It’s January now, right? 2023
It can’t be . . .
What do I even do with myself?
You might think I am talking about the January blahs.
Wamp, wamp. . .
Mostly, I am being a little dramatic right now.
I do feel them coming on a little, though.
However, most of my problem is that I feel like we are in sort of winter limbo flavor wise in January.
People who experience synesthesia see emotions are colors. I do not have that.
But maybe I do have something I just invented called: eatnthesia. This means that I need to eat and cook while expressing the dominant feeling of the season and I feel a little lost right now.
Which begs the question:
What flavor season are we even in right now?
Starbucks is featuring pistachio drinks. They have a new lineup of drinks with pistachio flavoring. To be a good researcher and blogger, I tried their pistachio latte this morning and it was pretty good. It was sweet but not overpoweringly so. I would maybe order it again, however, Starbucks is not an inexpensive treat so perhaps I have reached my pistachio latte quota for the season.
If you try to Google, flavor or the winter, many of the results come up with ideas like: gingerbread, peppermint, cranberry, chestnuts, pralines, white chocolate and eggnog. While not all of those flavors are exclusive to the holiday season, I do not entirely feel like they capture the essence of winter during non-holiday times.
I asked Mr. Katie this morning, before he left for work, what flavor he felt like Januaryrepresented. I said that even though Valentine’s chocolate is all over stores right now, February is more of a chocolate month. And even though I like to buy up the now-passe flavors of eggnog, gingerbread and even still pumpkin spice, those flavors still belong back in the days before the New Year.
We joked a little.
He suggested that the flavor of January is Dinner on a Dime, the title of a cookbook that my mother-in-law bought us when we were first married and we cooked from almost exclusively during leaner times. His thought was that Diner on a Dime is the flavor of January because bills come due in January and people say, I can’t believe I spent that much money.
I took things one step farther and I said the flavor of January is the salinity of tears falling from ones eyes when the January Blues set in.
[I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer but some “experts” have proposed that the 3rd Monday is January is the saddest day of the year. Blue Monday in 2023 will be on January 16th, right around the corner from now.]
Just kidding though . .don’t cry for real. I sometimes take things too far.
The flavor of January for me, some years, seems to be health food. It represents whole grains, kale and healthy habits. So maybe January is about the bitterness of greens or coffee without sugar and creamer.
With all that extra fiber maybe the flavor of January is Gas-X or maybe Beano, thought I don’t know if either of them have a flavor.
Sometimes I try new root vegetables in January. I forget that I am not that into parsnips and make a parsnip soup. I make a meal with quite a large amount of fennel. So maybe the flavor of January is vegetables or foods that you only eat once a year in January.
I try new things. New things can be fun. So can old things. Come back tomorrow or Thursday when tell you about the Pumpkin Spice products I bought before the left the stores over the past few weeks.
What does January taste like to you?
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