Comfort Food

Your maid just quit and you're going to have to scrub the toilet yourself. You lost your wallet and someone stole your identity. Your dreams of being an NFL quarterback are hampered by your trick knee and lack of arms. Your plastic surgeon tells you that your case is hopeless. Your good old-fashioned morals and domestic skills fail to win you a worthy suitor. You get passed over for that promotion despite all your efforts at bribing the boss. While you're on the treadmill, your pants fall down, then you fall down, and the people at the gym get a free show while your face gets burned by the treadmill belt. Your dreams of dating a comedian will never come true. The Google Doc with personal financial information and net worth calculations is inadvertently shared with all your Gmail contacts.

Only half of those things have happened to me.

Trying times such as these justify a little stress eating - a meat and potatoes menu like Mom used to make to remind you of your charmed childhood that you can never go back to, and if you were deprived of that charmed childhood and homemade dinners then that's all the more reason to seek comfort in food now.

Today's Sunday dinner menu included a green salad with chopped apples and vinaigrette, roast pork loin and vegetables, and for dessert, a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting.


Pork loin seasoned with salt, pepper, cumin, and ancho chile powder, skillet-seared and then roasted at 375° for ~40 minutes. A mix of red potatoes, carrots, and parsnips, tossed with olive oil and the same spice mixture, roasted under the pork loin.


The cake wasn't as simple. Sour Cream-Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Peanut Butter Frosting and Chocolate Peanut Butter Glaze. I've wanted to make this recipe since I saw it on Smitten Kitchen. This one wasn't a winner for me. The soft cake crumbled under the weight of the frostings. Each component needs improvement. I usually get annoyed when people say of a dessert, "Ooh, that's too rich." Isn't that a good thing? But it's true with this cake. A couple of bites are enough!

The best part of my day was when Katie said, "Kimberly, this is great comfort food. It made me feel better."

Your favorite comfort foods?