I’m slowly re-learning that the weird thing about living in a place with no real seasons is that my food cravings are ALL OVER THE PLACE.

When I lived in Chicago, I very much craved seasonal dishes – warm roast-y vegetables and apple everything in the fall; hearty soups and chili and creamy pasta in the winter; fresh, green, and satisfyingly light dishes in the spring; tons of fresh fruit and BBQ staples in the summer. Here in California, not only is there basically none of the temperature changes that typically accompany changing seasons, but there is also incredible produce available literally all year around. Here, there’s no OMG factor when you see the strawberries or avocados you’ve been waiting all year for. Not to sound ungrateful – most of the time, it’s AWESOME – but without these typical signals, my body is craving all sorts of random things all the time. And let’s be real – I’m pretty much always craving macaroni and cheese.

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