There is restorative food and there is comfort food. In this house there is plenty of both. Please do not have the impression that it's all kale and barley around here, even if my husband and daughter sometimes feel that to be true. There are many meals prepared in our home that would make Great Memere happy to dine with us, except we do not serve baked beans and red hot dogs on Saturday nights as customary in Northern Maine. We also skip out on Creton as well, though I ate plenty of it as a child.
Comfort food is different than healing food, both have their place.
Last night all of my houseplants were brought inside after many warm months spent outdoors. Today we wore smart-wool and hooded sweatshirts and pants under dresses and hats. There was frost in the valley. We turned the heat on for the first time and the old steam radiators began gently clanking as they got to work.
Tonight I made Macaroni and Cheese. Making this meal brings me joy on two levels; it is Emily's favorite and most requested recipe, and I always dream a little as I prepare the dish about the life of the recipe's creator, Tasha Tudor. I could get lost in her world; with her hand dipped candles and her red wool capes against white snow and barn wood and her tiny waist always adorned with an apron. She grew a shirt for her brother once, maybe it was her son. She planted the seed, grew and harvested the flax, spun and wove the fibers into fabric and thread, and sewed the shirt. It took three years. Slow food, slow crafts, slow life. Quick to notice the world and her tiny, important gifts.
