If the Shoes Fit

In our book, My Mom Invented BAD Food, we share a vignette on cooking a beef tongue. How, you ask, does that relate to shoes? Ah, my friend, just close your eyes and picture... an Acorn slipper simmering in a dutch oven, surrounded by clove-studded onions and a few merry carrots. Yeah, that's the image, all right.

Today, on the other foot, shoes factor in only on the periphery. Next to my front door is a mat, and on the mat are several pairs of footwear. See photo at right. Snowboots. (I know! Aren't they awesome? And I need them today!). Running shoes. (As if.) Abe's clunkers in the background. (For when he comes home to me.) And my cutest pair of flipflops, all beaded and fun, to wear when the thermometer hits 70 again like it did last week.

Last week, shod in those little bits of nothingness, I was thinking in food terms of light and airy, like the fabulous Spinach Salad with Strawberries, a recipe in MMIBF contributed by our friends at Litehouse Foods. And not that it wouldn't be delish today, but as the snow falls outside, my mind is going slightly more toward Davis Pear Custard Pie, coming to us from the fine folks at Oneonta Starr Ranch Growers.

Davis Pear Custard Pie baking in the oven. Shoes and boots and dog leash by the door. Life is good.