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At Home on the Range: Comfort food

by Jody White

Elsmere, Neb.

Comfort food … that’s what I’m thinking about right now. Specific food that when thought about makes a person’s stomach have warm fuzzies, soothes headaches and panic attacks, and somehow does exactly what it’s called to do … comforts! My comfort food is gingersnaps, the cheap kind. The kind you buy, not bake. The kind you can pick up for a dollar a bag at the Dollar General. The ones that are hard as rocks.



Matter of fact, the harder the better. Although I’ve often wondered about how much nutritional value is contained in cookies that can be bought for only a buck a bag. But then I’m rarely thinking about nutrition when I’m in need of comfort.

The fact that they are nutritionally void doesn’t bother me one bit. Somehow dipping a rock hard gingersnap into a cup of hot coffee is all I need to take the edge off a rotten day. Dipping, eating, and sipping allows me to look around my kitchen or living room that has imploded in on itself during calving, and not panic. Of course repeating a mantra of, “This too shall pass, this too shall pass,” while dipping, eating and sipping doesn’t hurt!



During calving I could live on gingersnaps and coffee.

Too bad Butch can’t, it would simplify things so much. Meals can be such a stress factor this time of year. Last night when we finally got in I whipped up barbequed chicken wings, Jalepeno Poppers, Pizza Pockets and pork egg rolls. In short I cleaned out the freezer of any and all things I could put on a cookie sheet and bake! And then, feeling a little guilty about what we were having for supper, I tried to add nutritional balance by dishing up cottage cheese and peaches. I just wish the cottage cheese had a little better color. I still don’t know if it was any good or not, because I passed on it. But I didn’t get any complaints, so it couldn’t have been too old!

It’s a shame that at a time when we should be eating good, all I have the energy for at the end of the day is fixing something that doesn’t require anything more strenuous then turning on the oven, or a burner! When I get to feeling too guilty I just remind myself of some friends of ours that lived on Corn Flakes for supper every night until calving was over. It made my chicken wings, Jalepeno Poppers, egg rolls and Pizza Pockets sound pretty good! And, except for the occasional indigestion that accompanies eating them, it’s a nice break from eggs or hotdogs, my customary calving fare.

Right now we have both sheds full of heifers and calves, thanks to the temperature, snow and wind over the last two days. I have just about run out of clean dishes, the wash is piling up, the house is a mess, and I have reached the point where I really don’t care what I look like, or who sees me. (Editor’s note: Jody also didn’t have enough time to write last week’s column and we missed her.)

It’s time to bring out the gingersnaps!!


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