Thursday, May 08, 2008

Where We Find Comfort: #1

Midwestern Take On a Souther Dinner

This may become a series of sorts, I actually just thought of it as I was linking to this picture of Tuesday night's meal.

After a tough couple days in the design world, whether justified or not, Tuesday night I came home with only one thing on my mind…that the healthy, calculated meals we've been eating the two weeks would have no place in my kitchen that night.

What I really needed to escape from the strain in my brain was some good ole fashion comfort food. I call this my Midwestern "Southern" Dinner, as I've never had real southern comfort food before. Nor, now that I think about it, have I had southern food. So this is strictly a midwestern girl's take on the things she hears, sees or reads in stories.

Panfried Chicken Tenders dipped in ranch, buttermilk biscuits buttered with honey and creamed spinach and onions.

It hit that spot that night, like most comfort foods do when you need them most. I know it's not the best for you mentally or physically, but I admit it now…for all the world to read. Call it stress eating. Call it emotional eating. Call it what you will. When times get rocky, I turn to it for comfort. To relax. To forget, if only until the next morning.

Now that's a truth. And it's out there.

Isn't it funny how people are so different? I remember in college, my last semester, design classes were crazy, huge projects, big deadlines. And while I turned to cans of Dr Pepper and an occasional Milky Way bar to make it through the long night in the lab, another one of my classmates realized that she had not eaten all day. For her, when stress piled up, she just didn't think of things as mundane as eating.

Complete opposites…yet really the same.

And that's a lot more than I could have ever imagined come out of a photo of a week night's dinner.

No comments: