Comfort Food

watching evening news will turn you into a blobfish

I very rarely watch the news these days as it’s too depressing. Old issues thought resolved have resurfaced demanding resolution. New issues are being created out of whole cloth at times apparently just for the sake of having something to scream about. This will all run its course as human events do. One of the reactions to the turmoil of current events is to turn to comfort food. Wikepedia defines comfort food as “food that provides a nostalgic or sentimental value … and may be characterized by its high caloric nature, high carbohydrate level, or simple preparation.”

What comfort food you favor often depends on where you lived and what you ate growing up. Pizza seems to loom large in many minds. Also burgers, mac and cheese, ice cream, chocolate and hot dogs are frequent choices among Americans. Around the world, comfort food takes the form of such dishes as rice puddings, herbed flatbread, moussaka and pierogies.

It seems to be something deeply embedded in us that prompts us to seek out food of this nature during times of stress. A scientist was being interviewed in a documentary by Nova about the violent eruption of Mount Pinatubo while he was at Clark’s Air Base. He described the harrowing situation as the volcano grew more and more violent. Noticing one of his fellow scientists had made up a batch of popcorn and was avidly devouring it, he expressed astonishment asking him why he was eating popcorn. “I always eat popcorn at this part of the movie.” was the response.

Popcorn is definitely one of the go-to foods when things seem to be getting out of hand whether it’s the result of an irritated volcano or rioting humans. My own personal favorite is of course ice cream. Fudge ripple, plain and simple, frequently shows up in my freezer in spite of its negative affect on my waistline. Popcorn sits up in the cupboard waiting for an appropriate moment to pull out the kettle, add ghee, pop it up and slather the results with butter and salt.

During the winter, the old stock pot will often come out and whatever chicken, turkey or beef bones I saved up in the freezer get hauled out and turned into broth.

stock pot

Along with veggies I also add pasta, particularly when it’s poultry. The shapes vary according to my mood; spirals, bowties or alphabet. While not essential for good soup, they add a little extra something transforming it into excellent winter comfort food. Add a few saltine crackers and absolute perfection is achieved.

Pasta itself often serves as comfort food. Once in a while I will purchase large egg noodles, boil them up, add butter and salt and sit back with a large bowl. They get cooked the same way my late mother used to cook pasta, which is to say twice as long as the box calls for. I grew up eating pasta like this, thinking nothing of it and so got a bit of a shock the first time I ate it ‘al dente’. (Gah! They didn’t cook this enough!!)

spaghetti goulash

An old family favorite is spaghetti goulash. According to my mother, when she originally began making this as a quick dish when my two older brothers were very small she used a canned tomato sauce for the base (either Franco-American or Chef Boyardee, I forget which). It went over well but she ran into a curious problem. Often, though not every time, one of my brothers would get sick to his stomach afterwards. Never both together and sometimes not at all. After this happened more than a few times she began to suspect the tomato sauce was to blame. So she switched to Campbell’s Tomato condensed soup with a few tablespoons of ketchup added. The issue vanished, so apparently the commercial sauce was a bit too spicy for my brothers delicate stomachs.

The recipe is as basic as it gets. Spaghetti gets boiled up (yes, twice the time the package of Prince spaghetti calls for), then three quarters pound of ground chuck gets fried up. I don’t add any butter or oil. The pan is heated medium high and the ground chuck gets stirred constantly until fully cooked. Then the tomato sauce with ketchup gets mixed in. Finally last but not least the cooked spaghetti is added. Nothing else gets put in and that includes any spices, much to the horror of an Italian girlfriend one of my brothers brought one time to dinner. ( No basil?? Gasp! No oregano??? Arghh!!). She disappeared after a while. Oh well.

The household I grew up in was largely spice and onion free as my father was adamantly opposed to them. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind that the source of America’s eternal struggle with dyspepsia was those infernal spices. Onions were his bete noire (or so he claimed). So he refused to tolerate them. My mother would sneak in some onion when she made up beef stew, maybe a pinch of thyme in the turkey soup but that was about it. Nowadays, I am an avid onion user and generously toss in thyme and parsley into my chicken soup.

So whatever your favorite source of culinary comfort is, whip up a batch and sit back while eating. It will make the maddening crowd seem far away.

partridge berry

The Toilet Paper Crisis

Unless you’ve been marooned for the past three or four months on a deserted island, you’re no doubt quite aware of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here in New Hampshire, the state governor has issued a stay-at-home order where all non-essential businesses such as retail stores, movie theaters, hair salons and tattoo parlors (c’mon, folks. You can live without a new tat.) The order will be in effect until May 4th, when presumably this thing will have peaked and started to subside.

Many places have already voluntarily shut down. For the first time I have no problem finding a parking space on Main Street. Of course there’s no place to shop for non-essential goodies. While on-line shopping is still possible, I did get an email yesterday from Herrschners, an online store I occasionally buy cross-stitch material and jigsaw puzzles from, indicating new orders would not be shipped out until further notice. The state of Wisconsin, where they are located has issued a directive. Apparently someone thinks coronavirus can be shipped through the mail. (Sigh…) At least I’m all stocked up with projects.

The local churches have suspended services until further notice.

Closed sign at Catholic church

Someone thoughtfully put a little votive candle in a glass jar with a sign saying ‘Pray for USA.’

Pray for USA sign at church

Now the title of this post is ‘The Toilet Paper Crisis’ for good reason. Does anyone know where the stuff went? I know people were panic buying, purchasing mass quantities of the stuff (because it’s all about your needs, right? To hell with everybody else.) I stocked up before hand after reading warnings about possible panic buying and I’m glad I did. But I suspect I will probably run out by mid-April. As long as a new supply comes into the stores, that’s okay but so far I don’t see any sign of that. Have the paper mills all shut down? Did all our toilet paper come from overseas? Apparently no one has a clue what’s really going on.

So until this mess starts to get straightened out, what do we do in the meantime? What do we use instead of toilet paper? Well, there are a variety of options, not all of them for the germaphobic.

One solution is a bidet which looks a little like a cross between a toilet and a sink. You use it to wash your private parts after you use the toilet, though you will still need to dry yourself. Some bidets come with air dryers but that can run into some money. There are low tech choices, often used in third world nations, such as the tabo and the iota. If you are the frugal type, there are inexpensive mini-bidets for use when traveling which will accomplish the same purpose for less money. Adventurous types might want to try re-purposing items already in the home.

Reusable fabric wipes are available for drying yourself once you’ve used any of the above. They just need to be laundered afterwards. Those who are old enough to recall reusable diapers no doubt remember the routine. While baby wipes are still available, it is strongly advised to leave those for mothers who need them. Also do not flush wipes down the toilet as they will clog up sewage pipes.

Newsprint will work in a pinch as well as sponges as long as you use the sponges for only this purpose and clean them afterwards. Plant leaves can be used if nothing else is available. Just don’t pick something you might be allergic to!

This crisis will pass as all emergencies do but life being what it is, more may loom on the horizon down the road. Learning alternatives to business as usual will leave us better prepared for the next one.

Take care, all.

Photo of turtle approaching toilet paper alternative

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A special note. I have sold another short story to the magazine Into The Ruins, the spring 2020 issue.

Thank you very much, Mr Caris!

Scenes of October

The month is winding down in a whirl of autumn leaves and chilly breezes hinting that winter is not far off.

Gold and red autumn leaves over house


Foliage was especially bright this year thanks to regular rainfall after the semi-dry conditions of the past few years. The only drawback to it all is having to rake the leaves up afterwards. Some people toss their leaves after bagging them up as if it was all some sort of rubbish. But doing that robs the soil of critical nutrients which would have been recycled and reused by the trees if left to break down naturally. My method of disposal involves my composter. Once that is full, there is a chicken wire leaf bin. Since that is mostly full anyway, that fills up rapidly and the remainder I dump in the small patch of woods in back of the house.

As all this starts to break down, fungi of all sorts get to work. If it wasn’t for these hidden allies, leaves, and deadwood would remain on the surface of the ground, their nutrients inaccessible, the material becoming a potential fire hazard. So a near invisible clean up crew of earthworms, millipedes, mites, insect larvae and other micro-critters start chowing down on all this material.

As they chew up, digest and process the leaves, an enormous tribe of fungi begin the next step of reducing it even further. The vast majority of fungal forms live unnoticed in the soil under our feet sending microscopic filaments through all the leaf waste. But every so often they send up a fruiting body called a mushroom or toadstool. These can come in all forms and sizes from mini-mushrooms,

Tiny mushroom next to lettuce leaf.

to dinner-plate sized.

mushroom wide as open hand.

By the time they are done, the result is fragrant humus, ready for the next generation of plants.

By the end of October, wildflowers have largely gone by with the occasional exception of a late blooming dandelion or tardy fall wild aster. At this time of year, it is the seed heads of these flowers which are the main feature. They are often food for migrating birds and small rodents such as chipmunks, voles and mice. The seed heads themselves can often be as striking as the flowers. The picture below is of a patch of goldenrod gone to seed. The seedheads look more like flowers than the flowers do!

goldenrod seed heads

Last but not least it wouldn’t be October without that classic fixture of every end-of-month decoration.

pile of pumpkins

Happy Halloween everyone!

Northern Pass – Last Call

Downed Power Line Tower

This past Thursday, Eversource, the company attempting to building Northern Pass as a way to funnel electric power into the New England electric grid finally threw in the towel and issued a statement indicating they were removing the project from the table, after the New Hampshire State Supreme Court upheld the project’s 2018 rejection by the state Site Evaluation Committee.

Now does this mean the project is a dead duck? Probably not. Like the undead from a bad movie sequel, Northern Pass may get revived some time in the future under a different name and return once again in an effort to uglify New Hampshire. But for now it has bit the dust.

Eversource really has no one to blame but themselves. Watching their perpetual efforts to ram the project through, in spite of the vehement protests by residents in the northern half of the state, it was clear this was strictly a project for the benefit of the shareholders, not for the benefit of anyone who actually lives here. All too often residents’ efforts for their concerns to be heard were treated as a minor nuisance, soon to be overcome in the name of ‘progress’. Demands for the line to be buried received a token nod at best.

One of their selling points was the ‘need for abundant energy.’ They touted the project as being the most advanced project to bring low cost clean energy for their customers. The customers in question were for the most part not people in New Hampshire but residents of Massachusetts. No one up here in northern New Hampshire wanted to see huge transmission towers marching through the countryside delivering little if any benefits to compensate for the disfigured landscape.

But aside from the pros and cons of Northern Pass, the issue that never really gets addressed is whether or not this project is really the clean energy it’s touted to be or even if it is really needed. Efforts to reduce energy usage are certainly doable and save money in the long run. Shutting lights off when not needed, constructing houses which are smaller and energy efficient, using cold water for laundry, all these nickel and dime efforts add up over time, particularly if everyone does them.

Was the project sustainable? Not really. Our ongoing mania for interconnectivity has turned the electric grid so many depend on into a ginormous interlaced network that is tricky to maintain and is highly vulnerable to hackers or just plain breakdown. The recent massive black out in South America which affected at least three countries clearly reveals the domino effect that can occur when failure happens in part of the network. Interestingly Tierra Del Fuego was not affected as it was not connected to the grid. If this isn’t a big hint from the Fates, I don’t know what is. We’ve clearly overbuilt to the point the systems we create are too fragile to last for long and keel over at the least excuse.

Like it or not, we are going to need to swallow the bitter pill of downsizing as resource shortages make these projects harder to build and nearly impossible to maintain for any length of time. Let’s keep our projects small, local and easy to maintain. Instead of waiting until we’re hitting the wall and forced to make these changes, in a panic, in hysteria, let’s do it now while we have a bit of wiggling room and have time to see what’s workable and what isn’t.

Tiny mushroom in flower pot

Spring into Summer

Here in northern New Hampshire, spring was late coming and grudging as it spread across the landscape. Rain was a big feature with April and May. It was cloudy most of the time with the sun making occasional appearances teasing us into thinking finally some decent weather, then disappearing behind clouds which pelted us with raw chilly rain. Over the past decade or two, weather was often abnormally warm and dry, enough so it seemed like the new normal. Hard to say if this spring will be the next ‘normal’. We’ll just have to wait and see.

bunch berry flowers

One benefit of the heavy rains is a very lush growth of greenery. There are the usual wildflowers such as bunchberry, forget-me-nots, star-flowers and so forth. But garden flowers come popping up one at a time as well: snow-drops, crocuses, daffodils, iris and lily-of-the-valley.

five foot tall Russian comfrey

Many years ago I bought a small seed packet containing a handful of seed from a variety called Russian Comfrey. I don’t know which cultivar it was but it has since prospered. It has never been necessary to fertilize it as this plant can put down roots as deep as six or more feet and suck up its own nutrients.

It can be used as a cover plant and will (at least for me) grow to Brobdingnagian proportions providing plenty of greenery to add to the compost pile. The ones pictured above are over five feet tall. Bumblebees love the tiny flowers and will squeeze themselves into one to get at the nectar, buzzing cheerfully all the while. Comfrey will reseed itself though it has not really been invasive. Some studies seem to suggest the leaves may contain carcinogenic compounds but if they do, the deer and woodchucks obviously don’t read the literature as they happily chow down on the leaves. One time I watched a woodchuck nip off an enormous leaf bigger than a dinner plate and placidly sit down to eat it all at one sitting.

garden rhubarb

Rhubarb also is doing well this year. The above plant is the last survivor of a small patch managed by my late father who had it tucked in a shady corner of the garden. It never grew that big for him but he would gather the leaf stalks to cook up and eat. I found the smell of cooking rhubarb revolting and would rapidly flee the vicinity of the kitchen. After he passed away, the patch went neglected, dwindling until only one scrawny plant was left. Finally taking pity on it, I moved it to a more sunny part of the old garden. This clearly did the trick and now it is growing more than triple the size it did for my father. This year it produced a flower stalk. The stalk towers over me and had a huge cluster of seeds on it. I have no idea if the seeds are fertile but will plant them to see what happens.

Sweet William flowers, dark pink color

Sometimes when I have left over flower seeds and no room to put them, I will toss what is left on the bank out in front of the house. If they grow, fine; if not also fine. Apparently some of the seed I tossed was Sweet William and I was pleasantly surprised to see some dark pink blossoms peeking through the weeds on the bank the other day.

Swallow-tail butterflies, bumblebees, and even a few honey bees have been making their appearance visiting the different flowers. Mindful of the recent reports of drops in the number of insects, particularly pollinating ones, I avoid the use of insecticides except for naturally derived ones such as neem oil for spot use use on lily beetles. Interestingly enough I have not seen any Japanese beetles for a number of years especially after using a beneficial nematode in the front lawn to chow down on beetle larvae. It must have effective as the beetles disappeared in subsequent years. I don’t use the beetle traps hawked in various gardening catalogs as these are really beetle magnets and will draw in every beetle in the neighborhood. Your neighbors may like this but not you.

Since summer has only just gotten underway, it will be interesting to see what else pops up.

multiple mushrooms growing on a bank