July 7th - Comfort Food

"It seems to me that our three basic needs, 

for food and security and love,

are so entwined that we cannot think of one

without the other."

-M. F. K. Fisher

Start Quote

Comfort food:

quirky, quaint, quixotic.

Personal patterns of consolation, 

encoded on our taste buds past all forgetting,

as unmistakable as greasy fingerprints.

When the miseries strike and you're down in the dumps,

food transformed by love and memory 

becomes therapy...

Comfort food is hearty.

When hearts are heavy, they need 

gravitational and emotional equilibrium...

Food that reassures us that we will survive.

With such sustenance we can keep on going and going,

especially when we don't want to take another step...

Pleasure can be bought, but comfort must be given. 

Even if you give it to yourself...

Start a file just for comfort food recipes. 

When you prepare hearty comfort foods,

double your pleasure by 

doubling the recipe to freeze another meal...

It's such a simple pleasure knowing that there's something delicious and comforting in the freezer for dinner, especially when you've been working hard all day long and no one appreciates it. 

End Quote

"Since we're forced to nourish ourselves, 

why not do it with all possible skill...

and ever-increasing enjoyment...

[And when we sit down not only to eat, 

but to be cheered and comforted, 

let us do so] with grace and gusto

[and a grateful heart]."

-M. F. K. Fisher 

I'm a simple girl. 

Mac n' cheese, fried chicken, spaghetti, brownies 

with fudge sauce and vanilla ice cream, chocolate chip cookies.....

And of course our El Salvador Christmas Eve dinner,

doesn't get much more comforting than that. 

Don't forget the Diet Coke.

I'm definitely going to have to put a 

comfort food section in my cook book. 

What's your favorite comfort food?

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Gratitude Journal

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1) Team work. I couldn't do this whole parenting thing without Robbie, family, and good friends.

2) Getting out of the house, and getting the kids out of the house.

3) Heat. I know people complain about our summer heat, but I love it. 

4) Fat. A little extra cushion here, some jiggle there, I love it. 

5) Bed time. Oh my goodness, I'm so grateful that the kids go to bed. My mom says that little kids must go to bed so mommy's and daddy's can love them again in the morning.