June July August 2018 issue

41
COMFORT FOOD
by Sylvia Grant
Comfort food. Toasted bagel dripping with butter. Baked
macaroni and cheese casserole, very creamy, very cheesy,
topped with a sprinkling of buttered cracker crumbs and shredded
cheese. Lemon pie, a combination taste of tart and sweet, topped with
stiff, lightly browned peaks of meringue. Apple pie, slices of Northern Spies,
soft but firm, bathed in a sauce of sugar, butter, cinnamon with a hint of maple
syrup. All this nestled in a light, flakey bed of pastry and covered with a delicately
browned and sugary pastry blanket. Add to this a scoop of ice cream -
vanilla or maple walnut.
Ah, comfort food - donuts warm and squishy, filled with strawberry jelly,
deep fried and coated with sugar. Fresh from the bakery oven. Comfort
food. Why is it so good for the spirit and so bad for the body?
If only we were bears. We could spend the autumn, Thanksgiving until
Christmas, feasting with delight and then in January, curl up in a cave for the
rest of the winter where we would burn up all the extra calories, not by walking,
running, or weight lifting. We would burn up the calories just by sleeping.
In spring when we emerged from our cave, despite the indulgences of autumn,
we would be slim and trim, just in time for bathing suit weather. It would be
having your cake and eating it too with no extra pounds to show for it. The ultimate
in comfort food.
Like to Write??
The Writer’s Club, one of the longest standing activities offered by the
GWSA, is in need of new members. Membership has dropped in the last year
due to the aging process and/or the poor health of some members. You may
rest assured that writing or membership in the Club are not contributing factors.
We need people who have a passion for expressing themselves with the written
word and would like to share their work with fellow members whether that
work be poetry, prose, essay, story, narrative or memoir. We take a nonacademic
approach insofar as we do not teach writing and accept all levels of
expertise. Nothing a member writes and shares need be grammatically correct,
nor will it be critiqued. It remains to the individual member what it is and how
they choose to write about it.
The primary benefits of membership focus on the stimulation of one’s creative
juices, the power of words, developing self-confidence through sharing of
written work and the social aspects of mingling with like-minded people. Every
meeting ends with a word challenge you may only experience by becoming
a member. Every two months, a singular topic is presented for members to
write about and read. Four weeks are usually allotted for completion. As mentioned,
we do not critique, but we do ooh and aah and laugh a lot.
The Club meets on the second and third Thursday of each month, except July
and August, in the Boardroom at 1:00 pm. A nominal fee of $2.00 per session
attended has normally been charged but is currently under review. As you read
this, there are two remaining meetings. June 14 and June 16 before our summer
hiatus. We start up again in September, but not until the 27th as the Centre will
not be available on the 13th.
Do give us a thought and drop by during any scheduled meeting to see who
we are and how we operate. You will be more than welcome! For any further
information, please contact Ross Coulter at 519-821-3993.
T S - J/J/A 2018