Comfort Food

My body is confused.  I think it's storing up fat for the winter.  The snow is making my brain send messages that I need to bury nuts and hibernate.  Food has taken a central role in my life the past few days.  I chopped a big stack of corn tortillas in quarters and fried them into chips.  Sea salt and hummus made them delicious.  I also made pot stickers and spring rolls for the first time in forever.  Easy...fill the wrappers with ground pork or beef, green onions, cabbage, grated ginger.  Dip in sesame oil and soy sauce.  When I lived with Japanese and Chinese room mates, we made pot stickers by the dozens, all the time.  My friend Yanfu and his wife Yaqing could form them with one hand in about 3 seconds each.  It was fun to make an old tradition new, and the fresh ginger root energized me.

Still, one look outside and I heard my biological clock say it was time not for renewal, but for comfort.  I may have been better served using my fresh root in gingerbread rather than spring rolls.  Hot milk, dark chocolate powder and almond syrup gave me something warm to wrap my hands around as I gazed out at the giant snowflakes swirling around like so many angry cherry blossoms in the wind.  Just a moment to relax with my steaming drink, as if it were Christmas Eve, then off to take Ruby a plate of pot stickers to eat between ballet classes.  No time for hibernation after all.  Another chocolate almond steamer, perhaps?