I watch Food Network a lot. A Lot! One thing they like to talk about is so-called "comfort food"--usually mac 'n cheese, ice cream, chicken soup, spaghetti. I've wondered sometimes at the rationale for the designation, though ice cream is a given. Chicken soup = illness, so that too. When I think of favorite homey dishes that evoke family, I come up with chicken fricassee, dirty rice, seafood gumbo. Not thing that are easy to turn to for comfort, since I don't make them like my grandmother did. (My dirty rice isn't bad--and no, it's not like the stuff you get at Cajun restaurants!)
So finally, reality hit, and I've been trying to look over some articles, look over the dissertation, print the dissertation in all of its tree-killing immensity (that's the epithet). . . But things were a little crazy at home, and with all of the beginning-of-the-month, only-paid-once-a-month grocery shopping that we have done recently, we still needed some things. So I made a list and sent my husband to the store with the kiddos (but at the last minute the little one needed me). I looked over the list, and behold: comfort foods!
--ingredients for a 7-layer bean dip: beans, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, tomatoes, pico de gallo, salsa, tortilla chips
--cookies
--doughnuts
--frozen cooked shrimp with cocktail sauce (an appetizer of sorts for me!)
Even the things that I put on the list because we "needed" them are comfort foods for me:
--frozen cheese tortelloni (which we had for dinner with butter)
--frozen portabello mushroom raviolis (the store brand is scrumptious! and only $2.09! what a great supper! :) )
--frozen vegetables: broccoli, broccoli & cauliflower, peas (great with the cheese tortelloni for supper!)
The bean dip was too labor-intensive, but will be consumed in the near future! :)
So. . . Any favorite "real" comfort foods? Things not usually considered? (Pregnancy cravings aren't quite the same. They vary with pregnancy and usually don't last in my experience. But they're an interesting subject unto themselves!)
And for tomorrow: Water. Just water. 'Cause all that talking will make us thirsty! Thanks for all the supportive words!
2 comments:
mmmm... tamales. Impossible to get round here but my mom brought some up when she came. We defrosted a batch last night when we didn't feel like cooking dinner. And I just had a couple for lunch.
I love 7 layer dip but am too lazy to make it, so I just usually go with chips and salsa or maybe bean dip or guacamole. All of those count as comfort foods.
And chicken enchiladas with salsa verde, though they are also a bit more labor intensive. (Can you tell I'm on a Tex-Mex kick right now?)
But yeah ice-cream and chocolate and big comfort foods for me. And baked beans. And this great pumpkin-leek risotto that I can only make in the fall when the pumpkins are in the stores.
Good luck with the defense tomorrow! I'll be thinking of you in the early afternoon. Be sure and let us know how it goes.
As for comfort foods...I read somewhere that salty foods fill some kind of physical need while sweets fill a psychological one. I don't know if I by that or not. Anyway, my comfort foods are baked bagel chips. I can't get enough of those. And, what really makes me retain weight are the classic nachos from Chili's with guacamole. When I've had a bad day, they're all I crave.
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