Peter V. Bella Posts

The older I get, the more I look back. Sometimes the memory flood is overwhelming. A lot of those memories are food-related, from simple pleasures to fabulous home-cooked feasts. Fall brings more nostalgia than usual. Produce was more seasonal, so we looked forward to certain fruit and vegetable treats. 

Yesterday, we made a simple dish, sausage, and peppers, three ingredients, including great bread. There was a rich chocolate cake for dessert.

On this cool sunny Sunday morning, my first thought was that sausage and peppers I ate yesterday. Eating outdoors, watching the squirrels gambol, and hunt for winter food. Listening to the sounds of the city.

My dad made sausage every fall, so most of the meals with sausage were from the ones he made. Other times, he would buy sausage from people who knew how to make it the right way, old school, with just the right seasonings. Back then, there were no red, orange, or yellow peppers, just green.

I remember the summer barbecues. My dad grilling lemon garlic chicken or ribs. Sometimes there were hot dogs or burgers. My mother made potato salad. On a hot humid day or two later, that cold leftover potato salad was a meal in itself.

Sometimes, my dad and I would sit at the table with Italian cured meats, cheese, olives, homemade bread from a neighbor, and wine. We would sit and talk. Two men, one aging and one younger adult. He would talk about the past. I would talk about the present.

Food was always part of my life. I grew up in a food-loving family. My parents loved to cook, and that love showed in their craft. Even a simple pot of chicken soup was made with love.

I think about all the holiday dinners I prepared or helped prepare. A month before, I would scour the food magazines looking for recipes. There was the calvados pork roast, the leg of lamb wet rub marinated with pesto, the varnished turkey, geese one Christmas, plum duck, ginger ham, stuffed trout, and the various side dishes to go with them.

Fall is when I really think about food, past, and present. Fall through winter is the time for comfort foods. Foods that mend your heart and heal your soul. Foods that take you away from the junkyard world we live in. Meals to enjoy alone or in the company of others.

Our lives are complicated. We get too wrapped up in all the political and social rhetorical wars swirling around us. The pandemic is still stubbornly around. We forget the simple pleasures of life, good food, maybe wine, and the companionship of family or friends.

The pandemic brought out the best of us in relation to food. People were home with too much time on their hands. First, it was the bread bakers. Then sourdough took over. All of a sudden social media was flooded with home-cooked food. People discovered what that strange place in their homes, the kitchen, was for.

Fall is here. The days are getting shorter. The weather is cooling down. Soon, sunny days will be few and far between. I think about food, comfort food. As much as I love to eat out, I love to cook or eat home-cooked meals.

Now that many of you found uses for your kitchens scrap the delivery or carryout. Stay home and cook. Cooking and sharing food is one of the purest forms of love. Cook the simple, comforting foods, soups, stews, meatloaf, chili, or roast a chicken. There are plenty of places to get a few other necessities, like good bread or other food items.

Go into the kitchen, turn on your favorite music, and forget the outside world. Cook. Cook for yourself. Cook for family or friends. Keep it simple and comforting.

I ate in some of the finest restaurants in Chicago. I enjoyed the food. But nothing ever beats a simple, comforting home-cooked meal made with love and shared with others.

In times like these, eating is our only comfort. The COVID-19 pandemic is stubbornly hanging on. The regular flu season is upon us, with predictions it will be brutal. There is daily murder, mayhem, bloodshed, robberies, carjackings, and other felony crimes. City Hall is failing us. Chicago is lost.

There are national crises. COVID is out of control in freedumb loving areas, including southern Illinois. People are refusing to get vaccinated, and there are battles over vaccine mandates. Death cult “Christian” religions are issuing religious exemptions for those who “sincerely believe” vaccines are evil. Anyone can apply.

Both houses of Congress are irreparably broken. Nothing is getting done. The southern border is in crisis, and the government is paralyzed to do anything about it. There is no political will to resolve the immigration, asylum seekers, and refugee crises. The climate crisis is now being labeled the climate catastrophe.

Chicago faces a mounting homeless crisis, with almost 20,000 people living on the streets, some in makeshift encampments like refugees from third-world countries. Winter will soon be upon us, and they will suffer.

Many of us are still semi-confined to our homes or restricting our movements, fearing contracting COVID. We worry about our families and friends, adding more stress to our lives. All of us know people who were affected by COVID-19.

It appears nothing is going right, and little is being done to rectify things. Everything is a battle, and every battle is being lost. We are learning to accept failure as an option at all levels. We kept looking for normal or the new normal, and it appears failure is the new normal.

There is little good news and plenty of bad. There is nothing to celebrate. 

Food is all we have to comfort us, especially since the cooler to cold weather sets it. For some reason, food makes us happy in times of stress. Food is sensual, satisfying all six senses. We enjoy eating our favorite comfort foods.

I love soup, especially during the fall and winter months. I could literally live on soup and good bread alone. I started thinking about all the foods that bring me joy and comfort. There are stews of all kinds, chili, roast chicken with plain salt and pepper, or some za’atar added. Good cream of tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich melts the coldest hearts.

I like to patronize great soup restaurants for flavorful bowls of pho, Caldo de Pollo, or tortilla soup. There are the birrierias, serving goat stews and consommé. I like bigos, the Polish hunter’s stew, and goulash. Good French onion soup is another favorite. I am an offal guy and occasionally will eat a steaming bowl of Menudo. Posole is another great soup/stew. Chinese hot and sour soup with extra garlic, ginger, and chilis will cure just about any malaise.

There is a reason we call certain dishes are called comfort foods. They comfort us and satisfy our souls. They calm and relax us. They make us appreciate the simple things of life. They evoke food memories from our childhood.

When all else fails, and our world is going to Hell in a handbasket, comfort foods bring solace and make us forget how miserable this world is. We dig in, and for a short time, we are happy.

Life is too short to fret over all the failures in this nation and Chicago. Eating well is the best revenge. So, pull out those Insta Pots, slow cookers, or Dutch ovens. Make soup, stew, chili, or roast a chicken. A mice warm apple or other fruit pie with ice cream is a great dessert if you can bake.

Life sucks right now. You may as get what little joy you can.