Comfort Food

by capper

Decembers for the last few years have been very depressing for me. Two years ago, our neighbors and close friends, were killed in a car accident. Last year, the woman who "adopted" me after my own mom passed, died, of the same cancer, in almost identical manners. The holidays make me think of them, and I get sad, and like most people, start craving comfort foods.

Unfortunately, chocolate does not usually give me the emotional fix I need. The foods I crave are things from my childhood, that my mom or my grandma would make for us. I will spare you from some of the more, shall we say, interesting dishes. They are very common in Italy, but most people here get a little disgusted by some of them.

One of the foods that we found a few years ago was povitica, a Croatian dessert that is swirled bread. Grandma capper had been gone for 15 years and it had been at least 25 years since I had tasted any. Then we saw an ad for Strawberry Hill's Povitica, and thought we'd try it. The first bite took me back to my grade school days. (I hope she forgives me, but I think theirs is even better than the ones she made.) The best part was when we gave some to Grandpa capper. The povitica is expensive, but the tears of joy in his eyes as he too had memories flooding back was worth every cent.

Tonight, while I was doing some shopping before heading up north (another source of comfort for me) I was at the grocery store. They had a pistachio pudding dessert that made me freeze in my tracks. It was the exact same dessert that Ma capper would make for my birthdays and other special occasions when I was a child. Since my dad's birthday is coming up, I used that as the excuse to buy some.Again the memories came flooding back. We talked for over an hour, just reliving her memory.

I still miss grandma and ma capper, and my friends, but am feeling a bit better (and heavier) now. So, what is your comfort food?