Hello friends!
I need your help with two things! Truth be told, I need your help with a lot more than two things but we’ll keep it simple today.
First thing: Sometimes the world is so sideways and unexpected that it’s hard to come here and just be like… hey guys- BROWNIES, and then move right along with life. You know what I’m saying? These days down South have left so many people in need, have left so many people suffering, and feeling tender and frightened and in need of comforts- basic and otherwise.
By now you’ve heard about the immense, devastating flooding in Houston and Louisiana and, really… it’s 100% nuts and we 100% need to help. This gathering from the NYT feels like a solid list of local and national agencies that need support and assistance: Where To Donate To Harvey Victims. Please consider it.
We’re in this together, whether we feel like it or not… and we need each other. Good Lordy don’t we.
Second thing: I’ve been thinking a lot about comfort – specifically comfort FOOD. Of course, when times feel furious and unpredictable the first thing on my mind is personal safety, then… bagels and cheese pasta and pizza and potato and bacon tacos.
Comfort food is universal, we all have a thing our bodies yearn for in times of stress. But while most of us experience the desire for comfort food, what we yearn for is often so different.
So… as I’m spinning a new project around in my mind, I’d like to ask you: What is your go-to comfort food? Sweet or savory. The more specific the better.
Mine? Anything salty and carby. In fact, with all of these comfort food thoughts running through my mind, I’m making this One-Pot French Onion Pasta for dinner this week. Or maybe a Double Crust Chicken Pot Pie. The possibilities, the carbs are endless.
More food for thought: Why Comfort Food Comforts.
One more thought about food: try these Chocolate Pecan Oatmeal Cookies.
Thank you for taking the time. It means a lot to me! I can’t wait to read your comments below.
xo Joy
342 Responses
Simple white sauce scalloped potatoes. The fanciest I ever go beyond that is adding a layer or caramelized onions or some garlic, but most often it’s very basic and straightforward. Any leftovers get put in the fridge, then I grab the baking dish and a spoon and scrape off all the browned parts that stuck to the dish and eat them, very unladylike on the sofa. Bliss and comfort.
Chicken pot pie, grilled cheese and tomato soup (has to be the thin kind, for dunking), southern style chicken and dumplings (with the rolled out dumplings dropped into boiling broth, rather than the biscuit-like sit-on-top dumplings)…chili (with beans), potato cheese soup (with celery salt)… I may be thinking all soupy things because I just had a lot of dental work or because it’s the beginning of fall:)
Poppy-seed challah bread, with lots of butter and a little sea salt sprinkled on top
Other than that, does wine count?
wow, you have had a lot of replies! i’ve loved reading them.
okay, my comfort food is (and i apologize, because i generally don’t like to recommend brands…) Progresso brand minestrone soup. always and forever, *knocking on wood*. my mother is actually a really excellent home cook, and made most of our dinners – but sometimes she worked late, or was too busy, or we were camping – it’s the best camping food!!! unless you’re backpacking – or i was “cooking” my own lunch. i sometimes even spent my allowance money on these cans of soup. (!!!)
i remember when they changed the recipe, it must have been in the mid-nineties? it was earth-shattering. they… modernized it? the flavor was a bit less processed, if that can be said about a canned soup, and they changed the noodles from macaroni to penne. i was scandalized, and literally went from one grocery store to the next, buying the few cans of the old version that they still had left on the shelves. yep, crazy person.
however, it was still my ProgMin, and i learned to love the newer version. it is still my go-to: i eat it when i’m sick, when i’m hungover, when i’m at a loss for what to eat when i’m busy/preoccupied/sad/distracted. that’s what i call a comfort food.
i also live in NOLA, and i feel so much for what has been going on not just here in the gulf, but also florida and the caribbean. thanks for mentioning how crazy it is.
miso soup. soft-boiled eggs on buttery toast. homemade chicken noodle soup. fresh-out-of-the-oven-still-melty chocolate chip cookies (always). summer-fresh-off-the-vine tomatoes with a little salt. my sweetie’s french roast coffee with muscovado sugar and heavy cream (yes!).
Fresh white bread, still warm from the oven, with a big smear of butter and heavy sprinkling of sugar. Takes me back to being a kid and eating this on my aunt’s porch.
Also, chili with cornbread. Beef stroganoff. Any citrus fruit (the whole process of peeling, segmenting, and slowly eating it is just soothing).
Soupy mashed potatoes are a favorite comfort food of mine. You make basic mashed potatoes, put some on a plate and make a well in the middle. Then pour soup over it all like gravy. Preferably scotch broth or oxtail soup made from the Knorr powdered soup packets.
Chili mac: pasta (traditionally spaghetti) topped with chili (these days, vegetarian chili), topped with cheddar cheese. You can make it with other stuff but that’s my default.
There are other comfort foods (ricotta on toast, Thai food delivery, with delivery being an important element) but this is the one true love.
Delivery is often times the most important part.
Anything with Bolognese sauce and a glass of Barbera.
A recipe that was born out of my grandmother’s need to feed five hungry mouths on a teacher’s salary in the seventies: essentially deeply browned onions and sausage cooked with chicken and tomatoes and then baked with slices of french bread on top with LOTS of butter and garlic. It’s the most comforting meal to eat when the winter blues set in.
Red sauce! Preferably cooked for a few hours (on a rainy day so you don’t feel guilty about being inside) with hot Italian sausage (which are cooked to where you can cut ’em with a spoon) and some homemade turkey meatballs dropped in. Over a pile of twisty pasta, on a roll with some broccoli rabe and sharp parm, OR, my fave: eaten straight from the pot after it’s cooked and cooled a bit. Actual heaven.
Chocolate chip cookies. Also, macaroni and cheese!
When I was growing up, Dad made pancakes every Sunday. The entire family would sit around the kitchen table while he flipped pancakes and melted butter with blueberries into the maple syrup. He would cook for all of us–even making a tiny cake for our dog–before sitting down to eat. After breakfast, we would spend the morning reading the newspaper, laughing, and relaxing together amidst the scent of pancakes and my Dad’s coffee. Now, even the smell of pancakes and coffee bring me comforting memories of endless weekend mornings in the company of loved ones. I discovered your blog several years ago when I was a new cook and, flying solo in the world for the first time, was looking for pancake recipes–so thanks!
Ah so lovely! Thank you for sharing this!
Mashed. Potatoes. With an ungodly amount of cream cheese and butter and pepper and salt. Nuff said.
I’m so late to the game, but my mom always made manicotti. Basically, she takes those huge tube shells and stuffs them with a mixture of mozzarella, asiago, parm and ricotta, some fresh herbs if she has them and tops it all with homemade tomato sauce from her garden and bakes it with more cheese on top. YUM! It used to be a birthday and slumber party favorite. As an adult, dairy products cause me pain, but mom’s manicotti is the stuff my dreary day dreams are made of.
My ultimate comfort food is cake. A good moist yellow or vanilla cake topped with chocolate buttercream frosting with some coffee or a glass of milk. Have many comfort foods I like but nothing tops cake for me personally.
Comfort food to me is what my Grandma/mom cook and nobody does it better. Comfort food=happy memories. Chilli, Lasagna, Potato soup, cinnamon buns, gravy, hamburger casserole, and chocolate chip cookies. Often simple to make but extremely tasty.