once in a while I want a dessert.
Dessert should not be a reward for doing something you should be doing anyway. Dessert should not be what you get if you eat all your dinner. Dessert is a treat at the end of the meal, once in a while. It's not a lifestyle.
So what does Dessert have to do with all this?
Well, it has to do with how I view food. Dessert was the ultimate bribe in my house growing up. I looked forward to Thanksgiving because my mother baked at least 5 different pies because not everyone wanted pumpkin pie. (Pumpkin, Squash, Apple, Blueberry, and Lemon Merinque) I got to try a slice of each! (She added Mince pie at Christmas for my memere, but I tried that once and never tried it again!) If I was good and ate all my dinner, I got to have dessert if we were having one. If I didn't eat all of it, no dessert. (The argument that there was too much food on my plate and I wouldn't have room for dessert if I ate it all cut ZERO ice with my mom!) I can remember telling my mom I'd left a "pie shaped space" in my stomach for a slice of pie and if I ate any more dinner it was going to fill up.
Sweets became a reward, and have remained a reward for a long, long time in my life. That's something that needs to change.
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