You know the saying “You can’t tell a book by its cover”? Well I say you can tell a food by the way it washes off in the sink.

The other day I used margarine for something for the first time in years and I tried washing it off my hands afterwards.

It took three four maybe six soap sessions.

If that’s what it takes to clean it off the hands what’s it doing to the body?

The same is true with flour.

Before Shabbos I sometimes make three different kinds of challah.

One for the whole-wheat crew another for the I-don’t-touch-whole-wheat crew and finally spelt for the sensitive crowd.

White flour takes four to five times or maybe ten times the amount of time to clean off the bowl than whole-wheat flour. And the whole wheat takes three times as long as the spelt. Spelt just disintegrates under the faucet water like sand.

I think it works exactly the same with emotions. If I had to compare I’d say margarine’s like anger.

It blocks up the whole system.

I was speaking with my mother yesterday about her famous baked-onion-soup rice. My mother’s made it all these years with a whole stick of margarine.

I make a rendition with canola oil.

I’ve always wanted to write a recipe column. I’d call it “In seven minutes or less.” The first recipe would be this one:

Ingredients

Onion soup mix margarine (or oil) and rice.

Utensils

Baking Pan

Directions

Mix two packets of onion soup mix one stick of margarine (¼ cup oil) and 1¾ cups water to one cup rice.

Mix in baking pan cover bake until water’s absorbed.

If you want to get a little fancy add shiitake mushrooms.

I’ve always wanted to share that recipe. Actually once I shared a different more complicated recipe and that woman said it didn’t work for her. She never behaved the same to me after that. I think she thinks I didn’t really want her to have the recipe so I changed something.

It’s not true. I’m happy if someone else cooks something good. But she’s been kind of mad ever since. She’s given me this kind of angry distant greeting for ten years.

See what I mean about anger being like margarine? It sticks clogs up the world. That woman’s face has been stuck like that for ten years.

If it doesn’t come off easily it’s not healthy.

This we learn in the sink.

Anger’s a very dangerous ingredient.

The other day I got angry about something and I’ll tell the truth — it took up my entire being. I couldn’t concentrate. I forgot to do a few things I needed to. I was completely off balance.

There are people who walk around angry every second of the day. It’s really unhealthy. It means that they are not really here.

The question is how to clean it?

I think the first step is to recognize that it’s not healthy and not allowed in our diet. Second step is to work out some system when it comes up. I remember hearing a story of a rav who put on a special coat when he got angry to take himself out of the moment and give himself a chance to calm down.

I know someone who was angry from something in their childhood. They spent almost their whole life in a kind of clogged fog the anger coating all their actions like margarine.

Then one day they spoke about it and someone gave them a clean perspective. It took a few washings like three four maybe six but it eventually came off.

This I learned in the sink.