Comfort.

Comfort.

When you read the word comfort what comes to mind? Perhaps you are at a place in your life where comfort is most often used as a verb, whether providing or receiving it.  Since you’re reading this on my food blog, perhaps comfort food is the first thing you think of.

When I wrote this post about Salisbury Steak I wanted to prepare and share a dish that said “when I am with you I am complete and comfortable”.

Today, I stepped outside of my comfort zone.  And while I was mildly uncomfortable at times, there was a rush associated with it that I loved.

Last night I enjoyed the most wonderful dinner with my kid and my brother who had flown into Atlanta for business.  This was the second time Shelby and I dined at Lure and we were certain Scott would love it like we did.  And he did.  I believe his exact words were “I haven’t had a meal this good in as long as I can remember.”

I will write more about this restaurant in the future as I vow to recreate their smoked scallop recipe and add it to this round-up of Favorite Sea Scallops.  Scallops might be the most sensual food on the planet, well that and Sage Brown Butter.

Definition ‘sen-su-al’ adjective: “relating to or consisting in the gratification of the senses or the indulgence of appetite.”

We started with raw oysters on the half shell.

I’ll never forget the first time I tried a raw oyster.  I was 15 years old when two of my girlfriends and I boarded a Greyhound bus for New York City.  We were off to The Big Apple to stay with my brother and his girlfriend.  He picked us up at the terminal in his work delivery van (you know the beat up unmarked white kind).  We piled in the back with our suit cases and took our seats on the wheel wells and spare tire.  He gave us a mini-tour including the Theater District, Times Square and 42nd street where we saw our first real live hookers.  We hadn’t been in the city 30 minutes and these three country bumpkins from New Hampshire were wide-eyed and totally outside our comfort zone.  And loving it.

The next morning before he headed off to work Scott gave us very specific instructions.  When you leave the building DO NOT turn right, only left.  And don’t go into the park unless you want to buy drugs.  Oh boy.  Wide-eyed.  That evening he took us to some hotel bar and ordered raw oysters.  I’m certain his single goal for the week was to keep us just outside our comfort zone.  I don’t even know how I got that oyster down, but vowed I’d never try one again.

Well about that, sometimes stepping outside your comfort zone leads to pleasure and enjoyment.  It lights a fuse inside of us if you will.  Which is precisely how I feel about oysters now.  Shelby and I certainly enjoyed our share of oysters during this visit to New Orleans….where we in fact stepped outside of our comfort zone on more than one occasion.  Hello Bourbon Street.

I have a short bucket list started.  After all I did turn 50 this year and was given the book 50 Things To Do When You Turn 50.  It’s quite a list.  Some of the things on my bucket list will take me outside my comfort zone.  THIS is so happening in January.

What’s your definition of comfort?  Favorite comfort food?  Do you venture outside your comfort zone?