Comfort Food

Everyone does it - has a few dishes, candies, treats that they eat when they just NEED it...comfort food.  That one thing (or in my case, dozens of things) that you choose to eat when your happy, sad, sick or whatever else.

Stuff like hot chocolate with ice cream in it, a chocolate shake, some chocolate frosting.  You see where I'm going with this?  Or, homemade chocolate frosting with some pretzels for dipping?  Yes, you definitely see where I'm going with this.

Sometimes though I like comfort food, not just comfort chocolate, when I'm neither sick nor sad.  My kids are sick and that's wearing on me a bit.  It's really hard to figure out what to cook for dinner when everyone is coughing and crying and snotting all over the place.  That's where the comfort food comes in...comfort for me anyway.  Last night we had balsamic marinated chicken for dinner with fried potatoes.

mmmmmmm, fried potatoes.

This you see, as I was diving in last night, is one of my comfort foods.  One of those things that always sounds good, that I'll always eat, something that warms me up and makes me happy.  They were absolutely delish by the way.

Go out and fry yourself up some tonight - the more butter the better.

Fried Potatoes:
4-6 Yukon gold potatoes
butter
salt and pepper

In a large pot on the stove top, boil your potatoes.  Depending on the speed of your range, you'll boil them at least 20 minutes, probably more.  You want them soft enough that a butter knife can cut through them easily.

Remove the potatoes from the water and drain in a colander.  Let them sit about 10 minutes to work off a little heat.  Once they are cool enough for you to touch, slice them up thin.  They will start to crumble a bit but that's okay.  You want the crumble.  Leave the skins on, too.

Once the golden beauties are sliced, melt some butter in a large skillet.  Okay, melt a lot of butter, a couple of tablespoons just to be safe.  When the butter is nice and melty and bubbling add the potatoes and spread them out as evenly as possible.

The potatoes have already been cooked so basically you're just browning them up and "crustifying" them.  Oh, I love crusty potatoes.  If I were you, I'd leave them about 7 minutes per side and flip them over.  Cook and flip until you've got them nice and golden.  Add a little more butter if they look sad.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy.

Taking care of people the only way I know how...with food.

A couple weeks ago a good friend of mine had a baby.  At home.  In her bathtub.  On purpose.

She's been a bit AWOL from life since and I finally talked to her a little yesterday via text message and she agreed to let me take her dinner and hold her sweet baby boy.

While I was fixing the meal for her and her husband tonight I realized that whenever I want to help someone, I show up with food.  I use food for everything.

I'm not the best at telling people I love them, but I can make them cookies.  I'm not really good at helping people with their lives, but I can and will make them dinner.  It just seems to be the way that I feel I can fit in and help the best.

Food is so good for so many reasons.  Love, therapy, a helping hand, a night off for someone.  I'm really learning to love cooking and being in my kitchen - even if I have some helpers with grubby hands every once in a while.

I guess food is good therapy for me, too.