Thursday, December 11, 2008

Comfort Food

These biscuits are really, really good.

Alton Brown also make a very good, very authentic chicken fried steak. 

As most of you know, I am a total cake addict, so I can't wait to try this recipe for yellow cake from Bakerella. (Thanks to Megan of notmartha.org for alerting me to this.)

But the hands-down, be all, end all of comfort food recipe is Ruth Reichl's Macaroni and Cheese. Do me a favor and make this recipe exactly the way it's written the first time you try it. You can add things or leave things out if you want the second time you make it, but just once, make it the way Ruth intended. I promise, you'll be glad you did.

What do you crave when you're feeling blue? Hook me up with your favorites please.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm Chinese, not sure that this is really needed but whatever. My comfort food is Chinese food, which can be hard to find in small town Illinois. That and trying to be money conscious, I like to make my quick and dirty fried rice for comfort. It's important to make the following 2 things separately. Scramble up some eggs with a bit of salt, when they are almost done, take it out of the pan. Next, dump some frozen spinach (no need to defrost) into the same pan. Take it out when it's almost done. Then put some oil in the pan. When it's nice and hot, throw in some already cooked rice (preferably not the American kind - sorry, rice snob here) and heat up/fry the rice a bit with some salt. Finally put the eggs and spinach back in until everything is cooked and the liquid from the spinach has cooked off. Enjoy until those blues fade away.

Anonymous said...

Garlic homemade mashed potatoes. Yum. They make everything better.

Anonymous said...

Shepard's Pie! Now that's comforting. The kind with grilled hamburger with onions on the bottom layer, then a layer that's a can of cream corn and maybe a can of regular corn (whatever looks right), topped with mashed potatoes. Nowadays, I'd top it with a light layer of panko.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and cream corn casserole! Love that. There are recipes all over the place but I love the one that includes a box of Jiffy corn mix, sour cream and/or cream cheese.

Shephard's Pie and cream corn casserole. They just make me feel good.

|chee-uh| said...

I'm a rice snob too. I keep 4 or 5 different rices in my pantry, including good old Uncle Ben's and my staple Chinese short grain.
Alton brown has a good chocolate chip cookie. I love me some Buttermilk drop biscuits too or dumplings (both American and Chinese).

Anonymous said...

Well, that yellow cake sounds good, but I'd still go for my grandmother's recipe--her yellow cake/chocolate frosting recipe is legendary in our family and is forever known as Grandma Cake. I can't remember the last birthday that I did NOT bake this for! But, yeah, yellow cake is definitely comfort food. (And all Alton Brown's recipes are good.)

For mac and cheese, would you be shocked to know that my very favorite kind is simply elbow macaroni, mixed with a package of Velveeta with a little milk, and then baked for 15 minutes? It's one of the very few "fake" foods that I actually prefer to real, wholesome, not-overly-processed foods. (That, and Log Cabin pancake syrup over the real stuff--don't ask me why.)

Okay--as to other comfort food? I drink tea (black tea, with milk and sugar). Anything sweet and snackish on the side--cookies, pastries, cake, pie ... cinnamon rolls. I tend to go for sweets when I need comfort, though meals like pot roast or a big bowl of homemade soup (which I NEVER get) is good.

Definitely something hot, though--for some reason, I find that more comforting than cold things like ice cream. Even when feeling deeply distressed, having something warm in my tummy helps, just a little bit.

Turtle said...

i'm a basic mashed potato and gravy girl! (or thai tom yum soup xtra spicy!)

KnittingBlueContent said...

It's so weird that you posted a homemade Mac & Cheese recipe on the day I bought a Craft Mac & Cheese box (after a bazillion years) because I just "craved" the comfort of it from my youth.

I'm going to eat my box of it and then go buy the ingredients to make the one you posted. Panko? Are you kidding me? I am SO there!

At our house, the hands-down favorite of comfort food is Chicken & Dumplings. Sorry I don't have a recipe to link on this one.

Just chicken. Sauteed with whatever spices float your boat and a splash of broth. Spicy? Piquant? Mild? That part is up to you and your personal taste.

Get the vegetables and broth of choice (vegetable or chicken) going in a good-sized pot, with the harder to cook ones in first - carrots, then potatoes, then mushrooms (of your favorite variety) and finally an onion (again, of your favorite variety).

Prep the dumplings based on the Bisquick box. As the pot of vegetables are close to done, throw the chicken in the pot first, then the dumpling balls next, and turn down the heat once the dumplings start to "fluff".

Ree's Pioneer Woman recipes have helped me just relax in my own kitchen. She makes culinary expertise look effortless, doesn't she?!

Proof positive that Butter makes all things better :grin:

Here's to Comfort Food in times of needed Comfort. Hugs to you.

Ellen said...

I haven't had this in years, but whenever I was recuperating from a stomach virus, my mom always made me "lukshen" (noodles) and cottage cheese, with butter and cinnamon. That was a culinary hug, for sure.

Recently my comfort food is Ellie Krieger's meatballs and spaghetti with Ina Garten's garlic bread. The garlic bread is the best recipe ever!

Sending you comfort and hugs.

Anonymous said...

Cinnamon Toast - good bread lightly toasted, smothered with too much butter, topped with a generous amount of cinnamon sugar, then pop it back in the toaster oven for a moment or two to reheat and melt the sugar a bit. Yummy!
Think I'll make some now!

Anonymous said...

Biscuits - This is the biscuit recipe that has been handed down in our family for generations; however, for shortening we use lard. Also here is a tip so that your biscuits don't dry out - as sson as they are brown on the bottom, turn on the broiler to finish the tops.