I Eat Brussels Sprouts

I Eat Brussels Sprouts
By Marilyn Mackenzie


Okay, okay, I admit it. I enjoy eating Brussels sprouts. I also love liver and onions, Harvard beets, and spinach soufflé. And I love drinking buttermilk. Doesn’t that make you want to give me a great big smooch?

If peanut butter remained as the only food on earth, I could survive, although I enjoy my peanut butter in many different ways and on many different foods. "A Peanut Butter Life" 

As a child, I discovered raspberry ice cream, when my mother was pregnant and craving. Raspberry sherbet is a poor substitute, but finding raspberry ice cream is a rarity. Still, each time I visit the grocery store, I check the ice cream freezers.

When my favorite flavor appears, I buy it, even if ice cream isn’t in the budget for the week. I savor each bite, sometimes with a dollop of peanut butter on top and hot chocolate. Sometimes I eat it plain.

Oddly, I never buy every carton of raspberry ice cream found in the grocery freezer. I’ve briefly considered buying each carton up when I’ve found my favorite there, but I’ve just as quickly decided otherwise. Having a limited supply makes that raspberry ice cream even more of a treasure to me. Each mouthful reminds me of mom’s cravings when I was a child, and makes me smile. We used to wish mom would stay pregnant forever if it meant eating ice cream at the local ice cream parlor every night after dinner.

As a teen, while everyone else was spending time at local fast food hangouts, I discovered a most wonderful meal – crabmeat sautéed in butter. I also tried squid, fried catfish, and ate more shrimp than I like to admit. The restaurant which had Sunday afternoon an "all you can eat buffet" for $7.95 probably hated it when my gang arrived at the door.

A few years later, I found another favorite – crab Rangoon. Although it’s meant to be an appetizer, it’s so delicious that I could make a meal of it. Each time I find a new Chinese restaurant, I peruse the menu to see if my favorite is there. Others must like it as much as I, for it is now available in grocery store frozen food aisles. I’ve also learned to make it myself. Still, it’s most palatable in a fine Chinese restaurant.

At the same time, I discovered the distinct and glorious taste of Japanese plum wine. It’s a dessert wine, and very sweet. As one who doesn’t drink alcoholic beverages much anymore, I haven’t had any for over 20 years. Still, my taste buds have quite a memory.

My favorite fast food item is an Arby’s roast beef sandwich – the original, not those with special buns or special cheeses. It’s the only fast food sandwich that I love enough to eat more than one. The first, I eat plain, savoring the taste of the beef. The second, I usually smother with both barbecue sauce and horseradish sauce.

Why should you care about all the odd foods I love? You shouldn’t unless you’re thinking about inviting me for dinner real soon. Rather, I’ve written this as a reminder of how different, how unique, we all are.

Just because you look into the mirror and see a cookie-cutter image of those around you, doesn’t mean you are what you see in the mirror.

You may be wearing the teen "uniform" of the day – those designer clothes that you really don’t care about – but inside you have a story to tell. You may be dressed in the same suit and tie as the co-worker in the cubicle next to yours, but within you may be an artist waiting to paint. Perhaps by day you wield a hammer and look like those around you doing the same, but have a songwriter’s heart.

Each day, we should take time to remember what different people we are, how unique we are. We need to remember that we’re not really just like those all around us. We are one of a kind.

Me? I like Brussel sprouts! And I’m proud to be able to admit it, as I smile, passing the mirror and seeing not a cookie-cutter woman of 50, but one who needs to wipe that trace of buttermilk from her mouth before she races out the door.



And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Matthew 10:30-31 NIV