I picked up a cookie. It was a stocking sugar cookie, the kind with just enough spice and a lot of crunch. It was covered in a thick coating of bright Christmas red icing, with white squiggles at the top to stand in for fur trim. I bit into the toe, a bite big enough to stain my teeth and leave crumbs all over my lips. Yum, red! I thought.

There is a distinct taste to red food coloring, the kind that is so prevalent around the red-centric Christmas holidays. And I love it. I can't quite explain it - it doesn't taste of chemicals to me; either I've developed a celebratory association with it over the years, or the taste comes from some more natural source (beetles maybe?) that I just enjoy thoroughly.

Like Nicole's love of silver, I've decided that my red infatuation won't hold too much long-term danger for my health and happiness. I don't put it in my own cookies much - it's only in those confections brought in by my husband (who works part-time for a catering company, the source of those delectable stockings and angels pictured) or purchased at the now-concluded farmer's market. And it's really only once a year, twice maybe if I get hepped up on Valentine's Day heart cookies.