Comfort food

As we are settling back into life overseas, I've been reminded time and again that despite the many modern conveniences we enjoy in this country (truly there is very little that we lack for!), things here just take longer.  A trip to the grocery and back is made more difficult by the hailing of taxis and the lugging of many bags into said taxi both at the store and upon arriving at home.  Meal prep takes a good bit longer with the careful washing of all the fruits and vegetables.  Some things I cannot even really pinpoint as to why they take so much longer, I can just tell you that they do.  It always takes me a few weeks to get my feet on the ground upon returning overseas as far as planning meals and regularly cooking for the family- something that I truly do love to do.  Whether that is due to jet lag, unfamiliar surroundings or just sheer laziness on my part, I don't really know, but I know that it's true whatever the reason.

We are oh so thankful to be staying in the home of some friends until we find our own apartment and her kitchen is so very well equipped.  It's made my adjustment back to cooking regularly that much easier.  This past weekend, I decided we were all in need of some comfort food and thanks to Jason's frequent grocery trips on my behalf the kitchen was stocked and ready.

Looks yummy, right!  Oh, it was! Several weeks ago in the states...  Sadly these are some of the only veggies I have not found here and miss so much (yellow squash and okra that's big enough to fry).  This was not our comfort food, but if you are lucky enough to live in a place where you can get these things, check out my cooking blog (or I should say "our" because I share it with some dear friends) in the next week or so and I'll post some of my favorite southern recipes for summer veggies.  Anyway, I digress and now I'm hungry which is bad since it's almost midnight.  So, this was not our comfort food.  Meatloaf, creamy mashed potatoes and balsamic green beans (recipe here) were on the menu along with dinner rolls. (a close second to summer veggies as far as comfort foods go..)  Sadly, smack in the middle of meal prep (which was already somewhat delayed due to a jet lagged Anabelle taking an extra long nap), the gas on my stove ran out- if you live overseas you know how frustrating that can be and how it tends to happen at THE most inconvenient times..  So our comfort food meal ending up being a little more stressful than I intended and A LOT later than I intended.  Thankfully, Jason was able to get the gas changed out (a small miracle in itself considering it's Ramadan here and it was iftar- the breaking of the fast- so usually NO ONE around).  But he was able to find the building concierge who helped him change out the gas bottle since there was already an extra (like I said- well equipped kitchen!)  Anyway, our comfort meal was not exactly what I intended but overall still tasted pretty good despite the delay in preparation.  AND the best part of all was dessert- Jason's comfort food request-  bread pudding with warm lemon sauce.  So yummy served hot with a scoop of cream or vanilla ice cream- the perfect end to a somewhat stressful attempt to re-enter the realm of nightly meal preparation overseas!

(the links to recipes on this post are to the cooking blog mentioned above)