Cooking My Way Through Grief

Some days are easier than others. Grief can hit like a brick, for no particular reason, and usually when you least expect it. I have learned that providing self-care, and not forcing myself to do more when I'm already emotionally exhausted is key. Last weekend I roasted a chicken, and used the leftover chicken to make chicken pot pie noodles earlier this week, and chicken & rice soup yesterday. Comfort food. When I tell my doctor I cook and eat, I don't think she believes me bc my weight has gone down about 20 pounds from a year ago (not in the places I'd like, of course). So tonight I struggled with what to have for dinner, which might seem strange when you open my fridge to leftovers or my freezer which is packed with meat. So grilled cheese and chicken & rice soup won out, for ease, and well, comfort food. I post things like this for two reasons. 1) Social media can be fake with all of these happy family pictures and achievements, without offering the lows of lif...

  My 4am, sleepless mind is thinking about crockpots. I thrift most things because not only do I find interesting things this way, but I don't necessarily need something brand new. This may be hard to believe for some of you, but I have downsized to the amount of crockpots I have. I had two six quart, an avocado & brown one that was my Mom's, one of those buffet ones with three crocks, and a small one quart that I used to melt chocolate. I was down to two six quarts when I moved north. Last week I wanted to put cocktail sausages in the crockpot with some BBQ sauce and I felt so weird putting one package in a six quart. So I donated a six quart and got a four quart at $2 Tuesday last week. Other interesting crockpot tidbits: The Farm (Kathy, Dan, Kim & Regina) used to host an annual Christmas party. My sister had a habit of keeping the box something came in. I was over the house after the party but right before Christmas and I saw the box on the table. My twenty somethin...

Today I went to get a duplicate title for Kathy's car so we can distribute it. I had all of the paperwork, which the MVC (I still prefer DMV) was impressed with. My number is finally called and I find out I couldn't find the title because she was never released from the lien. The hardest part isn't doing this stuff, it's having to explain the whole, "my sister passed away and that's why I'm calling you. I can send you whatever paperwork you need through whatever communication outlet you prefer." It's never just one person, it's usually multiple and afterwards, I'm emotionally exhausted. After running another few short errands, I came home and made one of favorite comfort foods, a grilled cheese sandwich. Today I'll share a recipe for my ultimate comfort food: spaghetti sauce. Mom called me a pasta puss when I was a kid. My comfort food of choice was buttered, elbow macaroni. It's still one of my comfort foods. Both of my parents wer...

In order to understand my cooking interests and how I was exposed to cooking, you really need a background of my family.                   Family, Dad wasn't the most photogenic Growing up, my Mom cooked dinner most nights. We were a family of five that typically sat down at 6pm to eat and had unspoken assigned seats at the dinner table. This was mostly because the majority of the family were lefties, with my Dad and I being the two lone righties. This tradition continued as my sister, brother and I all went off to college, coming back to live in the family house for short periods of time before moving out on our own.  Mom's seasoning usually consisted of only salt and pepper; Dad was a red meat and potatoes kind of guy, and that's what we ate most nights, of course with the addition of a vegetable.  I think this pretty much explains why my last two years of college when I lived in an apartment, my main food sources were chicken and...