Are you having the January doldrums?

I'm not sure if I am or not. 
But, last night, after having a lovely long and chatty phone conversation with a dear friend while mindlessly eating chocolate covered macaroons, I think I might be catching a case of them......

Ah...the power of food!  

Typically, I try to stay clear of all the drama of being down and out of sorts just because it's a certain month or a certain date or a certain time of the year or certain event or.........you get the picture. 
I work pretty hard at finding the silver lining or at the very least suppressing whatever feelings I am feeling that I don't especially like feeling.  
But, sometimes it just happens.
Enter those amazing chocolate covered macaroons that I put in my basement out-of-sight-out-of-mind freezer after Christmas to keep them out of my grubby little chocolate covered macaroon loving hands.  Add that to a weekend of  an over abundance of  empty nest cooking to comfort me and Houston, we've got a problem. 
You see, this past weekend, I cooked enough different recipes and food to open a bustling little bistro for a week.  I do this type of thing when the empty nesting blues start to hit me.  Being that my sorority girl returned to college this past Friday, I was in a very high state of empty nesting blues.  
For the record....as many of my blog readers know....it's not only empty nesting blues that send me into the kitchen....it's anytime I need comfort. 
Anyway.....
 My upstairs freezer was filled to the max with all of my regular everyday excess so I had to resort to that basement freezer to stow away my concoctions.  That freezer was already loaded with my last foray into comfort cooking along with a hefty supply of mussels, shrimp, scallops and salmon as well as 2 hams, 1 small turkey breast, two packages of steaks, 3 pounds of hot Italian sausage, a few containers of different sauces, 2 containers of potato soup, I vat of French onion soup and last but not least--three trays of those chocolate covered macaroons.  Something had to come out so I could jam  the new inventory from my most recent day of comfort cooking into the freezer.  
The least problematic thing to take out seemed to be the chocolate covered macaroons....as I am sure you would agree.
Then came the phone call.....
So, I made myself a nice mug of hot tea and curled up on the couch and settled in for a long winter's chat session.
Every so often, I'd make my way into the kitchen to heat up my tea.  And grab a chocolate covered macaroon. 
No, not once.  Not twice.  Not even three times.   I think it was something like.....8 times. 
If I recall correctly, during one of  those trips, I might have grabbed more than one of those macaroons!
Hey....it was a three hour phone call....
A dozen chocolate covered macaroons later......we bid each other good-bye, blowing kisses across the miles.  As I hung up, I smiled at my blessing of having such a wonderful friend who I have not talked to in months or seen in years but yet we can pick up right where we left off.
I was happy.  Content.  I think I might have been feeling JOY.  
And, then, I spied the empty tray of chocolate covered macaroons.   
Soon, I felt them careening through my body.
It was all downhill from there.

This morning, after a fitful night sleep--most likely due to that dozen of chocolate covered macaroons, I woke up with a headache, a stomach ache and a feeling of misery and a strong distaste for the cold, the snow and all that goes along with it.  I pulled the covers over my head and heaved deeply at the thought of having to deal with any more winter, any more snow, any more ice, any more white-knuckled driving and any more days that end in exhaustion.   Not even the thought of wearing a great outfit or a favorite lip color could cheer me up.  It was winter, it was cold, I had ate an entire dozen of chocolate covered macaroons and I felt absolutely lousy.
Now, I am left to wonder----was it the chocolate covered macaroons with all their sugar and fat that is giving me these January doldrums or am I just really frightened by the fact that I might just be falling into a trap of over eating without even knowing it?   
Or, have I discovered a new strain of the flu......the CCM flu? 
(get it?...CCM=Chocolate Covered Macaroon) 

Okay then......off to find the silver lining.  
I don't look pretty when I have the doldrums.