Comfort Food

Have you ever had a week when both wonderful and miserable life events were crammed into the same few days? I don’t mean anything Earth-shatteringly tragic, but enough to keep you up at night and feel stressed despite the fact that some great news has just hit.  I have, and last week was in fact one of those weeks.

In times of stress, I, like most people I know, gravitate toward comfort food.  I might find a plate in front of me like this one:

Fried green tomatoes, corn bread, and mac and cheese.  At least the nutrition-minded angel on my shoulder kept the devil in check by limiting my intake to two tomato slices, half the macaroni, and one piece of cornbread. And Mike’s pickle chip.

Tonight, to round out what I believe is the end of my comfort-binge I made

Apple-beer-cranberry glaze? Yes, why not!

Did you know cranberries pop when they cook? Well, sure, you probably did.  But for someone who insisted for twenty-six years that “you can’t call ’em cranberries if they don’t have ridges on the side and come in slabs of circles or sliced into half-moon shapes,” this was news fit to print.

Chocolate Show 2011

The New York Chocolate Show, as its tagline states, is “the world’s largest event dedicated to chocolate.” …Or to many, heaven on earth. …And for me, the cause of a three-day chocolate high. As I admit in my “about” section, as healthy as I may attempt to be, chocolate will always be a part of my life. I choose to believe the studies that say chocolate is good for you. You know, antioxidants and all. I currently limit my cocoa intake, but sometimes you just have to let loose.

Happy Anniversary, Banana

It’s been one year since we met again, and this time I finally fell in love. Yes, I’m talking to you, bananas.

Ever since I can remember, I desperately tried to like bananas. Once or twice a year, I would open one up and take a bite in hopes that I would finally accept it. Now it’s important to note that for me texture is incredibly important in liking a food. As much as I wanted to enjoy the banana, I found the combination of the internal sliminess and exterior of the edible portion’s dry-and-near-fuzziness repulsive (and if you viewed bananas in those terms, you would likely agree). I’d try banana chunks on cereal, a whole fruit straight up, chocolate-covered bananas or a piece blended in a smoothie. (Ok, so texture was not an issue in the smoothie as much as the overwhelming flavor – I could taste even 1/10th of a banana in my icy treat.) But no matter what I tried, it was the same story: Bananas are yucky.

About a year ago, Mike was buying bananas at the supermarket weekly and never finishing the bunch. After the third time a banana wound up in the garbage, I knew I had to take action. It was high time for another Banana Trial, and this time I needed to be strategic with a different plan of attack. Plain bananas just wouldn’t work. What could I pair it with that has an equally strong flavor that would be complementary to the sweet produce?