Comfort doesn't need planning.

Comfort food recipes usually are not planned ahead, they're spontaneous. Think about it, how do you know when you're going to need to eat something that comforts and soothes you? Maybe you had a lousy day and you know that a bowl of a particular recipe will make you feel all better. Or a memory came into your mind that made you smile, and you remember a particular food in that memory. Heck, it might just be a sudden craving for a comfort type food.

I experienced that yesterday when I suddenly wanted a meatball parmigiana sub....toasted sub roll with melted provolone and mozzarella cheese, sauce dripping and those softball sized meatballs. Going to someplace local, I knew...knew that I would end up with rubber meatballs, jarred sauce and that was totally unacceptable. So off to the market I ran to throw together my homemade pasta sauce and meatballs. No store around here sells real Italian bread, so had to do with regular sub rolls, but once toasted...delicioso!

By the time Roy was home from work, the sauce and meatballs were ready to create my subs. Preheating the oven to 400F, I sliced open the rolls, placed them on the center rack of the oven (open side up) and toasted them for 10 minutes. Then came the assembly: rolls placed in center of aluminum foil; 2 slices of provolone cheese on each side of the roll and overlapping on the crease of the roll. Two meatballs into the roll with some sauce poured over each; shredded mozzarella cheese spread over the meatballs. Fold the aluminum foil over the top of the sub and seal the ends; place onto the center rack of the oven and leave it alone for 15 minutes.

Perfection!!!

So when you need some comfort, forget about what you had originally planned to make for a meal and seek out the comfort food that will make you feel the best.

Mary Cokenour