Comfort Food
When I was little, I became sick a lot. I missed usually around 30 days of school. Per the laws of Florida's public school system, I should have automatically failed the year due to absences.
Thank God I went to a private school.
What were my problems? Well, I had ferocious allergies, but that was not the worst of it. Mostly I had breathing issues a fair bit. I had bronchitis frequently, plus I had pneumonia four times. Yeah, you read that correctly. I also had an incident involving a mysterious stomach ailment that turned out to be part of an allergic reaction to penicillin (because I had to take it due to strep throat only about ten times as a child).
The entire staff at my pediatrician's knew me by name. My mom had the "take care of Kira" thing down pat, too. We'd see the doctor; on the way home, she'd buy me soda (a forbidden item usually for children in my house) and a happy meal at McDonald's; then, when picking up whatever medicines she needed at the pharmacist, she'd buy me comic books or something else to read.
For the rest of the duration of the sick time, I wanted my comfort food: potatoes. I would love them either mashed with gravy or as a baked potato (what the Brits call a jacket potato), fully loaded. I generally didn't want to eat anything else until I felt all better. It was some sort of odd Pavlovian response: ring the sick bell! salavate for potato!
Sure, sometimes I'd do the soup thing...but soup was not what I craved. Yes, I loved getting the happy meal prize on the way back from the doctor's....but it wasn't a cheeseburger I needed. It was the almighty potato.
To this day, when I'm sick, I crave potatoes. Even when nothing else seems to stay down, a good mashed potato will do the trick. Alex knows this, so the other weekend when he took care of my sick ass, he made me mashed potatoes (after massaging me, fixing food for the kids, entertaining the kids, bringing me drinks, etc...that man is beyond wonderful). I can't imagine anything that would have brought me more comfort...
Do any of you have "comfort foods" that sustain you when you are feeling under the weather or blue? (Amanda, is your answer Dulce de leche? Hahaha!)
Thank God I went to a private school.
What were my problems? Well, I had ferocious allergies, but that was not the worst of it. Mostly I had breathing issues a fair bit. I had bronchitis frequently, plus I had pneumonia four times. Yeah, you read that correctly. I also had an incident involving a mysterious stomach ailment that turned out to be part of an allergic reaction to penicillin (because I had to take it due to strep throat only about ten times as a child).
The entire staff at my pediatrician's knew me by name. My mom had the "take care of Kira" thing down pat, too. We'd see the doctor; on the way home, she'd buy me soda (a forbidden item usually for children in my house) and a happy meal at McDonald's; then, when picking up whatever medicines she needed at the pharmacist, she'd buy me comic books or something else to read.
For the rest of the duration of the sick time, I wanted my comfort food: potatoes. I would love them either mashed with gravy or as a baked potato (what the Brits call a jacket potato), fully loaded. I generally didn't want to eat anything else until I felt all better. It was some sort of odd Pavlovian response: ring the sick bell! salavate for potato!
Sure, sometimes I'd do the soup thing...but soup was not what I craved. Yes, I loved getting the happy meal prize on the way back from the doctor's....but it wasn't a cheeseburger I needed. It was the almighty potato.
To this day, when I'm sick, I crave potatoes. Even when nothing else seems to stay down, a good mashed potato will do the trick. Alex knows this, so the other weekend when he took care of my sick ass, he made me mashed potatoes (after massaging me, fixing food for the kids, entertaining the kids, bringing me drinks, etc...that man is beyond wonderful). I can't imagine anything that would have brought me more comfort...
Do any of you have "comfort foods" that sustain you when you are feeling under the weather or blue? (Amanda, is your answer Dulce de leche? Hahaha!)
posted by Kira | 4:17 PM
17 Comments:
Mmmmmmm. Mac 'n cheese. Popcorn with lots of butter.
Take care and eat well, girl.
you know, now that i'm thinking about it, i don't have any sort of comfort food that i like when i am sick. when i am sick i don't want to eat.
and now i am thinking more about it, and i'm realizing that i don't even have a comfort food for anything. yes, i love food and i love to eat, but isn't a regular comfort food for when you are feeling low or i guess need comforting? to me that equals being depressed and i also don't eat when i am depressed. about the only thing good with my depression is that i lose weight, so in the end i am happy. it's when i am happy that i gain weight, which depresses me, then i stop eating. it's a vicious cycle!
I'm with you...mashed potatoes!! If I can't stomach food at all, then ginger ale. I don't know why, but my mother and my grandmother always gave me that when I was sick to my stomach.
HAHA! Dulce de leche is my happy/sad/angry/frustrated/llickable/excited/bored comfort food.
My sick comfort food is wonton soup (i.e., jacked up chicken broth). If I can't have wonton soup, I'll settle for a big bowl of grits smothered in cheese (not the sliced fake cheese, please!). My great-grandma used to shovel grits into me whenever I was sick because "little girls can't eat rich and spicy foods when they're sick." Little did she know, I can eat rich and spicy foods anytime.
Though now, I'm considering SC's fried PB&J...that sounds wonderful! And, no, the metaphorical implications weren't lost on me either. LOL
Fortunately I haven't been really sick in awhile, but when I am I like Campbell's old style condensed Chicken Noodle Soup (not the stuff that has chunks of chicken and vegetables and flavor in it) and grilled cheese sandwiches made with plain American cheese and the whitest bread possible. Warm and bland is the way to go when the stomach is in revolt.
comfort food for the cookie monster? thats easy!!
semolina!
Pizza or a Steak sandwich./
Is it bad that my comfort food is vodka? Well, it is made from the mighty potato (the good stuff anyway).
A small vodka soda with lime always does the trick.
Hmmmm confort Kira? Could I classify you as food?
Hmm other than that, I just like to be cozy, warm and spoiled. And you do that for me *kiss*
Banana popsicles. Got some in freezer compartment right now, just in case.
Angie--I didn't get into tomato soup until college. Then I discovered it was not only soothing and good, but CHEAP! Glad you're liking Miami!
EM--See, you've just named two foods I will love to eat normally, but they aren't necessarily comfort foods for me. That being said...a movie without buttered popcorn is not a movie.
Sandra--when I'm sick, I definitely have comfort foods, but if I'm depressed I eat nothing. I, too, gain the most weight when happy. That'd be why I weigh more now than I've ever weighed!
SC--that concept reminds me of a Monte Crisco. I remember that's a fried sandwich, too.
Mandy--my mom gave me ginger ale at home too. Something about the ginger was supposed to soothe a bad tummy...
Amanda--I could SO see cheese grits as a soothing food. Wonton soup too. That'd be bland with the broth and then a very mild wonton...
Grant--mmmm grilled cheese sandwiches!
CM--you sure it's not beef jerky nowadays? hehe!
JS--wouldn't a steak sandwich be hard to mess with when you're feeling like crap? Pizza I could see. I bet my four year old feels pizza is HIS comfort food. That boy can eat some pizza.
AJ--I don't think that's worse than having a warm whiskey with lemon and honey ;) Or Nyquil. It's all alcohol, right?
Alex my love--your comfort food seems to be ice cream. At least, that's what you've generally wanted when I've tended to you!
Hoss--I could see that one, esp. if one of the symptoms was a sore throat. Popscicles are good with sore throats.
If I'm sick, what I want depends on how I'm sick. Otherwise, I don't think I really have any particular kind of comfort food. Or, rather, maybe lots of different food could be comforting depending on the situation.
Kira, I can't let this one alone: a "Monte Crisco" sandwich? Sounds really gross. :-P
I usually don't have a taste for anything when I'm sick. I'll be starving, but nothing seems to do the trick.
About potatoes, I crave them all of the time. Other than when I'm sick. I eat a hashbrown (baked not fried) every morning on my way to work. When I pick Ethan up from my Mom's after work, I will either steal a potato from her house or eat whatever left over potatoes she's made. I steal her potatoes because I quit buying them. They don't get used fast enough and go bad.
Oh well!!
Also, I feel that I've been slacking on my official ego feeder position. So I've left a nice comment about you on my latest post. I'm sorry, Mistress Kira, I'll do better. Promise. =)
Joe--LMAO you're right! I was thinking fry and so I guess my brain put out crisco, but of course what I meant was a monte CRISTO sandwhich! haha!
http://www.cookingcache.com/montecristosandwiches.shtml
April--you'd have easy meal planning with Alex, then. He's the only person I know of who, when offered two side items for something, will choose like "french fries" and "baked potato" as options!
I'll check out the ego feeding in a sec :)
Yes, potatoes rock. Screw those Atkins people. I've been known to make a large frypan of gratin dauphinois for dinner, with a big side of nothing. Mmmm.... I think I've even made that for you, Kira -- sometime when I came to visit you and Rob.
Ok, Kira, ask Alex if he's heard of a croque monsieur and a croque madame; if he has, ask him what the difference is....
I was a perpetual truant. I missed countless days from school from about the age of 13 onwards.
As for comfort foods - it's got to be mashed potato for me, or Yorkshire Pudding. Yum !
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