Comfort food? Did you say comfort food? Well, I know what this gal’s comfort food is…..C.H.O.C.O.L.A.T.E.! Let’s think about this and go way back to childhood. I know when I was young and made good grades or did my chores my Mom would give me an extra treat….chocolate. Guess Mom knew what she was doing as every kid in my house did as they were told just to get that little extra chocolate treat. Some parents would say, “Oh no! Your kids will be bouncing off the walls from all that sugar!”. Well, chocolate does release endorphins, which we all know is what helps make us happy.
Happy people are more productive though, and let’s face it, much better to hang around with. Move on to teenage years when I was allowed to walk home from school and just had to stop at the corner drugstore to get my chocolate treat for the walk home. After all, it had been a long day at school, right? I deserve my chocolate comfort food. Sure made it easier to do homework! Move on a little further than that when my best friend’s “boyfriend” broke up with her. That was a sure time to break out our chocolate for our chat/crying session. What better comfort food to cheer up my good friend?
Moving on to college. The nerves of your first day…chocolate comfort food. The first time up at the front of the class to give your speech….chocolate comfort food. The miserable first exams…chocolate comfort food. Where would I have been without you, my friend? Then the dreaded, what I like to call, “growing up” years. That’s when you realize that not only is chocolate a really great comfort food but is also the cause of tightening jeans and the need to push my favorite thing aside for a while.
I felt like I was betraying the thing that got me through so many times. But my clothes and my pocketbook told me I needed to abandon my friend for a bit. So against my better judgment, I did. And I pressed on in life knowing what would really taste good with this glass of milk, I shouldn’t have.
Next phase of life? Marriage and children. Oh, how delicious was that chocolate groom’s cake at our wedding. I felt the comfort come right back as I remembered. Then child 1. That’s when you boil everything and tell yourself that even though it’s so yummy, your child shouldn’t have it because it could rot their teeth, etcetera, and etcetera. Child 2. Well, maybe I’m overdoing it with this boiling thing. Running it under hot water should do just fine. Oh, and I guess a tiny bit of chocolate may not be so bad. So child 1 and child 2 get chocolate. And that’s all she wrote. To no surprise of mine, they loved it! By the time my poor little child 3 came along, if he wanted chocolate, he got chocolate. Seems that it stopped the crying sometimes, so it helped me as well. I found myself doing as my Mother did and using it to my advantage! Guess, what goes around, comes around. Then I finally had an epiphany.
Life is too short to deprive yourself! If chocolate is my go to comfort food, then so be it! I will have chocolate. So, as I sit here in my happy years with my glass of red wine, which pairs so well with chocolate, I have to say thanks to my friend and I hope my children find their comfort food as I have found mine!~