Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving.  I’m actually celebrating Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday night – I know!  Shocking!  The funny thing is that I still enjoyed thanksgiving-like leftovers because my roommate brought back cranberry sauce and green bean casserole from her dinner.  Plus I had a rotisserie chicken and yams in the fridge.  Yes- I randomly bought and cooked yams.  Tasty little suckers….

Anyway, as I was gnawing at my fake thanksgiving leftovers, I was thinking about the progression of my relationship with drumsticks.  As a kid, I enjoyed the riches of the KFC.  We’d get a bucket of fried chicken and an assortment of Styrofoam-flavored sides.  There was absolutely no question that I would be eating a drumstick from the bucket.  Why in the world would I want to eat one of the other pieces when a drumstick came with its own handle?  You didn’t need utensils or extra napkins to get the grease off your nose as you tried to bite into the other awkwardly shaped pieces.  You didn’t have to navigate around a coral reef of bones.  Why didn’t they just make buckets of just drumsticks?  Why did people even buy the other pieces?

This is the exact same situation with buffalo wings.  Buffalo wings are annoying enough to eat with the sticky sauce getting all over your fingers and face.  Why aren’t they called buffalo drumsticks?  How did the mini-WING beat out the mini-DRUMSTICK?

Fast forward to me grown up and cooking for myself.  I’ve reached a point in my eating habits to simply avoid meat on the bone altogether.  Yes it’s more tender and flavorful, blah blah blah, but it is simply a pain.  The only such scenario I enjoy is the one where the meat just falls off the bone.  If I have to excavate, forget it.  As for cooking, I’m one of those boneless-skinless-chicken-breast buyers. 

As for eating in general, I do feel very compelled to eat healthy.  In fact, it sometimes becomes a kind of mindgame for me.  I call it “Catholic Eating.”  Basically, I feel guilty if I eat too much bad food.  Given the choice between say fries and a salad, I will often tragically choose salad because of the guilt… whilst woefully gazing at the fries.  I share this food therapy session because I also learned that white meat is good and dark meat is bad.  Sure- no problem, simple enough, thanks for the info.

And then one day… I don’t remember when or how… I learned that DRUMSTICKS ARE DARK MEAT.  Noooooooooooooooooooooo!  That is so unfair!  I had no idea what to make of this quandary.  I do recall subjecting myself to trying to eat other pieces from the bucket… and woefully gazing at the drumsticks. 

I’ve since tried taking a more balanced view of eating.  I know that I will succumb to Catholic Eating, so go ahead and eat that drumstick.  I’ll be eating the rest of the rotisserie chicken anyway.  Besides, I know a redeeming salad isn’t far off.