The Comfort of Comfort Foods

Whenever we are gone for more than a day, we notice that our cat eats like crazy.  She’s always been that way.  Once, for less than a year, we had another cat and he traumatized her so much she practically lived under that bed – except for her mad dashes to the food bowl.  She gained two pounds in six months and our vet was none too pleased.  How strange, we said.  How odd.   

But, then again, how typical.  Whenever I have a particularly stressful, crazy, busy week, I also make mad dashes to food.  Particularly comfort food.  Now, I’m not advocating this coping mechanism, just fessing up to it.  I’ve always wanted to be one of those people who waste away living on tea and toast when they’re stressed, instead of the kind of person I am – the dash to the food kind.   

My comfort foods?  The short list includes meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, fried chicken, stews and soups, garlic bread, pasta, and every and all manner of baked desserts – pie, cake, cookies, preferably in various forms of chocolate.  Weirdly, I’ve never been crazy about ice cream, some folks’ Achilles heel. I have one friend who chomps chips.  Another who stirs up scrambled eggs.  Another craves macaroni and cheese. 

What about you?  What are your favorite comfort foods?   Or are you the tea and toast type?

What I did on my summer vacation

Blackberry pie

I have been crazy, lately, about making pies.  I’ve even tried my hand at tarts.  There is something soothing and satisfying about rolling out crust, chopping fruit, forming decorative edges.  I get to express my creativity in a way other than writing and give my brain a rest.  Instead of thinking about words, plots, characters or settings, my pie-baking concentration shifts my thoughts to the present moment and lets me lose myself in a physical task that can be completed much faster than, say, a novel.  Not to mention that far fewer people reject my pies than reject my writing.  This summer, I attempted a pie a week – mostly berry.  I tried my hand at rhubarb, blackberry, blueberry, and, of course, tart Door County cherry.  What still eludes me?  A super great wonderful apple pie recipe.  I’m talking traditional, here, but still decadent.  Do you have one such recipe?  Pretty please with sugar on top?

Hello, World!

Welcome (Mom, and anyone else) to my blog.  I hope to use these posts to write about writing, to muse about life, to give some book recommendations, and, of course, to op-ed about my literary love – Fanny Fern.  Let me know what you think.  Let me know how you feel.  And, while you’re at it, I am on the hunt for the world’s best apple pie recipe.  So, go ahead and leave that, too, if you are a sharer. 

A toast <glasses clinking> to this beginning!  (Please have some champagne or herbal tea or water from the plant-watering-can now.  Thank you – I feel your support!)

My first Fanny Fern wowza for you:  Fanny Fern is credited with the saying, “The Way to a Man’s Heart is through his stomach.”