[Daily December masterpost. Please feel entirely encouraged to fill in some of the gaps in the calendar. :-) ]

So: flavour.

There are things that are home for me. Parsley (on potatoes or tomatoes or pretty much anything else: I'll eat it finely chopped on buttered bread, given half a chance, or just straight from the plant); black pepper; nutmeg; ground walnuts; poppyseeds; apricots; caraway and rye. If I am homesick or lonely or otherwise sad, these tend to get added to what I'm making. So, for example, my courgette-and-feta fritters contain nutmeg as well as black pepper and spring onion, because it tastes a little like home. (So does my variant of leek-and-mushroom risotto.)

Mostly, though, when I get cravings they're for textures: so set custards are comforting and soothing (creme brulee! trifle!), but often I will find myself really wanting something crunchy and spiky and dry. The best way for me to deal with that sort of thing turns out to be to have a list of known-good foods - for the crunchy/spiky texture, even well-done toast isn't enough; best thing I've found so far is seaweed-rice-peanut crackers. Which - isn't really about cooking, or even about flavour, but I think it's probably worth flagging up that texture is a big thing for me, too. (I do also occasionally get cravings for anything that resembles vegetable matter, but mostly I manage to balance things out such that that doesn't happen.)

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