Comfort Foods

When I was growing up, my mom had a rule about church; You had to attend until you were confirmed. This pretty much meant that we dropped out of the Sunday ritual one by one–first my brothers and then me. Once we were confirmed in the Lutheran church, each and every one of us pretty much stopped going. Well, I hung on a little longer than the boys did, but not by much.

When we lived in Pensacola, Florida, we drove to a place I thought was “way across town” but probably wasn’t so far as it seemed. On the way home, we would stop at the 7-11 for treats. We usually were allowed one comic book and one candy bar. I can’t remember if we had rules around when we were allowed to eat the candy, though I seem to think it was after lunch.

Once we got home, she would make lunch. This would entail either tuna fish sandwiches or grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato and rice soup. Campbell’s of course. Occasionally, the soup would be bean with bacon or split pea, but I liked the tomato with rice the best. She made it with water, not milk, too. She would make an entire tray of grilled cheese in the broiler–which makes it easy to make a whole bunch of sandwiches. She’d pile the sandwiches on a plate and serve them to the whole family. And we were allowed to dunk our sandwiches into the soup. (My daughter was at a friend’s house when she was little and was admonished by the mother who had served her, “that’s a nasty habit!” Oopsie…)

While my religious views have veered into another realm, I find it interesting that my after church rituals are not entirely unlike the ones I had growing up. I sometimes stop at PCC (Puget Consumer’s Co-op) to pick up food, though no candy bars or comic books are part of that little errand. And, I’ve taken to making sandwiches for lunch. Of course, that’s a bit different too. Since the daughter doesn’t eat dairy or wheat, I tend to make tuna. And I put olive oil and capers in mine. There’s something comforting about coming home and making (a much smaller) pile of tuna sandwiches.