Simple food…comfort food

This time last year I was in the mood for easy, simple recipes because I was recovering from the flu. I was also housebound in the wake of a big (for my region) snowstorm, so familiar, pantry-based foods made sense. This year I spent the tail end of my holiday gearing up and cooking for an event for a much larger crowd than is my norm. As a consequence I was pretty tired heading into January. The last thing I have been in the mood for this month is any kind of cooking that requires lots of ingredients, an extended amount of time at the stove, and a large pile of dirty dishes afterward. All I want is simple food.

Frankly, I don’t remember a January when I haven’t been in the mood for simple food. I’m always tired after the holidays. I always want to slow down. I always want an excuse to be good to myself after a couple of months devoted to making others happy. So this isn’t an unusual January craving. And in reality, it isn’t just simple food I crave…it’s also comfort food.

The term “comfort food” is sometimes frowned upon …pooh-poohed as trite. But I find it to be perfectly descriptive. Good food—simply by virtue of the fact that it fills and nourishes—is one of our greatest sources of the feeling that everything is going to be ok. And if that food ticks one of the following boxes: simple, familiar, associated with happy/safe memories—what could be more comforting?

So this month I wanted to share an everyday soup from France (Potato Leek)…and a couple of scaled down and simplified recipes for dishes that are probably universal comfort foods (lasagne and chicken pot pie). If these last two aren’t on your list of “easy, simple recipes,” don’t worry. Most of the time they aren’t on mine either. But when made in batches for two, they are pretty quick and easy.

Lasagne for two

When I think of classic Italian-American lasagne, the first thing I think is that it’s a lot of work…and it makes a big mess. While I have happily eaten this style of lasagne when someone else prepared it for me, I didn’t grow up on it so it hasn’t ever been something I wanted to take the time to make for myself—particularly since a standard pan of lasagne makes 8 to 12 servings. Even if I were to freeze it, it would take me a year or two to eat it all.

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