Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe:
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour (you can use half whole wheat if you want)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp water
- 2 large eggs
- 12 oz. chocolate chips
Macaroni & Cheese Recipe:
- 1 pound elbow macaroni
- 1 pound (4 cups) shredded extra sharp or sharp cheddar cheese
- 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon ground mustard
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 cups low-fat milk
- 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons butter (optional)
Comfort Food. It is what we rely on when we have nothing else to turn to when life's sorrows gets us. And what is more quintessentially comforting than homemade chocolate chip cookies, and good old-fashioned mac & cheese?
However, if you eat too much, there are detrimental consequences - an unhealthy lifestyle means you won't be able to enjoy a - well, healthy life. Is you keep using food as your escape from sorrow, you will never be able to overcome the sorrows in your reality - just temporarily subside it, hoping it goes away. But if you go in too deep, then you may never come out...
Eiji Miyake, the main protagonist of David Mitchell's novel, number9dream, is an escapist. However, he doesn't escape through food - he escapes through alternative realities. Everyone has an inner escapist, and food is the easiest, most available option, just as daydreaming is for Eiji. But Eiji's escapism prevents him from coming-of-age - he is stuck in a reality that blurs with his alternate ones, causing a standstill in his growth. Towards the end of the book, when Eiji starts to face reality, it is painful for him at first; when reality hits him hard, he admits that he "would sell [his] soul for [reality] to be a dream" (Mitchell 400). But he also realizes that the more he escapes, the farther he gets from being past to reconcile with the past that haunts him everyday and the farther he gets from facing reality, and moving on, to achieve his "number9dream," where he can begin his true story.
