Skip to main content

Comfort Foods and "Foods"

My hot garbage
Recently, due to a greater abundance of spare time, I’ve been listening to a lot of videos and audiobooks on Tudor England. Now, I have some experience self-educating on this time period (late 1400s-1603). Though I read books and studied Shakespeare at age 10, I primarily attribute the interest to Showtime’s The Tudors, which my parents watched a couple years later. I was enchanted by the glittering jewels, lush music, brightly colored and regal costumes, and two actresses in particular, Natalie Dormer (Anne Boleyn) and Sarah Bolger (Mary Tudor). I watched the series through once I was older, and it quickly became a guilty pleasure. To this day I tell people, “Everyone has their own guilty pleasure entertainment. The Tudors may be some hot garbage, but it’s my hot garbage.” And the show led me to read/view many more (shall we say) historically accurate accounts of the Tudor period. I love exploring this fascinating time, and I can always learn something new, no matter how many books I read.

One could describe my interest in Tudor history and culture as comfort food. It’s usually what I go back to in free moments, or use to keep me company as I do my dishes or clean the bathtub. And, during this time of greater stress for the whole world, it’s not surprising that I’d dive back into the 1500s. A large part of history is making some sense out of past events, finding a reason for why things happen. I generally feel the drive for this sort of sense-making interpretive act. After all, music theory’s overarching purpose, at least in my understanding, is to work out ways and reasons music makes sense, or is meaningful to us (or not). Perhaps I feel that urge more during these uncertain times. Or maybe I’m just happy to have more time to pursue my many other interests.
Before

In any case, comfort foods of all kinds create a sense of security and familiarity. They’re everything from a special treat, to a form of structure. My recipe for chicken with green beans and potatoes is one of my favorite comfort food recipes, though it’s not one I’ve had a long time. It’s mostly made of things I love: lemon, olive oil, potatoes, green beans, and a load of garlic. It’s incredibly easy, as it cooks in the Crockpot and doesn’t involve a lot of intense prepping. And on a chilly night, what could be better than a warm dinner with a nice, tender texture packed with flavor?

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to enjoy this dinner and start re-bingeing The Tudors.

After
Chicken with Potatoes and Green Beans: Serves 4

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
½ lb. green beans, ends trimmed and snapped in half
1 large russet potato, peeled and diced (may also use 2 cups of potato with skin on, such as Yukon gold or red)
⅓ cup lemon juice
¼ cup olive oil
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
¼ tsp. onion powder
2 garlic cloves, minced

Start by placing the chicken breast(s) in the center of the Crockpot. Next, add the green beans on one side of the chicken, and the potatoes on the other side.
In a medium bowl, whisk or stir together the lemon juice, salt, pepper, oregano, olive oil, onion powder, and garlic cloves. Pour this mixture evenly over the meal in the crockpot, cover, and cook on LOW for 8 hours (or HIGH for 4).

Comments

  1. C VanchellaApril 3, 2020 at 12:29 PM

    You're such a good writer! I also like this recipe, but when I've made it, cooking for that long made the chicken too dry. Any tips?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

(Responsibly) Conquer Your Fears

Many folks have compared COVID-19 to probably the scariest bacterium I can think of: Yersinia pestis . Its other name is “the plague.” The Black Death of 1347-1352 is the hands-down winner of my Worst Time to Be Alive Award. Anywhere between ⅓ and ⅔ of Europe, and just shy of 25% of the world’s population - you heard that right, the world - died as a result of the Black Death. It’s no wonder a lot of folks then thought they’d reached the End Times. Speaks for itself, I think. But here’s the thing. The mid-1300s weren’t the End Times, we recovered, and humanity learned some valuable lessons from the Black Death. The ones that strike me most live on in danse macabre art. These art pieces (including music! ) show us that death is everyone’s lifelong companion, and can come calling no matter your age or social standing. That might be a scary thought at face value. The fact that people started representing that fear post-Black Death suggests, to me, that they’re confronting the fea...
4 comments
Read more

Healthy Living

My friend Liza said something very appropriate at the pandemic’s beginning. She said, “Self-care is not optional anymore.” I think that’s true, in whatever form self-care takes for a particular person. The occasional face mask or bath, exercise, daily check-ins with friends...I define self-care in my own head as “any pleasant activity that makes you feel calm, less stressed, or good about yourself.” Some of my own favorite self-care activities include going outside for a walk, reading a good/favorite book, and baths with a nice face mask. But there’s a specific self-care thing I do that has become much more important these days: healthy cooking. Cooking in general, as this blog attests, is one of my own ways of self-care. But let’s be honest: not everything I make leaves me feeling exactly healthy afterwards. For example, the Red Lobster biscuits I made are wonderful, but after actually trying them, I have classified them as a very occasional treat! Healthy recipes, on the othe...
4 comments
Read more

Words/Food With Friends: A Book Review

I’ve been reading a lot of books lately, for my own enjoyment as well as studies. One of those enjoyment books was A Sampling of Life, One Taste at a Time: A Food Memoir , which my college friend Martha Wallace published this year (available on Amazon here! ). What a wonderful, and tasty, read! The book focuses on both events from Martha’s life, and the recipes connected to her memories. It spans many locations, from Georgia to Africa and Spain, and memories sweet, salty, and bitter. Me and Martha outside of Oviedo, 2014 From a technical perspective, one of my favorite things about Martha’s book is its imagery. When she describes her grandfather’s garden, I smell the flowers and taste the vegetables. I can visualize her family barbecue, her and her sons baking in the kitchen. As a writer myself, I know that imagery and description are hard to get right. Just the correct amount of detail is needed: too much, and you lose the reader in the weeds; too little, and no one can ...
2 comments
Read more