Hey Let's Split it: does cream cheese taste like love?? or is it.....b...

Hey Let's Split it: does cream cheese taste like love?? or is it.....b...: "I was out with my friend Pete yesterday and we had a very big lunch. Very big. Sure it was vegetarian...which in my mind is always synonymou..."

does cream cheese taste like love?? or is it.....bacon?

I was out with my friend Pete yesterday and we had a very big lunch. Very big. Sure it was vegetarian...which in my mind is always synonymous with "nutritious" and "so low calorie you actually get thinner by eating it." However, I got the distinct feeling perhaps this wasn't so, when I had to unbutton my pants midway through my saag paneer. (forgive the spelling). "Saag" means spinach. I thought  "paneer" meant "eat it and you'll be strong and fit like Popeye" but we popped into  the adjoining grocery store afterward and I saw I was sadly mistaken.

I wasn't that sad though. Cuz I found Ghee! Which is Indian for "hey lazy why don't you clarify your own butter?" and I bought a big container of it, along with black and yellow mustard seeds and something else that I've already forgotten why I needed it so badly. But the thrill was in the hunt and I love ethnic grocery stores and this one had ingredients I'd never heard of, ever. What could be better?

Dessert, that's what. And so Pete led me down the garden path to a place that somehow combined the divine (donuts) with the sublime (Muffins). I couldn't wait.

Atwater Village, the Village Bakery. How you broke my heart.  Out of the donut muffins? or "duffins" as I'd secretly taken to calling them as I'd muse about them at night. I wisely decided, no dessert for me, but Pete ordered the individual sized pie.

Pie? Really? I'm a fan of pie, just not for dessert. Not fruit pie anyway. Fruit pie is breakfast. Cream Pie is for dessert.  Back when my nephew was around nine or ten, my mother tried to pawn pie off on him when he went for ice cream bar #3 of the day. 

My Mom:  "I have peach pie."
Kyle:          "I don't like peaches and I don't like pie."
My mom:  "Kyle, there's watermelon."
Kyle:          "Fruit is not a dessert."
Now I like peaches and I like pie. Usually not together. And definitely not for dessert. So when Pete got his pie, a blueberry/cranberry confection, I was unmoved. Even though it was baked into the shape of a heart. and covered with that thick grainy sugar that crunches when you bite into it.  But I'm only human so when Pete got up to get more coffee, I sneaked a bite. Of Manna. From Heaven. It was the best little pie ever. I asked the waitress if there was cream cheese hidden away in the crust. She went in back to inquire, then quickly returned to tell me "the secret ingredient in our crust....is love."
Huh. Where I'm sitting, love tastes a lot like cream cheese.

What does this have to do with Heyletssplitit? Well come on. It's about shopping. It's about sharing. It's about love. Even if it's love of cream chese, love is love.

And paneer? It's cheese.
www.thevillagebakeryandcafe.com
www.heyletssplitit.com

You say potato. I say spuds.

It was  a strange feeling for me. People get divorced all the time, more than 50% of the time in fact. But I was sad to hear about Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver separating after 25 years. Who's next? James Carville and Mary Matalin?

Why do I root for these couples? Because they are proof that yes, we really all can "just get along" if we try.

That's one of the conceits of HLSI. You get paired up with "shopping buddies" based upon things you have in common. Which is great. But maybe the icing on the Red Velvet cupcake will be that religiously, or politically, you and your buddy are at different ends of the spectrum. Yet despite these differences, your mutual love for Aidell's habanero/mango sausages transcends the fact that he voted for W while you campaigned for Gore.

Yes we all can get along. If we agree not to label each other; if we keep an open mind that we have to view people as a whole; not pick one aspect of their personality and base our opinion on just that.

With Hey Let's Split It, our slogan right after "share/shop/split/save" may well turn out to be "Vive la difference." And wouldn't that be nice?

Jane Dough. Can help you with shopping, sharing and yes even loving.

Mother's day doesn't have to be just for mothers. Or even just for women

The great singer Phoebe Snow died this week. And in reading her obituary I was struck most by what a fantastic mother she was. 

Ms. Snow put her career on hold to care for her daughter, Valerie Rose Laub, who was born with severe brain damage. Her husband left soon after Valerie's birth, leaving Ms. Snow to raise her daughter alone. 

Ms. Snow could have put Valerie in a home, as many advised her to do. But she refused. She took jobs singing jingles, she virtually quit touring...all to dedicate herself to her daughter and self described 'best friend.'

That's some mother.

Sunday, May 8th, is Mother's Day. A time when we all thank our own mothers.

But what about mothers like the late Ms Snow? Whose own child was unable to ever make a card out of construction paper, or a necklace out of macaroni. She may have loved to get a card, just once, thanking her for being such a great mom.

So this Mother's Day I'm making a suggestion to all HSLI fans and everyone else. How about saying thanks to someone whose motherly qualities you admire? It could be your babysitter. It could be your cat sitter. Maybe like me, you had a grandfather who out-mothered everybody with homemade blueberry pancakes every Sunday. 

Maybe it's a sister, a neighbor, an auntie, the receptionist at your dentist's office who always calls you "honey" and gives you a spare toothbrush.

Take a moment and tell them "thanks for making feel cared for." Thanks for being like a mother to me.