Sunday, January 4, 2009

comfort food to the rescue

Sick again. Headache. Fever. Sore throat.
A weekend of lounging in bed.
A friend brought some chicken soup from a German deli nearby.

I have cartons of orange juice (with pulp, with cranberry juice, with pineapple juice) which I cannot drink as it sears my poor burning, scratchy, tender throat.
Hot water with lemon and a bit of honey.
But, what I am really craving,
the comfort food that is,
I am sure, the cure for my ailment



I try to ignore it, but it will not leave. It permeates my thoughts, my dreams.
It is so easy to make, requiring only time, which I have lots of.
I check and I have rice. Milk, even coconut milk for that extra creaminess. I have sugar and nutmeg, butter.

What I don't have, and I know this without even looking is that one important ingredient that MAKES the rice pudding.
Vanilla.

There is nothing for it, but to get dressed and venture out into the cold night air (which turns out to be not so cold afterall) and buy the vanilla.

And you know that with this much effort, I am going to buy the Pure Vanilla, not the Artificial Vanilla Flavouring.

It is all in put together and in the oven. I have been stirring at intervals. The smell is heavenly. It should be perfect by 9pm, which coincidentally is when I shall be draped on the chesterfield watching Desperate Housewives in a most un-Bree-like fashion.

I have just taken it out of the oven to cool and am clearing up the kitchen and pulling out the bowl when I see it. The little unopened bottle of Pure Vanilla Extract.


I did say I was feverish.
And un-Bree-like.

No worries. I pour a few drops in, put it back in the oven and wait ... I still have 15 minutes for it to do flavouring

16 comments:

  1. Hope you feel much better soon!!

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  2. Thank you, Em. I was fine for 2 days...

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  3. Aw jeez. Feel better. Sorry I don't have any of my Jewish mother's chicken soup.

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  4. I do stuff like that (forget an ingredient) all the time and I'm not even sick. I hope you feel better soon. I didn't know there was a word for that. Paper tole I mean. I've done that before when making cards for people. I didn't know it had a name, I just thought it looked cool. I hope you enjoyed your rice pudding, whatever that is.

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  5. get well soon.
    Chicken soup followed by homemade rice pudding - perfect food for a cold. they say you feed a cold!

    MA

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  6. I understand that kind of compulsion. I would have done the same.

    Don had a cold, and he couldn't get rid of it. He went to the clinic and turns out it was a sinus infection, needed medicine. Hope yours will go soon and that it isn't an infection.

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  7. Oh no, relapses are not good. Maybe you should see your doctor and make sure you don't have something truly nasty.

    The vanilla thing just happened to me yesterday when I went to Trader Joe's. Bought olive oil and a bottle of ground cumin and of course when I got home there they were on the pantry shelf. I do it all the time.

    I hope you're feeling better soon.

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  8. Mr Nighttime: That's the best kind. I'm sorry, too. Am heading out to deli for more.

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  9. Geewits: Rice pudding is the best way to use up lots of rice, So many variations, and you can use cooked or uncooked rice, but sticky rice is a best. Basically milk to rice is 2:1, add sugar, vanilla, maybe cardamom and nutmeg or cinnamon, and maybe raisins, or other dried fruit, bake in oven for a couple of hours or heat on stove for less than an hour. Eat hot or cold, yummy. I was going to post a recipe for you but going back to bed...

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  10. MA: well, I was very hungry yesterday, today very tired

    Ruth: I hope so too

    Susan: Thanks. This is actually different than the Christmas one.

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  11. Oh my. I sure hope that does the trick for you and you are on the mend soon. (Although even reading about rice pudding makes me a little queasy!)

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  12. sorry you aren't feeling super-duper... take care of yourself ... I'm sure that yummy pudding will make you feel better...

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  13. Oh I do hope the rice pudding does the trick to make you feel better.

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  14. Citizen: Thanks. (and sorry about that queasiness)

    Gwen: Being outside in the cold, fresh, air actually makes me feel better - once I get used to it!

    Meggie: It did for the moment, sadly not enough.

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  15. I absolutely ADORE rice pudding... mmmmmmm.... must go make some, right now(although I'll probably get lazy as soon as I switch to another page and can't see the fab pic anymore).

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  16. Noha: reading blogs with food pics or recipes always make want to be domestic. or just fed.

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