Comfort Food

The last time I wrote here was September 1st --- since then Erin and Jeremy got married, we cast, rehearsed, and premiered our "Obsession" at the Croswell, Precious, the cat, had two surgeries and finally lost all of her teeth and now lives with her brother Charlie at Eric's house in Chicago (she now is called Francis Gum . . .), I have updated and published both "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "Pinocchio" for upcoming concerts, Michael and I are in the process of rewriting the "Pinocchio" libretto to include puppets, I spent Thanksgiving with Michael for the first time in 6 years, I went to San Francisco to see Leah in "Turandot", we did family Christmas in Michigan and now I'm back in Vegas with Michael for the holidays. . . . oh and I have knitted/crocheted a baby blanket, a bunting, a baby sweater vest and hat for Jolie's soon-to-be-born little boy, and an afghan for Jonathan and Marissa's wedding and right now I'm working on a hat for Jere and a scarf for Michael.
So there is good reason why I haven't written much.
Nonetheless, one of my early New Year's resolutions is to get back to this so here I am.
Last night I was at Alan's holiday party, and had an interesting discussion with a guy who sets up credit card systems for businesses. Obviously working with computers he has to have a feel for math and he said that he did.  But he had some very interesting questions about music.
Now before I go on, I need to explain that I know that music and math go hand-in-hand.  There are tons of studies that prove this, but I know this first hand, so I'm always surprised when someone embraces one and doesn't embrace the other.
Anyway,
He doesn't understand music, and his wife/girl friend (I never did find out) is very frustrated by that. He just never "got into it," doesn't remember music in the house, doesn't know how to listen to it --- was surprised when I told him I heard music as he spoke ---meaning I heard music in his words. (Which I do.)
Anyway, it became clear after a short time that he had determined that he was not going to understand so it really didn't matter what I told him.  But he did ask one question --- does music soothe you?  "Well of course," I said.
Today as I was making chicken stew and dumplings, I realized that music is like comfort food.
This time of year, chicken stew and dumplings is just something I crave --- it's cold outside (even in Vegas), but more than that it brings back all of those memories.  And you know, the holidays are as much about memories as it is about celebrating.
In our family chicken stew and dumplings is a staple; both of my grandmothers made it on a weekly basis; it was the "go-to" dinner for us all.
On Christmas day, Michael and I played our Christmas music all day --- it's as much about the memories as the celebration there, too.
So I've decided to add recipes to this blog and I'm going to begin with chicken stew and dumplings.
To my family --- this is the first installment --- it goes along with the kitchen towels I gave you all.