roasted cherry tomato tart

I've lived in five places in the past five years - college in western Massachusetts at the step of the Berkshires, a semester abroad in London, a couple years spent in Washington DC as a federal government employee, a year as a graduate student in Paris, and now a year as a graduate student in New York City. I'm a lucky punk, I know. 

But moving around a lot has downsides. Saying goodbye to friends always sucks. Learning new city transit systems always means making a few mistakes in the beginning (seriously, how many times will I enter the uptown entrance when I actually mean to go downtown?). Long distance relationships are the worst. Becoming a regular at a bar or café always takes at least a couple months. 

New cities also mean making new friends. And making friends doesn't come super easily to me, so I always have a game plan every time I move somewhere new. Mostly that involves bribing people into being my friends by cooking for them.

they come for the food but stay for the katherine

cod chowder for the soul

Sometimes things happen. Sometimes you go to Paris to study for a year and neglect your cooking blog because your entire kitchen is two hotplates and a microwave. Sometimes you get accepted to a dual-degree program at Columbia and come back to the States and then proceed to have major FOMO when you see your friends having fun all over Europe without you. Sometimes the guy you were head over heels for decides he doesn't want to be in a relationship and tells you so via text message. Sometimes your new conservative landlord tries to debate you about the weaknesses of the Affordable Care Act because he found out you worked at the White House but all you want to do is take a nap because you were just at IKEA for four and a half hours of your life (but really it felt like eternity).

In times of stress, annoyance, FOMO, anger, heartbreak, anxiety, frustration, the mean reds, the blues, or any other horrible feelings, I like to make some from-scratch-with-love cod chowder, mopped up to the last drop with some fresh sourdough bread. And then suddenly I'm happy to be right where I am and my FOMO disappears and boys don't exist and I feel like I could debate anyone about anything and singlehandedly assemble all of the furniture in the IKEA warehouse! I'm not even exaggerating. Try it sometime. 

serious comfort food.