Run, Lola, Run!!

We all have food issues I'm sure!! For me they are mostly "comfort issues"! The other night as Dan and I sat having dinner I apologized to him for what I had made for dinner.......it was totally edible but I know his dislike for hamburger! Being raised on an Arizona cattle ranch he is totally a meat and potatoes guy!!  I had made for dinner my very favorite "comfort food" ever! Hamburger patties with onions in them fried and then a mushroom gravy made from Campbells Cream of Mushroom soup served over white steamed rice!! He understood that I was chasing comfort foods because of my "baby girl blues" week I was going through.  How I love him for that!!

This meal was Nays favorite "comfort food" also.........she would call me and ask me to make it for her and I'd tell her its so easy Nay and she would whine that it doesn't taste the same mom!! Oh my goodness but I would always make it for her why?  Well because its my favorite also!! lol  I never knew what her reasoning for turning to this meal was but I do know why I do it.........

When i was a child I started learing to cook when I was eight years old and by nine I pretty much did most of the cooking in our house under the supervision of my mother.  The oldest of nine I learned to cook "Big"!!  Its still today very hard for me to cook "small".........and having such a large family meant we ate hamburger a LOT!! I can cook hamburger a trillion different ways!!

But at dinner time it was also my job to feed whomever the baby was at the moment! That meant I didn't get to eat till the baby was done and usually the meal was cold by then! But when we had hamburger patties with mushroom gravy I had to portion the hamburger out with an ice cream scoop and make sure there was two patties for everyone at the table.......so at least I knew even though it would be cold, I would have my two patties waiting for me!! lol I think thats the first reason its my "run to" comfort food! And I don't know as an adult why I still feel like that cause we never went hungry but I think i always feared that dinner wouldn't make it till I was ready to eat........so stupid!! I always had food to eat!! But there was some kind of reassurance in the fact that I knew there would be two patties waiting for me!! The second reason I think is because if you eat it out of a bowl.........it just feels right!! you hold the bowl close to you and its hot and you just can feel the steam in your face and the heat running through your hands and its oh soooooo comforting!! lol

That brings me to another "issue" I have! Cold food!! I hate it!!  I guess because mostly by the time I got to eat the food was cold.......I have to have HOT food now!! Even when my kids were growing up I would call them to eat and they would whine that the food is too hot!! They would fool around and whine till the food was cold!! So my intentions were for nothing I guess.........and now Dan is the same way!! I call him for dinner and he moseys along and takes his sweet time and then has to feed the cat........OMG!! I recently started eating before he got to the table and its sorta hurries him along.........lol I seldom eat sandwiches cause of my love for HOT food........issue? YES!! lol

Next?? Cream of Wheat!!! I love cream of wheat but as a child in my hurry in the mornings to get my siblings fed and get myself ready for school I would never measure correctly and the there would be lumps in the cream of wheat! My mother would make me put all the lumps into my bowl and I got very used to eating lumpy cream of wheat..........as an adult I cant make lumpy cream of wheat to save my ass!!  The other morning Dan made cream of wheat and I saw there were several lumps in it........I asked him how'd you do that???? lmao

Throughout my life no matter how lonely, scared, sad or mad I was........I could run to my food for comfort!  In the last year and a half in an effort to keep from taking insulin I have tried very hard to stay away from those things........and its been working pretty good!  Last year when we went to Hawaii another comfort food I have is "malasadas" a portaguee donut made in Hawaii at Leonards Bakery and has been made by the same bakery since I was a child! My town gramma made them when I was little.  She always had yeast dough rising in the kitchen in large bowls around the bottom of the water heater where it was warm!!  If I was real good while she was busy she would let me stick my little fat finger into the huge balls of dough and make them pop when she got ready to knead them!   Kinda funny the stuff you recall sometimes!!  I did go Leonards one day and bought some to take to my cousins house but I did only eat ONE! Hawaiian food is very comforting but we didn't have it much as kids cause one its labor intensive and two there were too many of us for it to be affordable! But its whats served at every luau for birthdays, weddings, divorces LOL, and funerals! So we loved it when we got invited to a family function and could get to eat all of the delicacies. Nowdays in Hawaii there are so many food trucks, resturants and drive ins that make Hawaiian food that it is readily available and not so ridiculously priced that its very practical to have it for an everyday dinner anytime.  But while in Hawaii last year I ate one of everything!! It became a game of sorts.........I didnt want to gain very much weight back so I figured if I had one it would get it out of my system and it worked. When I got home and weighed I had lost one pound!! lol

I could probably write forever about food........I love to eat it, I love to cook it and I even love to shop for it!! Thats crazy!! I always dreamed of having my own resturant but that was back when I was younger and now at this age...........not so much!! So I don't think working on this blog will eliminate my need to run to my "Comfort Foods" in the future........but I guess maybe now I understand a little more why I do it!! This is what comes from random thoughts!!! lol