Winter Comforts

I'll be the first to say that I was more than happy to turn the calendar page on January to February. Does anyone else think that having 31 days of January is just a little too brutal? Obviously the past month has been particularly rough in my world besides the cold, snow, and ice, but today it's in the 40s and sunny. The sky is blue and water is trickling down the side of our building, pooling on the sidewalks, racing toward storm drains.

There are a few comforts that I've found during these long, dreary days and most of them revolve around food or drink of some sort. There's the obvious homemade chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese and tomato soup. But if you're looking for a tasty, warm drink, consider spiking your hot chocolate with coconut rum. As Lynn would say it's the only way they drink hot cocoa in the islands. And don't forget chili and cornbread. I think I could make this every single week and Adam wouldn't complain. And of course he loves the leftovers it promises. I am always up for a good tuna noodle casserole (sometimes I cheat and make it from the box) but Adam prefers my tuna salad sandwiches, so that's where our fish quota came from today. What are your best winter comfort foods?

On a more random note, I was doing my weekly shopping at Hy-Vee yesterday. And you know how you kind of zone out when you're shopping. You have each aisle memorized and turn on auto-pilot and go. Well, maybe it's just my favorite Hy-Vee in Windsor Heights, but they've reorganized! Nothing drastic, but the tuna is definitely one aisle over, the cereal and granola bar aisle looks different (I haven't figured out what it is yet) and the juice and soda are now in the same aisle. A very helpful man, with a smile of course, asked if I was finding everything OK and informed me that they were updating their stock, getting rid of things that didn't sell and bringing in 600 new items! We'll see what's new next week. But for now I have to pay closer attention.

Also, I finally finished reading Anna Karenina! It is quite the accomplishment and I realized I'm not quite ready to put it back on the shelf. It's been sitting around for over a month and I think the coffee table will look naked without it. So I'll leave her out a few more days. But now I'm ready for some fluffy chic lit and mindless beach reads as I head to Florida to visit family this weekend and soak up some sun.