Comfort by Janice Carter

Comfort: "a state or feeling of being less worried; a situation in which you are relaxed and do not have any physically unpleasant feelings"


Webster's Dictionary ticked all the boxes for my current state of mind. Well, my state of mind when I'm not giving in to worry or unpleasant feelings as I do sometimes during the day and often at night. But I'm not going to bring the real world into this post today (any more than I have to) because all I really want and need right now is comfort.
  I've always been a comfort eater, even from my teens. While my high school friends were socializing on the weekends, I was either babysitting or curled up in my bedroom with a good book, a glass of soda pop and a bag of chips. But I was completely happy with this. What more could I want? I never questioned this routine until college when I blossomed late and gave up potato chips...temporarily.
    I'm sure food has been a universal source of comfort for humans since we all had enough to eat and no longer feared starvation. My food preferences tend to savory (though I'd never turn down a French pastry) and as you can guess, my favorite salty treat remains a bag of potato chips. Not the cheap ones, mind. Think Kettle Cooked or artisanal! One of my daughters has inherited this gene and recently informed me I can join a Potato Chip Facebook page. Fortunately, I'm not driven to do that...yet.

     Besides eating foods that comfort me, I like to prepare them, too. Here are a few photos of some recent comfort food creations.
Current favorite sandwich - tuna salad and mashed avocado
Charcuterie!anytime

Lemon Meringue Pie, anytime
   
 I do most of my cooking, baking and entertaining at our cottage. Here's a summer favorite when we can't make a fast boat trip from the ice cream store on the mainland.
                                                       Roasted Marshmallow Ice Cream

                                           1 medium size (2 cups) whipping cream
                                          1/2 can sweetened condensed milk (freeze the rest for your next batch)
                                           1 tsp. vanilla extract
                                            2 cups (more or less) of miniature marshmallows
                   Line a rectangular cookie sheet with tin foil. Lay the marshmallows on it in a single layer and place on top oven rack. BROIL until charred. Don't walk away from the oven! Charring happens very quickly. Remove and cool. Then whip the cream until thick and fluffy. Add the condensed milk and vanilla and whip a bit more. When marshmallows are cool, scrape off the foil with a spatula into the whipped cream. Pour all into a container. I use a tall plastic one but a loaf tin will do as well. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze.
    Lest you assume eating is my only source of comfort, I've included: good books, especially romantic ones; FaceTime with daughters and granddaughter; social media because social distancing; streaming because...yep, same reason. Most of all, there is writing - with comfort and sometimes, stress but always joy. I'm grateful for all the above because the days are long.
   How have you been spending yours and what things give you pleasure these days?

Thanks for joining!

Janice Carter


Comments

  1. Oh, that looks sooo good! Potato chips are my greatest downfall. I've given them up for Lent three times and just now for Weight Watchers, and I'd still walk a mile for a can of Pringles. And I have no potato chip snobbery in me at all--I love ALL of them!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very funny Liz and when times are desperate, I’ll settle for whatever is around!

      Delete
  2. My vice is sweets, not any sweets, chocolate. I love chocolate cake with chocolate icing. As a result, I don't buy junk food. There is none in the house. So when I was in the grocery store and they were out of the essentials, I came home with a Key Lime Pie. Then I'd baked bread a week ago, so instead of tossing the stale bread, I decided to make a bread pudding. Decided I have to stop this, so I'm still walking close to my step goal every day. I'm off by only a few. The hard thing is writing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. At some point I’ll have to rein myself in because I know too well how hard it is to go back to the set point. Good for you for walking every day. That’s my next goal and now warmer weather is starting I hope to be more disciplined. Writing is hard. My mind wanders.

      Delete
    2. Writing's hard for me, too. I have been singularly unproductive.

      Delete
  3. Well, thanks a lot. All I can think about now is marshmallow ice cream...or toasted, or maybe cut into fruit salad and waldorf salad, or in rocky road or as a filling for chocolate Santas, hearts, and Easter eggs--and chocolate pumpkins, can't forget those. And let's not discount food as comfort. Our bodies are designed to enjoy food socially and alone, whatever. Survival of our species depends on us enjoying food enough to make sure we get enough of it. Some of us just happen to do more than our part!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My mouth was watering at that list of goodies, Virginia! I have a feeling most people comfort with food rather than say, scented candles. :)

      Delete
  4. Oh, yum. I've been dieting since January, but all the pictures of home baking lately have made it very hard to stick to. Nothing smells better than baking bread, unless it's chocolate chip cookies. Here's to comfort.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bread and pasta...difficult to give up or even ration, as I’ve been trying to do. And yes, here’s to comfort whatever it might be!

      Delete
    2. All this food is so tempting, especially the roasted marshmallow ice cream! I read somewhere we should try on our jeans at least every other day to make sure we can still wear them. :-)

      Delete
    3. I’ve been in sweats for the last 10 days...no place to wear jeans . :) Stay well, all, and thanks for joining!

      Delete
  5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm a sucker for ice cream! I'm one of those folks who loves the last bites of an ice cream cone when there is an equal proportion of cone and ice cream in every bite. Yummo!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love that last bite, too! Especially on a drumstix, where there's chocolate in the bite, too.

      Delete
    2. My husband and I joke that we’ve turned into his parents, who loved ice cream in their later years. And I think we also like the same flavours! Now drumsticks...been a few years but I too always loved that crunchy tip at the end! LOL

      Delete
  7. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment