Comfort Food

There's something about eating certain foods that makes me feel at ease. Just hearing the name of these foods immediately brings memories of eating them while surrounded by loved ones.

Grits

By Ernesto Andrade (originally posted to Flickr as Incredible Isaac) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Up until my family moved to the Carolinas, I spent each morning before school with my grandmother. My dad would drop me off and I'd stay with her until school started. She made real grits, not the instant microwaveable ones. I'd sit at the bar and wait for her to bring a plate of steaming grits with a pat of butter melting in the middle. Even now that I'm an adult, she still occasionally makes them for me if I'm visiting.

To this day, I can't eat grits without thinking of those mornings with her. Unfortunately, the knack for making grits wasn't passed on to me. No matter how hard I try, when I try to make them, they turn into a huge glutinous ball in the pan. I have to rely on instant grits from the microwave for my fix, which isn't quite the same.

Checkers

By Dwight Burdette (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Not really a food, but an entire restaurant, but Checkers has to make the list. Growing up, whenever we were out of school, my sisters and I went to stay with our paternal grandparents. Behind their house was a car dealership and on the other side of the dealership was a Checkers. Several times a week we would ride our bikes over there and get something to eat. We don't have them around here so whenever I'm traveling and see a Checkers sign, I pull in for something to eat and memories of summers with my grandparents.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Photo Credit: Flickr user Hane C Lee

No list of comfort foods would be complete without chicken noodle soup. I ate it when I was sick. I ate it when I felt good. I loved it so much that when I went to college my parents bought me a whole flat of my favorite brand to take with me. Whenever I was sick, having a bad day or just plain homesick, I'd heat up a can and instantly feel a little better.