I've known for awhile that preservatives are bad things and artificial foods are terrible evils and will probably kill you and that convenience foods, though they are terribly convenient, are, tragically, also as terrible for you as they are hard to resist reaching for. Then I read In Defense of Food and had a brain spasm and decided to make my own granola bars because--well, I could, I guess. Because I am not willing to give up convenience but also want to maybe try not to expire of maltodextrin or whatever the hell?

Some of you, however, suggested that commercially available bars could be just as healthy--the Kashi bars, for instance; my gorgeous friend Shawn points me toward Greens Plus energy bars. I will try all of these! I have excitement! I can maybe avoid the kitchen!

Then, from Elena Sigman on The Jew and the Carrot I learned that Lara bars, those magic hippie granola bars with, impossibly, only three ingredients, taste very similar to the sticky and sweet bars her Tante Toni used to make. I am down with sticky, down with sweet, and totally into the kind of nostalgia that food can engender. I am amazed by sense memory--to the extent that I want to try and experience the sense memories of others, apparently, because I am a sucker for a charming story. I have not got a Tante Toni, but I am suddenly very interested in trying a Lara bar. Maybe I will like it! Or maybe not.