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Sensuous Life 3

At this point, the "sensuous life" bit has been thrown around enough that it deserves its own series. The first post was, understandably, about defining the sensuous life, and the second was all about a tongue-in-cheek suggestion to rename mac and cheese (to "pasta a la fromage"). Basically, we just like adding a touch of pinkies-up to our lives. It's neither hard to do nor ridiculously expensive, but it always adds some hilarity into our lives.

In this particular episode of the Sensuous Life, I'd like to discuss cheese platters. You see, one of the very first documented instances of the Sensuous Life was when we decided we wanted a cheese platter as part of our dinner. We sliced up a couple of cheeses from Costco, arranged them on a plate, mixed in a few fruits, and enjoyed the heck out of eating it for dinner. Every now and then, we mix in some cold cuts to go with it, so we often refer to these plates as "charcuterie boards." Strictly speaking, it's only charcuterie when it has the cold cuts, but we simply use the short hand word for both styles.

The Mild Wife and I also like to pair this with a glass of wine, so it feels like we're having a fancy meal. However, it's usually a lot cheaper than going out to eat, and all we've really done is slice some cheese. I like to mix in a healthy amount of cheddar, so it also means I don't get hungry at the end of the meal. Like I said, it's a low-cost way to add some fancy into our lives. As you can probably imagine, these charcuterie boards get dubbed sensuous life fairly frequently.

During this latest iteration, however, there was an extra bit of hilarity. You see, we'd gone to the local Trader Joe's, and we'd decided to mix in some cold cuts to this particular charcuterie board. We were just perusing the aisle when I happened to spot a new item: Gourmet Pepperoni. It literally says that on the package. This isn't just regular pepperoni, this is the next level, gourmet version of the stuff you eat on your pizza. As you can probably guess given where this post started, I was intrigued enough to buy the stuff. So, our charcuterie board didn't just have pepperoni slices on it, it had fancy pepperoni slices on it. That has Sensuous Life written all over it.

But wait, there's more! Remember the juice boxes from Friendsgiving? We still had a bunch in the fridge, and on this particular evening, I wasn't in the mood for wine. On a whim, I decided to have a juice box with cheese. Yes, this is basically an adult version of snacks that little kids get (cheese and juice). No, I didn't see a problem with that. That's what I was in the mood for, and I figured I'd run with it.

That made me giggle a little bit, but what really made me laugh out loud was the next bit of inspiration: I decided to serve my juice box in a wine goblet. Under normal circumstances I probably would've used that glass anyway, so it's not like I was making more dishes for myself. It also didn't matter that the beverage wasn't wine, it could still look like my usual cheese and wine dinner. I laughed so hard at this that the Mild Wife peered over to see what I was doing, and then she also wanted a juice box served in a wine goblet (there's a reason we're married). On a related note, it took a while before the laughter died down.

So, just to recap, on this particular evening, our dinner consisted of a charcuterie board that included gourmet pepperoni, and we drank juice boxes out of wine goblets. That's some quality Sensuous Life right there. Rest assured this is not the last time that either of things will occur in our household. The laughter alone will make it well worth it.

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