July 9: Pastries: Sweet Indulgence

"I have a major sweet tooth," the ball player, Danny Tartabull, confessed to me when I saw him outside a candy shop on a day when he was scheduled to play a ball game. I was about 12 at the time and I gently chastised him for his cavalier dietary choices. I was under the impression that pro athletes adopted strict health regiments - always exercising and eating nothing but brussel sprouts and beans. I'd have been shocked to hear that some of my favourite National Hockey League heroes smoked CIGARETTES!!!

I forgave Mr. Tartabull, who helped his team (the Calgary Cannons) win their game that night.*

But like Danny Tartabull, I also have a sweet tooth. This is bad news since diabetes runs in my family but I cannot help it. I confess that I am in heaven when you take to me an ice cream parlor, especially if said parlor offers butterscotch sundaes.**

 So take a gander at this picture here:


I snapped that picture in April of 2019. I was attending a volunteer appreciation event that had been mounted by a local long-term care facility. Every year, they treated their volunteers to a gourmet meal, entertainment, prizes, and pastries. And those pastries didn't come from the grocery store either. They were fresh and had only recently been prepared by a professional pastry chef.

That was torture to me. I wasn't attending the event as a volunteer, I was there as a journalist. I try not to eat at these events - it's just not good optics - but one old lady, God bless her, caught me eyeballing one of those things and asked if I would like to have one. I bluffed a little, saying it just wouldn't be ethical, but she told me to stop being so silly and that if I didn't eat it, it would go into the garbage.

Now, whenever I go to that event, I donate money to the long-term care facility. The organizers understand that this allows me to sample some of the pastries with a clean conscience.

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My sweet tooth will stay with me forever. I know it. I will always be a sucker for pastries and coconut cream pie and lemon miringue pie and chocolate or butterscotch cream pie or any of that garbage. I can't help it. Now and then, I have to indulge.

I should note that, at one time, I had a gourmet jar of chocolate sauce that I had won at an event somewhere. This jar of chocolate sauce remained in my possession for a couple of months, waiting for an opportunity to be warmed up and poured on ice cream. Then my friend was getting her wisdom teeth out so I decided to give her my jar of chocolate sauce as a get well present. My friend is the one who gave me the title for this note.

How was that chocolate sauce? 

 

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* Note: I have not seen Danny Tartabull since the 1980s and I doubt he would remember me today. I knew him through my father, who used to broadcast the Calgary Cannons games. 

** Dairy Queen is BAD because they no longer offer buttercotch sundaes.

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