Comfort Food

I'm not even going to show you the dish that came out of this pot. It's just brown rice and chicken, so it won't look pretty on the plate and even a side of tiny green beans isn't going to rescue the picture. Instead, let me just tell you about it.

The day started with a trip to the dentist. For a temporary crown. Expensive, somewhat painful, and I have to go back in two weeks for the permanent crown. With the threat of a possible root canal if all this angst doesn't save that 'way, 'way back molar.  I have a tiny mouth, so I spent an uncomfortable hour trying to open wide enough for two people's hands and various dental tools, and hearing over and over that it would be easier if my mouth was bigger.  Sorry, Doc, what can I say?

And, there was a BART strike on, so the traffic was fraught. Really fraught. So fraught that I had to detour around the worst of it to get to the dentist on time. To get that expensive, somewhat painful, temporary crown.

So, you know that when I got home I needed comfort food in the worst way.

I had taken a chicken breast, an enormous one that we bought all seasoned, from the freezer, so decided to use that. The seasoning was a mix of paprika and other spices - we were told it was "not too spicy" but we have learned to be wary of that. 

I didn't want to fuss much as I was feeling pretty darned sorry for myself by then, so I just softened some onion and browned some mushrooms in a little butter in my enameled cast iron pot, added a cup of brown rice, and stirred over medium heat until the grains turned opaque, sprinkled a generous shaking of herbes de Provence and a little garlic salt, then added two cups of hot chicken broth to the Dutch oven before placing that giant chicken breast atop the rice and sliding it all into a 350 degree oven for about 90 minutes.

While it was cooking, I took a couple of ibuprofen, laid down with a good book and goofed off.  When the house started to smell like the essence of comfort, I took Cora for a walk before coming home to serve dinner.

It was good, deep down good. And very comforting to a tender tooth and a stretched-out mouth. When comfort is needed, chicken and rice are the winning ticket.