Martha Thurston
There are certain foods that when I think about them, I am transported back in time to my childhood and even to my younger adult years. My mother’s fried chicken. Her stewed potatoes with cornbread. Oh, and who could forget my favorite potatoes made from leftover mashed potatoes? These foods remind me of home, love, and comfort.
Comfort foods have a way of taking us back in time and making us feel that same love we felt when we first tasted our favorite dish. My mother’s stewed potatoes not only made me feel comforted, it was also the one thing that she would make and bring to me when I was sick as an adult. She’d always have a still warm pot of stewed potatoes and a piece or two of cornbread.
There were some foods that she never quite understood my cravings for, especially since they were things made from leftover food. Imagine her shock one time when she came to my house for dinner and watched me make a batch of mashed potatoes just to turn it into the leftovers we had when I was a child. She looked at me and said, “What are you doing?”
I replied, “I’m making those mashed potatoes you used to make. They’re my favorite.”
“The leftovers?”
“Yes! It was my favorite way to eat mashed potatoes!”
She laughed and said, “That’s a lot of work for one side dish.”
To me, it didn’t matter. I would still, to this day, make a pot of mashed potatoes just to mix it with diced onion and sliced cheese and bake it in the oven. It was like eating au gratin potatoes, only creamier.
Comfort food, no matter what, takes us back to simpler times. Of course, I realized just how simple last night when I made myself a small pot of stewed potatoes. I had some russet potatoes leftover from Thanksgiving that needed to be used up before they turned green and grew eyes, and I had been depressed for weeks. All I could think of was how much I wished I could have a conversation with my mother. With everything going on in my life, I knew that she would have the perfect bit of advice for me if only Heaven had visiting hours. The next best thing? Her stewed potatoes. It didn’t take long to make the pot of creamy chunky goodness. In fact, I had everything done within 20 minutes. Then I sat down and thought about what advice she would have for me.
What could be better?
I have leftovers. That’s better!
