Editor’s note: This column originally published Oct. 21, 2015.
Everyone has their favorite comfort foods. Those particular “go-to” food dishes that seem to transport you to that perfect time during your childhood when life was kind and you felt safe.
Or maybe it’s a chocolate candy bar. The satisfaction of that first bite just sets the world right again.
I can imagine being home on a cool, rainy, autumn day and freshly baked bread with a cup of coffee will soothe most souls.
Or if it’s unbearably hot out and you know there’s no way you’re working in the garden, so what’s better than BLT on the menu?
Or on a snowy weekend morning, with the fireplace crackling, can you envision anything better than warm cinnamon rolls and hot cocoa?
Or maybe you’ve simply just had a bad day, with too much on your mind. Homemade mac and cheese? Potatoes and gravy?
Now allow me to take it one step further.
I also have my comfort movies. Yes, I have an fondness for certain movies that take me to my “warm and fuzzy” place.
When I’m sick, I pop in the old Disney movie “The Snowball Express.” Why, you may ask? I haven’t the faintest idea.
A sleepless night? I grab my Jack Lemon DVD of “Good Neighbor Sam.” This “go-to” is all about my grandma and staying up to watch it on the late, late show with her. (I even wore out my original VHS version of this one.)
How about those gloomy Saturday mornings when you have nothing planned? I enjoy playing Miss Marple movies from the 1960s staring Margaret Rutherford as I busy myself around the house. And the theme music is magically fun.
I’ll admit, I’m not the greatest car traveler around. I can only read for so long before I get sleepy, and looking out the window at endless miles of highway can bore me quickly. So while hubby drives, I’ll watch Don Knotts’ “Ghost and Mr. Chicken” that I’ve loaded on my tablet. I might add, I know this movie verbatim. Sad, but true.
When I’m able to lounge on a Sunday afternoon with napping as the only item on my agenda, I like to doze off with the old British series “To The Manor Born” playing.
And the hubs? I don’t think he is quite as neurotic as I am when it comes to “go-to” comfort movies. As long as it has his recliner and a John Wayne movie playing, he’s in his comfort zone.
Contact Dana King at dking@shawmedia.com