Listened to an interesting podcast this morning. I subscribe to America’s Test Kitchen Radio in podcast form. This week’s show included an interview with the chairman of the Mars Institute. He was discussing the important role that food would play during long space flights. A trip to Mars would take six months of space travel, an eighteen month stay, and a six month return trip. Food as fuel (i.e., squeeze bottles shooting in calories) simply wouldn’t work in this case.

Lots of research is going into this aspect of space travel because food is not only crucial for survival, but also for happiness and contentment.

It made me think about last night’s dinner. Frank cooked, which is great in and of itself. But it’s what he cooked that elevated dinner from mere fuel to pleasure. He made a dish of Italian sausages, potatoes, onions and peppers that was beyond good. I was a mere observer while this operation was in progress, feet propped up, glass of wine in hand, so I’m not exactly sure what he did to make it perfect.  I did notice that he baked the sausages first, which cuts the grease factor. Hard to beat a combination of sausages, crispy fried potatoes, peppers and onions. Nora Ephron was so right when she said that the secret of life was to marry an Italian, especially one who cooks!