Ah, and the memories.
Roger loved kielbalsa. I guess it is a Polish thing. Kielbasa is a certain kind of sausage that is really not overly greasy and the only sausage I can tolerate. I had never had it in my life until I met Roger's Aunt Gerrie. It is pretty tasty when it has been broiled or pan fried.
Roger loved it fresh, and nothing was better than Aunt Gerrie's fresh kielbasa. She offered to teach me how to make it many years ago, but I never got around to it. I mean, sausage, even as yummy as her kielbasa was, does not exactly qualify as health food, right? Big mistake on my part! Roger would have loved it, but he found a way to have his fresh kielbasa fix anyway. It is called - Polish Deli. He and Nani would order pounds at a time and freeze it. Then they would schedule a special time to eat it. Oh boy! I do miss that though.
Left to his own devices, Roger would eat kielbasa straight up. With mayonnaise. No need for veggies.
He knew what he liked and he often liked a lot of it. Yes, an area of our disagreement.
Fortunately, he was rarely left to his own devices.
As much as was possible, I would stick vegetables to his less than healthy meat selections and try my best to make it difficult for him to pick them out. He could always separate carrots, however. (I still do the same with mushrooms)
And he actually did eat some vegetables - the weird ones - but mostly called potatoes vegetables.
It was a fun challenge to get proper vegetables into his diet. Thankfully he loved to eat, so he would try just about anything. Well, anything except tofu. But I could wrap meat around just about anything and he would give it a try.
He always insisted that he ran as much for the ability to eat anything he wanted as he did for his health. I could never talk myself into that, but I do have a friend who once told me that she ran so she could have her m&m fix every day. To each his own, I suppose.
"God numbers your days and it is our job to redeem our time here wisely" he would tell me. Is sausage wise? He would chuckle and say that he would run to balance it out. If, in fact, that it really is God that numbers our days then I must be satisfied that Roger lived his well and his diet was only a part of the equation of life. And, I do believe that God numbers our days. It is just my mind that wants me to make sense of diet being part of a shortened, or lengthened life.
Gluten free? He would have none of it. Fat free? Not on his list. Sugar-free - well, he always insisted that he did not like sugar, but I never did figure out how he loved chocolate and ice cream but not sugar. I think that NOT being a cook helped him out with that theory.
And most certainly, I wish that he would have embraced a 'less meat-more veggies" kind of lifestyle - mostly in the hopes that it would have extended his time with us. But I can't help but wonder if his days were lengthened because I tried my best to get the 'best for him' foods on his plate. It somehow seems that I still spend too much time wondering where we would be today IF I had insisted on this on a fish, fruit and veggie only diet. I've come to the conclusion that it is satan that points to that line of thinking, and probably also just a part of the grieving process.
It is to some degree satisfying that on my watch he ate a lot of salmon and veggies. He had fruit under his ice cream (so it looked like a significant serving!) I only left him with chocolate when I traveled and packaged it up for 'a treat a day.'
But what he did when he was not home....ahhhh....I will forever wonder! I know that they have a REALLY BIG kitchen in the fire station. And I know that there is always at least one firefighter on any given shift that embraces cooking for a crowd. I know that if someone cooked for Roger and he liked it, then they likely did it again, and again! "Jimmy Deans makes the best......." and I would have to remind him that it was only the best on the coast...and he chuckled. Wise move because you must always encourage the cook!
This not cooking for four thing is a hard thing to get used to. Four ....dinner, and then leftovers for breakfast. Roger is the only person I have ever known who loved a five pound meatloaf so he could have it for days on end as leftovers. He is the only person I have ever known who loved dinner so much that he wanted the same thing for breakfast.
Roger's Lesson: If dinner was good, then have it again right away!
He believed that God made good food for the eating, and he did his part to show God how thankful he was for good food. I'm glad that I was a part of that enjoyment.
Yes, if he were here, I would be smelling the aroma of kielbasa warming up for breakfast!
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