Tag Archives: comfort food

Rice! It’s What’s for Dinner — and Breakfast and Lunch!

mermaids, Pintip Dunn

I love food. Any and all types. I never met a cuisine I didn’t like. My family plans vacations around restaurants. I even play in a Fantasy Top Chef league with my siblings.

And yet, there is one particular food item that I cannot live without. In fact, if I don’t consume it for more than a week, I start having major cravings. That item is . . . drumroll, please . . . rice.

Yep. Plain, white rice, preferably jasmine. Steamed is ideal. Fried is okay. Boiled is great. Accompanying side dishes even better.

This is why you will always find me at the fast-food Chinese place at the airport, especially after a conference or a vacation. At that point, I have usually gone for days without my rice fix, and I need it, bad. I suppose this is what happens when you grow up eating rice (or rice noodles) three times a day — breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The best part is? Last summer, I discovered my children are the exact same way!

Comfort Food = Celery???

Kerri Carpenter, , , ,

When you think of comfort food I’m sure you don’t immediately go to celery. But for me, celery has a very special place in my heart because it’s a family tradition. Without further ado, please enjoy my video on the comforting powers of celery….

Here are some close ups of the celery-making process. First you mix the softened cream cheese with minced Spanish olives, a little bit of the olive juice, and chopped walnuts.

 

Then slather (yes, slather, isn’t that a great word!) onto the cleaned and trimmed celery.

 

Lastly, cut the celery into bite sized pieces. Enjoy!

Comfort Food: Ice Cream, Chocolate and Canned Cranberry Jelly

Kimberly MacCarron, mermaids, , , ,

This is going to be my easiest blog post ever. The topic is comfort foods. Two of them will be no-brainers for most people. The other one is steeped in family tradition.

If I’m happy, I love to eat ice cream and chocolate–preferably together. When I’m sad, I have to eat ice cream and chocolate–preferably together. Those are just my rules. They’re simple, and they’re easy to follow. Those two comfort foods work for all occasions, and they’ve never, never–not ever–let me down. That’s not to say that they’re miracles because I’ve been known to pack on a few pounds when I’m in desperate need of comfort food. So, I will admit that they should come with a warning: “The ice cream and chocolate you’re about to enjoy will 100% offer you the comfort you desire. However, be warned, they will also 100% add to weight gain. Eat at your own risk.”

Now, the other comfort food goes back to my childhood, and my children are following in this family tradition. It’s an easy one, and the speed to which it can end up on your holiday table can be measured by how fast your electric can opener works.

If I go to someone else’s house for Thanksgiving, I sneak in the canned cranberry jelly (not the sauce with those pieces of cranberry in it–that’s just not the right texture, and I will cry if I buy it by accident.) When the hostess talks about her family recipe for cranberry sauce, I smile politely. I dish out one spoonful onto my plate because I do have manners. But then I’ve been known to sneak my Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce like I’m doing lines of coke under the table.

It’s become a joke in the family because my five kids all prefer the canned cranberry jelly, too. When we host Thanksgiving, we make everything from scratch. We don’t cut corners on anything, but that’s what makes the jelly so special. I always joke: “Just like my mama used to make” when I run that knife around the inside of the can and slide that blob of cranberry jelly into the Waterford crystal bowl with a satisfying plop. The ridges from the can on the outside of the jelly always makes me smile. Always.

I’m hoping they still have the canned cranberry jelly when my grandkids (which I don’t have yet) make their Thanksgiving dinner. I imagine them smiling and saying: “Just like my Grandma used to make.”

It’s the little things, people. Enjoy them!

www.kimmaccarron.com
Twitter: @KimMacCarron

The Hungry Traveling Stuck Mermaid

Carlene Love, mermaids, Motivation, Writing, , , ,

November Greetings to you all and thank you so much for stopping by and reading our posts. We truly appreciate your time and hope you always leave the lagoon with a smile on your face, a hug in your heart and a new, hopefully helpful thought in your head.

This month the Mermaids thought it would be the perfect time of year to share our favorite comfort foods and find out about yours.

I love this theme, however I have to admit that today, I’m having a hard time getting the words to a story I’m working on to come out. Which kind of makes me feel a little down on my capabilities as a professional writer. I do feel a little stuck and it’s definitely a little frustrating. The good news is that contrary to the graphic I’ve put just above here, I know there are many ways, not just one way, to get around that “stuck” feeling. And thank the stars above, that some of those solutions fit into the Mermaid theme! I would love it if you shared some of your tricks with us today too.

Sometimes when you’re hitting a proverbial brick wall, or a blank one for that matter, the simplest of things can get you back on track and into your natural groove.

So, comfort food. I’ll tell you what, I just got up from my laptop and the writing of this blog post, went into the kitchen, got out my now teenage son’s childhood Sponge Bob mug, and filled it with milk. I then plunked two crunchy granola bars into it. It was pretty darn good. Comforting. Hey, what can I say? I’m easy. See? That took all of two minutes of my time. Most importantly, I’m back here with you, ready to write some more.

Whether you’re filling your cup with coffee, tea, juice, water or yes, a soggy milk-drenched granola bar, I say go for it. Treat yourself every now and then. Prepare and eat your favorite, good memories-filled foods. The ones that take you back to friends and family you may not get to visit right now, this very second. The places that you can still see as clear as day when you close your eyes and relax, recalling the landscapes and smells and sounds of the places you keep dearest to your heart.

And then guess what else? Go.

Go see those people and places. Sometimes it might seem like we would never be able to take the time off from work or afford a trip or synchronize it into our busy schedules. In January of this year, if you’d have told me I was going to travel to places like Italy and Vermont and Boston in 2017 and have people I adore come see me all the way in San Diego, I would have said, well that would be really nice but….not likely.

Yet it all happened. I have no idea how, it just did.

I’m not saying it will be easy to get unstuck, but there is something magical about the month of November. I can’t tell you how I know this, I just do. You’ll have to trust me.

So make some plans, eat some really good stuff, look at pictures of loved ones you miss and thumb through those vacation destination magazines, and remember that every single day is a brand new day.

You’ve got this.

~Mermaid Carlene

 

The Traveling Mermaid: Alethea Kontis

Alethea Kontis, , , , ,

Hello, the Lagoon! Princess Alethea Mermaid here.

For our next round of essays, we discussed covering two possible topics: travel and comfort food. I think the Mermaids ultimately settled on travel…but the combination of the two subjects struck a chord. (I mean, I am a writer, after all…)

When we travel back to those places that we loved, or the places we call home, there’s usually a food item or two on the list that is NOT TO BE MISSED when one takes a trip there.

In my lifetime, I’ve had a home in various states along the length of the East Coast. Vermont (where I was born), South Carolina (where I attended school), Middle Tennessee (where I became a published author), Northern Virginia (where the Waterworld Mermaids were formed), and the Space Coast of Florida (where I live now). And when I go back to visit each of those places, there are certain foods I try not to miss, if at all possible.

Vermont is the big one. Yes, my blood runneth Maple Syrup (the darker the better) and Ben & Jerry’s. A trip to Vermont is not complete without at least one maple creemee (what you folks down south call “soft serve”). These can be found at most gas stations, sugar shacks (where they farm & make maple syrup), and tourist stops.

As I drive through Stowe on my way to see family, there has to be at least one stop at Cold Hollow Cider Mill for hot apple cider, and apple cider donuts. I cannot drink apple juice—it makes my stomach hurt in all kinds of horrible ways. But warm, unpasteurized apple cider with lots of pulp is like sipping a cup of home.

There are more specific places: The Burger Barn, Poorhouse Pies, the Beanies truck…and, once upon a time, Nectar’s and Zachary’s Pizza…but maple and apple cider are definitely tops on the list.

South Carolina: I grew up in Northeast Columbia, not far from Fort Jackson. There’s a local burger chain there called Rush’s. They have amazing burgers, amazing fries, and amazing chocolate shakes. The best in the US, according to me.

The other not-to-be-missed place is The Egg Roll Station (or Egg Roll Chen) in West Columbia. I once drove through town, bought a bag full of pork egg rolls, and took them down to Charleston to present to my family for Christmas. Pretty sure I was the favorite child that year.

Middle Tennessee (Nashville): I could go on and on about hot chicken, or the biscuits at the Loveless Cafe, but my absolute favorite thing is the Black Bean Salad and Boja corn muffins from Calypso Cafe. Sigh…I miss those every day. Second favorite: Taste of China in Murfreesboro. No MSG and the best takeout I’ve ever had. I miss that place every day. Third favorite: Tokyo Japanese restaurant in Smyrna. Be sure to have the Smyrna roll!

Northern Virginia: Nashville had a wonderful diversity of cuisine, but NoVA took the cake. Indian, Thai, Greek…and they all delivered to your house. All the kabob places—ANY kabob places—rocked. They all had gyros along with kabobs…and they serve them in the giant flat naan bread, which is really how gyros should be served. My favorite restaurant is right ext to One More Page Books in Arlington called Chasin’ Tails. Get a pound of the shrimp boil tossed in a mixture of all the sauces they offer, put on a bib and some gloves and go to town (yes, I have even done this while wearing a princess gown). That place always makes me miss my Cajun relatives like nobody’s business.

Florida: Don’t ask. I’m still working on it. Titusville has a few decent restaurants, but nothing to write home about. Publix is probably in the top three restaurants in town. Wanna know the best thing here? My mom lives down the street. Nothing says Mom’s cooking like MOM’S ACTUAL COOKING!

What are some of your hometown favorites?

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