Where does all that food go?

Several people have asked me a really good question: Where does all that food go once you cook it?

The question is really two-fold. Sometimes, the person inquiring wants to know how I seem to cook and eat so much, without it going right to my hips or my stomach. The answer to that one is about five workouts a week, 40 to 60 minutes each, on the elliptic. On top of that, I try to get in an intensive yoga session once a week and I've recently taken to swimming.

The other way that question comes up is from people wanting to know what am I LITERALLY doing with all that food I'm cooking. My friend Sarah just asked me that question, and when I thought about my efforts to get rid of it found it kind of amusing.

There have been numerous dinner parties, and then leftover dinner parties for the people who could not make it the first round. This is when I shove copious amounts of food in my guests' faces, and then send them off with take-home containers.

Some people don't even have to show up at my place. I bring the food to them, especially those I know to be regular blog followers. This girl Kat I work with got four Tupperware containers from the Middle Eastern Adventure.

Sometimes, as the case with the leftover brownies and tapioca pudding from the Iron Chef party, I just bring it to work and walk around aimlessly looking for people until someone will take it.

A lot of it I bring to work for lunch. In fact, there have been several fairly elaborate picnics with co-workers out on the lido deck at the office.

Part of the fun of this has been sharing. There's nothing like making food for people you love (or at least interact with) and watching them enjoy it. Truth of the matter is, not enough people stop to really appreciate their food. In the age when everything has become super sized and Mc-whatevered, if I can spread some joy with homemade tapioca or ropa vieja, then I'm a happy camper. It gives me satisfaction.

What can't be eaten or peddled right away gets frozen. It's in the cue for those weekends when the cold front moves through and you don't feel like doing anything : ) And now that she's asked, maybe I need to figure out some way to start shipping frozen goods to Sarah ...