Day 5: Your Favorite Comfort Foods

I decided to skip yesterday's challenge. I was supposed to write my views on religion, but I don't think I'm quite comfortable writing something like that on here just yet. So I guess it's more of a 29 Day Challenge.

Today's challenge, My Favorite Comfort Foods. This could get pretty long.

My Mom's Lasagne
My mom has been making lasagne from the same grease-covered magazine clipping for as long as I can remember. It oozes with four different cheeses and just the right amount of sauce. Unfortunately, my mom's awesome lasagne has set the bar pretty high. I tried to recreate the culinary delight over here and it just was not the same. The noodles were too thin and flimsy. I couldn't find spicy Italian sausage. And for a country that takes such pride in their cheeses, there is not much Italian cheese to choose from. No grated mozzerella, no parmesan, just the other day I finally found where they had been hiding the ricotta. Certainly no muenster, which (I think) is the fourth glorious cheese. While my version wasn't terrible, it was by no means anywhere nearly as good as my mom's. For this reason, lasagne is always my first request when I get to America.

Big Fat Cheeseburgers
You can't expect a red-blooded American to write a comfort food post without mentioning some sort of red meat. My weakness is most certainly cheeseburgers with fancy, gooey toppings. Lasagne is always my first hot meal in America, and Red Robin is my first restaurant stop the next day. So many delicious burger choices. And REALLY chocolatey milkshakes. That are actually brown. (Here, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between my chocolate shake and Aron's vanilla. I was even convinced that one time they gave me vanilla due to the serious lack of choclatey goodness, but I digress.) But OH the cheeseburger. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Red Robin seriously needs to think about going international. I would totally be at the Grand Opening.

Mac 'n Cheese
If the neon orange macaroni from the blue box didnt make it on my comfort food list, I think it would seriously cast some doubt if I had really grown up in America. We've all had it and we've all loved it. It needs no explaining. Now that I have a child who is CLEARLY too small to eat a whole box, I just HAVE to help him finish. (Again, this is something only to be found in America unless I'm willing to pay 3 Euro/$5 per box. Which is totally NOT happening.)

So sigh. There is no replacing any of these lovely dishes. And upon the plane touching down, my mouth is already watering after months and months of missing good lasagne, burgers and mac. My tastebuds already know how close they are to being oh-so-satisfied, and that 20 minute drive form the airport to dinnertime seems almost as long as the flight itself. Ok, so I may be exagerating about that. 


Man, I could really go for a cheeseburger right about now. America is still 3 and a half months away, so I'll just have to wait.

Day 2: Where you'd like to be in 10 years

In ten years, I'll be 33. We'll be married. We'll have a house with a yard. I'll be done with school, sort of. Because I'll work at school, teaching English to high school students. We'll have more kids. Hopefully two more. We'll be going to America regularly. My little Monster will be 12, and probably not so little. On our regular visits to America, Monster will go to Camp. I hope he loves it just like I did as a kid. I was 12 for my first week away at Camp, but I think Monster will go earlier. I want him to go to mini-camp at like 5 or 6. He has already been to Camp for a visit.

Future Camper on the pier. Winter '10-'11

There is a lot in store for our family in the years to come. But right now, Monster is trying to read The Fire Engine Book and he is calling me back to the present. Can I just say that in 10 years it'll be 2021?! It'll be the Next Roaring Twenties.