While making my mother’s recipe for beef stew, I was thinking about what a nice winter meal it is, plus it uses up a lot of root vegetables from our garden, which is great. Beef stew is one of my “comfort foods” meaning it brings back childhood memories, and cooking and eating it gives me comfort. My other comfort foods are roast chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corned beef hash, and custard. Ginger cream cookies and banana cupcakes need to go on my list too, and I can’t forget my mother-in-law’s apple pie and her brisket.
A number of years ago, I invited my work buddies to a “comfort food party.” Guests were to bring foods that they liked to make that brought them comfort. We had chicken in gravy, mashed potatoes, collard greens, probably something chocolate, no doubt a pie, and many more things that I can’t recall. The only other dish I remember was “candle salad” from Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls. Several of us remembered this classic recipe from our childhood. It is half a peeled banana stuck in a canned pineapple ring on a bed of lettuce with a maraschino cherry held on top of the banana with a toothpick. Of course as academics and mature adults, we laughed hysterically as we ate the blatantly phallic salad.
Search your memory bank of home-cooked meals. What are your comfort foods from childhood? What recipes of your own bring comfort?
3 comments:
I had totally forgotten the Candle Salad!! Recently I "rescued" my copy of Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls before my mother decided to dump it. It has the BEST apple crisp recipe in the world!!!! My mother gave me the book when I asked her if you could make a cake without a package mix - she decided it was time I learned to cook. I had to chuckle when I looked at the cake recipe recently - it recommends using a Betty Crocker Cake Mix.
Okay, I have to fess up here. I had actually given away my original worn out copy of Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls to a book sale. Then when I was planning my "comfort food" party and we were all reminiscing, I went out and bought a brand new copy of this 1957 classic. I will definitely try the apple crisp. Thanks for the tip, M.F.
December is the time for comfort. When it's dark at 3:30, you might as well pre-heat the oven! One of my all time favorites, of course, is macaroni and cheese. My daughter-in-law has a great blog about this: http://www.weheartmacandcheese.com/
Someday I'm going to try them all...
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