My Biggest Addiction

Addictions come in many forms and lord knows I have a tendency to pick up one or two. I can rightfully say that I have a familial connection to addictions. Knowing this has kept me from the really serious substances that people think of when you talk addictions, like I don’t do any drugs, smoke anything or drink alcohol. I have worked hard to break my sugar addiction and more would say I am successful about 27 days out of 30. As for white flour and all yummy things created with it I am able to stay away from it about 28 days out of 30. If you do the math I think you would say that I am not addicted to those substances now.

But I have to come clean about what I realized today is my number one addiction – Balsamic vinegar. Not just any vinegar but the good stuff, Argento silver from Moderna, Italy. It comes in this very cute globe like bottles that I calculate I drain every 8-9 days. This is an expensive addiction. I could switch to 15-year-old scotch and if I drank the same amount everyday as the vinegar it would cost me half as much.

A number of years ago I took advantage of Southern Seasons liberal vinegar tasting bar and tried every Balsamic they had. That was a memorable day. What I discovered is that this Argento brand hits all the right notes with me and I can use it straight as a salad dressing with no need for olive oil. And thus an addiction began.

Since Southern Season stopped having their annual sale where I used to stock on up on my yearly supply Russ started ordering cases of it direct. It saves a couple of bucks, but not much. Sometime in the spring he ordered me two cases at once and I thought that surely that would last me a year. Boy was I wrong. I drained all twenty-four bottles in seven months and I am not sure that I gave any away.

Like all good addicts I can justify my habit. I only use two tablespoons on my salad and I tend to eat at least one salad and sometimes two salads a day. I don’t yet put the vinegar on my cereal so how bad can I be? The vinegar, although it is not calorie free is much healthier than any other dressing option. Did I already mention I have given up my other addictions?

The real problem is that I keep the bottles to repurpose them and they are beginning to overtake my garage. I am thinking that I could go into a vinegar making business since I have enough stock of bottles. Of course the vinegar I would make and bottle would not meet my exacting standards so I would never consume it. I guess I need to think creatively and make some art object out of the over a hundred bottles I have. If it turns out fantastic I could recreate that art piece every year since I certainly will continue to have the bottles. What I really need to find out is if I can buy this vinegar by the barrel. Then I would not feel so guilty about the addiction and would feel compelled to use it everyday to use it up. Oh how the mind of an addict can justify things.