Monday 19 July 2010

Comfort over style....

I woke up this morning at 2.15am....that dark, lonely time of night when it seems you're the only one awake in the world. I have a really bad cough at the moment, the kind that sort of strangles your throat at intervals and makes you cough until your neck & stomach muscles hurt & your eyes run and sting. I went downstairs and took some medicine, had a glass of water...but when I went back to bed it all started again. I knew that Paul had a really busy day today, so I took my pillow and went to sleep on the sofa downstairs (the upstairs bed is covered in books and I didn't have the energy to move them about!) Alice was pleased to have a companion and I slept until 5, propped up with cushions....

Of course, I had to bake this morning but when the first deliveries were over I came home, walked Alice & then decided what to have for lunch. It was a really hot & humid day today....little knots of gnats buzz in patches over the water butt...a day for salads and cool cucumber sandwiches. But I was tired, my eyes swollen, my throat sore. I just didn't feel like anything beautiful, pure and summery. Actually there was only one thing I did feel like, and it's what I had in the end:

baked beans on hot, brown, buttered toast. Perfect. Comforting, warming and nostalgic all at once.
It may not have cured me, but I certainly felt better.

I now have a pot of Beetroot & Tomato Soup with Preserved Lemon bubbling gently on the hob. My dad gave me a bag of his wonderful homegrown vegetables yesterday, and this seemed a good way of utilising some of them (we had his roasted new potatoes, cabbage with cumin seeds & garlic & more beetroot baked with feta & a little pomegranate molasses drizzled over last night)

Style reigns in our kitchen once more....but, every now and again, there's nothing like a bit of comfort eating to give your soul a little hug.
xox 

5 comments:

  1. I love beans, but with lard. Drowned in molasse or maple syrup. The way we have them in Québec. My wife finds it disgusting. She prefers the British baked beans of course. I never managed to like beans in tomato sauce, I can eat it, but reluctantly. I still remember when I first got served British baked beans, more than twenty years ago. I was so disappointed because I was expecting the kind we had at home, just when I was feeling homesick! I got traumatized for life I think.

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  2. So happy to see you blogging again! I enjoyed reading this post. Hope those beans on buttered bread made you feel a bit better! That soup sounds like it could soothe your throat a little too. Sending you get well wishes across the miles... xoxo

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  3. welcome back Rachel! I just love baked beans on toast too, nothing like them. I hope that your cold is better and you're your usual bright star self in no time. xxxxxxxxxx

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  4. Hi Rachel, I sure hope you are feeling better with your cold! It's no fun to not be sick this time of year. And I know exactly what you are saying about comfort food... Your soup sounds delicious! I am making some preserved lemons today! Hugs, Silke

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  5. I devour baked beans on toast all the time - so it's nothing special to me. I do really enjoy them. I find it difficult to understand how someone can be traumatized for life after eating BB's though. There are good brands, and not so good brands. Me, I make no distinction and eat any and all. :•}

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I love to read what you write! Thanks for visiting! xo