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Does Anyone Use Crisco Anymore?

by Laura on September 23rd, 2013

People have been asking me, “How was your vacation?”

The first thing that always comes to mind is that it wasn’t as bad as I expected.

Surprisingly, this wasn’t my expression during the entire vacation. Photo credit: “Shouting Loud Businessman” by imagerymajestic

This is the photo I chose, as opposed to one with the woman posing with her fingers like a gun to the head. That’s an improvement, right?

The children may have been jumping on my head only most of the day, as opposed to their previous track record of successfully jumping on my head the. entire. day.

So this meant that I had time to …

Read?

No.

Write?

Heck, no.

Talk for long periods of time with my friends while my children are awake?

No. An illegal activity according to Laws for Moms of Little Kids.

My kids have some type of preternatural radar that allows them to sense the moment I sit down to do something for myself … and to create some urgent drama/need/desire/wish/injury—both real and imagined that I have to respond to RIGHT AWAY.

That’s not to say that my kids don’t know how to entertain themselves. It’s just that they don’t like when I do the same.

And so, I spent a good part of my vacation doing what I would call “co-existing in the same space and yet doing separate activities that don’t involve mommy’s full concentration by any possible measure.” Examples of these include:

Baking.

Cooking.

Checking Facebook for signs of intelligent life.

Hey, everyone’s gotta eat, right?

We have some friends at the seaside with whom we’d prepare meals a couple of days a week. Who am I kidding? They’d cook and I’d eat. Luckily, I could bake. The biggest hits were Double Chocolate Brownies and Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies (minus the red dye–not because I’m such a hippie mom, but because my son might truly have a skin allergy to it).

Can’t say I won’t ever execute my own food-photo, but today is not the day, sorry Facebook food-photo fans. Image from Marth Stewart.

My girlfriends decided to prepare a famous cookie made entirely without sugar (not to worry, powdered sugar is sprinkled on judiciously at the end). I think perhaps it was supposed to be a surprise, until …

One of the husbands pointed out that the cookie is made with <<< drum roll >>> pig fat.

For those readers who don’t know this about me, I’m a fish-and-dairy-eating vegetarian. Since I was 16 years old.

And I was like, “Wow, pig fat, huh?”

The husband said, “Yeah, they thought about not telling you, but you had to know.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that.”

Not all ethnicities eat pork in this part of the world, but a distinguishing feature of Serbian “ethno” cuisine is its pervasive use of all things connected to ‘the other white meat.’

Which makes trying to answer the oft-asked question, “Why are you a vegetarian, anyway?” pretty difficult.

The best thing to do is to shake my head sadly, saying it was doctor recommended. No further explanations into the practices of the meat industry in the U.S. or any other such nonsense necessary. People will back off as soon as you mention a mysterious medical-related malady.

So now I know. Crisco–a vegetable-based shortening–is decidedly NOT a thing in the Balkans.

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From → Expat Mommy

9 Comments
  1. Yeah..pig fat wouldn't have went over well with me, either, and I am not a vegetarian.
    Young kids do like to occupy your time, don't they? I remember a certain little boy who couldn't do anything without his mom. Now, I'm lucky if I can catch a few seconds of conversation unless he is sick. Then, I'm his best friend again.

  2. Hi Laura, my middle daughter who is now 23 has also been a vegetarian since 16. I thought it was a phase but she seriously can't handle the thought of eating meat. She'll eat eggs and cheese but not fish. Crisco… ick! I think I've got a can of it on a shelf somewhere. I never use it. I should probably throw it away.

    For years I never understood why I hated vacations. Now that my kids are raised, I finally get it. It was always so much work and so stressful. The last vacation we took together was a three day jaunt up to Mt. Hood. I had a scale 11 migraine on a scale of 1 to 10. I suppose it was payback because I ruined it for everyone. Cheers.

  3. I would love to use Crisco every day but unfortunately my health depends on me not using it again. If I had my way I'd fry chicken most days of the week! :) But alas, it behooves me to grill and bake so I can live longer.

    By the way I hated vacations when the kids were little. It was just a time to do my job in another location for a week or two that was not set up to do my job in it's normal routine and made things much harder. Moms don't really get a vacation until the kids are older.

    I understand!!

    Love ya

  4. I don;t think so people still search about Crisco because the concept of it is no more.People search something for some specific time after that they forget and move towards others.

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