Friday Freedonist: Come on a Small Pleasures Safari

I choose to make my life fun. That’s why I have so many games weaving through it. You can make a game out of almost anything, and flip something boring into something that makes you giggle. There’s the What Can I Make Out of X, Y, and Z for Dinner? game, the How Can I Stick it to the Utility Companies This Month? game, and so many more. In fact, the entire Whole Foods Food Stamp Challenge was a game (and it was fun).

For this Friday Freedonist, I’m playing one of my favorite food related games, which is the Small Pleasures Safari. In the process of my regular trips to the grocery store to stock up on fresh produce and perishable things, I make it a point to find one small, irresistible pleasure for under $5. I generally take it home and make a ritual of enjoying it, making sure that gratitude is a huge part of the ritual.

Example: I like mangoes. When I was living in Mexico, the frutería didn’t have those gigantic, rock-hard, fibrous green/red mangoes we mostly get in the store. They had these small, treat-sized yellow-skinned beauties with velvety flesh, small pits and gorgeous flavor. I haven’t been able to bring myself to buy a regular mango since those. On my Safaris I discovered that, a couple of times per year, you can find a small pile of the good ones in a tiny section in our grocery, in a basket about a foot square next to the kumquats. I take one home, peel carefully to get the most fruit remaining, and arrange it on the prettiest small plate I have, sprinkled with fresh mint and a squeeze of lime. I sit on the back porch and savor it with a cup of tea and a sandwich, and think about everything I have to be grateful for (even on days when that’s hard to see).

This week, I was on Safari in the same store and found a small basket of cheeses in the FCD (fancy cheese department). These were small slices and hunks that weren’t big enough to impress anybody in the display cases, and were marked down for quick sale. Among them was a beautiful wedge of Black River blue cheese, from a dairy co-op in Willard, Wisconsin. Its price fit the game: $1.59. So home we went. Perfect cheese, homemade bread, and fruit.  I win!

I’m just going to nibble a little of it, then put the rest into a red cabbage slaw with blue cheese and balsamic vinegar to share with my husband. Honest, I am. (Maybe just one more bite…)

Do you have games you play to make things — dull things like grocery shopping, paperwork, or saving money — more fun?

Celebrate your Friday!

Category: Celebrations, Cooking, Food, Friday Freedonist, Fun