I have lost a week. At least most of one. Literally and figuratively. I have not gotten the flu in some time, though when I get sick it is like most things, all or nothing. Anyway, now that my brain is unclogged and my body feels that the last of the beatings is over I can think about food. Actually, as I lay in bed I had thoughts of food and dreams of aromas. I knew I did not actually want to eat the food at the time, though the thoughts of certain foods really stuck a chord. Remember a perfectly toasted English muffin with golden brown nooks and crannies, the cold butter filling in the valleys and clinging to the peaks. That smell, sweet butter and toasted muffin and the point when you put just a light drizzle of honey on top for intermittent bites of sweetness. What about macaroni and cheese, really good macaroni and cheese. It could be a blend of cheeses though not assertive loud talking cheeses, creamy and rich with cut up strips of bacon, not lardons, with a light caramelized cheese crust not one of those bread crumb toppings. And what is important about this mac and cheese is that as it cools as you eat it, it must not turn gummy or solidify. The smell of chocolate chip cookies, the browned butter and chocolate and sugar bouncing off the oven walls finally creeping up the stairs to me in bed. And the smell of roast steak the caramelized meat bits those flavors mingling with tender meaty steak, that captured my thoughts. Then there is french toast. A cinnamon and Grand Marnier egg batter, Steve's maple syrup, Diane's creamy and tangy butter and the smell of the forest: pine, spruce, cedar, juniper, fallen leaves and trees, a earthen must mingling with crisp air perfuming the room with just a hint of fresh brewed coffee. And finally a butterscotch sundae. Sure some hot fudge is there, though it is the sweet and salty butterscotch, served hot, melting the ice cream mountains into rivers which just kind of had me at hello.
I am now curious about the reason these foods and ideas permeated my thoughts. Sure, they are comforting, but there is more. What it is, I have not quite figured out, time will help tell the tale.
