Winter Blues? Food Therapy.

Blue?  Perhaps “gray” is a more accurate depiction of January.  Holiday distractions are over, the twinkly lights have all come down, and that regular snowfall was turning every day into the movie, Groundhog Day.  The introverted mood of winter weather should be cozy and reflective – a perfect time to plan, create, contemplate.  But all too often, mellow and meditative slide into shades of blue.

Maybe a little food therapy can help ease the angst.  Don’t simply fix dinner, create it.

Touch the ingredients.  Feel them.  Regain the intimate connection with food we lost to convenience-foods in the 50′s.  Thankfully, this connection continues to be the hip thing in the food world, and I feel confident it will remain our country’s gastronomic little black dress.  DIY food is a recession’s remedy.  It’s seasonal therapy.  Get into it — roll some pasta, smoke a duck, squish tomatoes into sauce, knead a loaf of bread.  The sense of touch is so basic, so necessary, so human.

Speaking of humans, invite someone over to share in both the process and the plums — a colleague, a friend you haven’t seen in a while, the cute girl down the hall.  Crank up La Bohème, crank open a bottle of Chianti, and crank out some tagliatelle.

Keep it cozy and creative inside, and it won’t be long before that pasta and wine become a moveable feast thoroughly enjoyed outside.