Love-Hate Relationship

I can certainly qualify my relationship with food as love-hate. Well, actually, it's mostly love and I prefer to curb the use of the word " hate" as much as possible. Let's just say my love affair with food has always been passionate, definitely not lacking heat but certainly complicated at times.

This could apply to my love of calorie-busting goodies and a lifelong weight struggle but that's a subject for another day. I'm speaking of the fact that there are just some foods I can't abide. That's a wonderful thing about food for me though....even the foods I don't like can evoke wonderful, comforting feelings.

My Mom used to cook up liver for my Dad. The strong smell of that liver would permeate the house and no amount of opening windows or covering of my nose and mouth would provide respite. I could smell it for days. But while I deplored it at the time, these days the thought of Mom cooking that liver and seeing Dad's eyes widen with anticipation makes me smile now. I've even grown to appreciate rumaki and liver pate over the years.

Olives and I tend to be mortal enemies. I have tried to appreciate them from pizza to martinis and I just can't stand the taste. Black olives in particular which makes even less sense when my favorite salad is a Greek salad. I love the greens, red onion, tomatoes, peppercinis and oh, the feta. I had a friend named Nicole who was the chef for the coffeehouse in Marietta and she made a Greek vinegarette that I could have drank......but I digress. I always picked around the olives.

When I think of black olives, though, I think of my best childhood friend Kristy who loves them. I am also reminded of a high school friend of mine named Libby Doty. She died tragically of cancer barely out of high school. She also loved black olives. She and Kristy agreed that they would be perfectly happy eating them right out of the jar. It's a great time to think about Libby as Halloween is coming and she loved that holiday as well.

Come to think of it, maybe I'll just buy a jar of black olives. On Halloween. Just because.