I might point out that you might be getting SAD (seasonal affective disorder - which I definitely have!) because it's only 10/23 and it's already time to turn on the heat - unless you are unusually hearty viking types. It's also starting to get dark at dinner time which is kinda sucky too.

But, lets see...happy foods? Jamaican patties, knishes (good ones), crisp spring rolls and thai lettuce wraps get my vote. I think maybe anything you eat with your hands and out of the house could be happy foods.

EL, Joyce W is quite right, and you are not alone. One friend gets through the dark months with the help of a special lamp every morning. Personally, I prefer a trip to the Caribbean along around January ...

I think Joyce is on to something..its more about where you eat it than what you are eating. For me its smoked turkey legs at the Rennisance (sp)Festival. Any other time of the year, turkey legs are just a big sloppy, boney mess.

And then there's food that is happy...or scary...you decide.

Help me...help me...

Fried chicken eaten from the bone without tableware and watermelon eaten from the rind. I hate winter too. I had thought it was the holiday season that got on my nerves but in reality I enjoy the holidays; it is the grayness of autumn and winter that gets to me.

Wattamelon is happy food...in July

especially when you "wash" somebodies face with the rind!!!

Happy foods? Foods that make me really happy are sashimi and raw kibbe. My theory is that they feed the inner barbarian.

Funnel cake - definite happy food.

There is no sun, there is no happy.

Joyce W. - it could be worse. I slipped on ice in the parking lot this morning. I kept my balance and didn't fall, but there was ice and I was caught unaware.

I have to think about Happy Food. (Shouldn't Happy Food be capitalized? Mr. McIntyre? I mean, it is a particular person, place or food.)

Happy food... umm, let's see. I think latkes are a happy food. They make me happy, anyway, even though I wind up smelling like oil and onions whenever I make them. I know we let out candy but I have to say Pez. Moreso than any other normal candy that just says "happy food" to me.

You are absolutely right. Candy is allowed if you can make a good case for it, like Pez. EL

French toast and bacon for supper because my Mom would make it when my Dad was traveling.

Deep Fried Twinkies are Happy Food, I think. As is a deep-fried Snickers bar, although that may fall under the candy exclusion.

If we can make a case for a candy, I want to nominate Pop Rocks.

Bucky - I slipped on the ice once when my son was a baby. I just put him into his carseat and was walking around the back of the car when PLOP! Right on my butt! For a minute I just sat there and thought "did I break anything?" then I got up and went on with my day but I had a big ole bruise on my butt that really hurt for a long time!

I think it's going to be a long winter everybody!

Candy corn can be a Happy Food. You only see/get it around Halloween. With my last pistachio shipment, they sent me some candy corn pumpkins for free. Little pumpkins that taste just like candy corn. Yum! I'm doling them out to myself slowly so they'll last.

Flavored milk is a Happy Food.

Happy foods: mangoes, oranges....fruits in general I suppose.Ceviche, clams

Fun foods: peanuts, deviled eggs, fried pickles, calamari

Comfort foods: black beans, spicy scallop handroll, hot and sour soup, squash, sweet potatoes

Putting Bugles on your fingertips to make witch hands

omg wrote: Putting Bugles on your fingertips to make witch hands

That's a good one that made me flash on one of the Happiest Foods: black-olives-on-your-fingertips, a Bucky Family Tradition at Thanksgiving dinner.

Well, for two of us, anyway.

Guilty Pleasure Confession:

As a very young kid, I used to take Bugles and scoop mayo out of the jar and eat them. Probably why I have a cholesterol problem now.

Its been a LONG time since I did that.

Hey,
might flying nanando be our Owl?

Owl - bugles on fingertips - too funny! Forgot all about doing that! I laughed out loud when I saw that one!

Lissa - for a minute I read your post as "kibble". That gave me pause!

Sloth - definitely Pez. If for no other reason than reminding me of that funny Seinfeld episode with the Pez dispenser.

Putting Bugles on your fingertips to make witch hands

Someone I know (I'm not saying who) has been known to put the cages (don't know what they're called) from around champagne bottle corks onto his nose.

might flying nanando be our Owl?

not my food list. even typing anything about hard boiled eggs disgusts me.

My happy food is pizza como un panino. which translates to "pizza like a sandwich". This is how I always got my pizza served to go when in Rome. Two fair sized square pieces shoved together so the cheeses are kissing then wrapped in a bit of paper at the bottom so it is easily held. The olive oil would drip through all over your hands and I wouldn't even care cause it tasted that good :)

What about Pringles to make a duckbill!!!

Methinks all of you are mistaking "happy" and "food" as an entity.

Could "happy food" mean "comfort food"?

Is one person's happy food be another's sad food?

What makes a food happy?

Joyce, it is my brother who ate kibble, and only cat kibble. My mother discovered this when, one day at the grocery store, she wondered out loud what flavour of cat kibble to get Amy, our tom cat.

"Doesn't matter. They all taste the same."

Lissa--eeeuuuw!

Bucky, our family had the olives on the fingers Thanksgiving tradition, too.

Well, Lissa, from out "non foods" topic recently, there's certainly worse!

Trixie - YES, the duck bill with Pringle chips too!

Anybody else line their mouths with peas and do the "pea" smile?

Joyce Hated veggies as a kid, but do it all the time now...maybe that's why the wait staff seem to "avoid" my table

Some of us should go out to dinner and put olives on the fingers of one hand, bugels on the fingers of the other hand, peas in our smiles, Pringles in our lips and then ask for split checks.

What fun we would have.

Bucky,
After, of course, a few rounds of rye. By the way, just like Mr. Pretzel, I have been a long time reader, but first time blogger...Hope you all don't mind that I join in on the fun!

My favorite fun food as a kid were those "orange" slices made of candy (I know this is supposed to be off-limits here).
They made for a spectacular Jack-o-lantern grin.

Trixie and Mr. Pretzel, you are both welcome. I used to be lowest on the Sandbox seniority list, but I'm climbing. So if EL does a "redesign" that results in lay-offs, you go before I.

(I'm trusting that both of you are who you say you are. If you are raptors, Girls or Roberts in disguise, then I've been fooled once again.)

Bucky,
As a Robert in (I hope) good standing, I believe your position is safe, given the amount and quality of your postings. We've come to enjoy your ruminations on the blog.

--take that Mr. McIntyre!

I wonder how many "long-time readers but still-not-a-first-time-blogger's"--like our new friends Mr. Pretzel and Trixie--there are out there?

Hmmm...

Bucky, you just know that McIntyre is one of them. That much propriety belies a secret identity (did I use that word right?). I could see him sitting in his study in his red leather jumpsuit blasting Megadeth, banging shots of mezcal and bashing out SPRINGS1 comments on his keyboard.