Sunday, December 28, 2008

Salt and Dad

Ruggleses tend to develop some level of hypertension as they age, and Dad is no exception. Periodically, our beloved Morton's salt would get replaced with some small white-labeled shaker of No-Salt with *gag* Potassium Chloride.

Did Dad ever stop loving salt? I rather doubt it. He used to grill chicken seasoned with fistfuls of salt, and my eyes would water. But I was turned off to salt long before that.

In keeping with the Christmas season, this story is still heavily entwined with Christmas. Once, a long time ago, we were making Mom and Dad their obligatory breakfast for in-bed consumption, and I was assigned egg-making. I salted to my taste, which is enough, I think. Dad, before even tasting it, asked for more salt because surely I could not meet his distinguished taste. I took his plate back, and I salted those eggs - a lot - because Dad likes his Sodium. When I brought the plate back, (probably on one of those little red floral-print TV trays), Dad demanded he be given the salt shaker so he could see to it, that he got his. I tried reasoning with him saying that I gave him salt and a lot of it. He would hear none of it, and he salted away - for the third time. Naturally, one bite convinced him that there is, in fact, an upper limit to the amount of salt a person can reasonably handle in a week, much less a meal. And around then, the whole experience has seen me shying away from salt since.

Maybe I won't have hypertension to go with my high cholesterol.

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

I HATE it when Craig salts my food before tasting it! Granted, my food always needs salting b/c I never add it when cooking. My kids like it that way, and I don't want to build it in to a too-sodium-rich diet anyway. Same reason I don't butter the vegetables (usually). But still CRAIG. Taste it first!

Alison said...

haha I always salt before I taste. bad habbit, I know. :) And I so remember those crazy red tv trays!