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
Ellen Clifford
As I am a vegetarian I feel odd saying this but the first dish I feel feeling like was expressly made to soothe me by my mom was corned beef hash. When is basically potatoes and corned beef. The second? Steak wirh bermaise saucw by I still am all about sauce. The comfort dish that stick?! The original nestle till house chocolate chip recipe. Always the best…
Liz H.
I must maintain my extremely low sodium diet 700mg -1g per day, but sometimes…. My comfort food:
1. Spicy Italian Sausage & Mushroom pizza delivery. (I won’t be driving for the next 48 hours.)
2. Marshmallows, a bag of: big or small and usually stored in the freezer.
3. The most important: Potatoes! It really doesn’t matter how they are prepared! (Preferably serves with traditional Russian Beef & Mushroom Stroganoff!)
Jennifer
Gingerbread. In fact, I just made it last night. Not a cake-like gingerbread but a dense one made in a jellyroll pan. My mom got the recipe from a living history museum years and years ago and now I make it for my kids. It is the taste of my childhood. Also, linguine with chicken and a lemony, garlic sauce with tons and tons of parmesan cheese.
Jill
Popcorn. It’s crunchy, salty, hopefully a bit greasy…bonus points for a bit stale. I can make an enormous bowl and mindlessly munch while trying to pretend this is all normal right now…
Laura Olinger
Any kind of dish that has lots of rnoodles, veggies, and a really decadent peanut sauce. And also freshly baked brownies topped with ice cream. We’ve got a richness theme here.
Greg
Soup, preferably something thick and stew-like: my mom’s chicken corn soup with rivels, and her ham and navy bean soup. Running a close second are noodles with stuff: my wife’s chicken spaghetti, her Asian pork and noodles, and my garlic pasta.
Maris
Greg, can you and your wife come live with me? Yum!
Leslie
Biscuits and sausage gravy! And sometimes a biscuit with homemade jelly, usually made from muscadines, the native grape that grows in south Alabama or if I’m lucky mayhaw jelly. It’s hard to get the mayhaw fruit before the deer and birds.
Adrienne from Atlanta
Grilled cheese. Made with challah and the sharpest cheddar and only good, real butter. Heaven.
Also, any sort of ricotta laden pasta is high on my cravings list.
I guess my answer should’ve just been cheese, eh? :))
On the sweet side, fudgy brownies are always a winner. (The Kroger store brand box mix is actually amazing when I don’t feel like doing all the measuring for my scratch recipe.)
Stay safe, Joy.
Jana Hoffman
Custard. All the custard. The existence of custard type recipes in cuisines around the world (pretty much wherever they use dairy and egg) is proof that God loves his children. It is also my love language.
Tapioca, rice pudding, creme brulee, pastry cream, bread pudding, rich ice cream, those sprinkle speckled slightly plasticy holiday pies they used to have at McDonald’s, you name it.
Something about the combo of milk, sugar, and eggs makes magic.
Taste of France
I’d say brownies. When I was in the Peace Corps in Africa, I jury-rigged an oven and managed to bake brownies when I was homesick. I’d share them with the neighbor kids, who would dance and sing my name and “chocolati.” Talk about comfort.
On the savory side, it would be potato salad, with lots of onion and mustard and chopped up pickles, because it was my mom’s recipe that she made for everything and I miss her.
Good luck with the flooding. We narrowly escaped high water earlier this year and the thundering rage of the river was terrifying. I hope we learn the lesson to stop pumping carbon into the atmosphere.
Jennifer
Ohhhh… homemade mac n’ cheese with (admittedly awful) velveeta thrown in… along with some milk, butter, and cheddar cheese. Almost any kind of pizza. Chocolate chip cookies. Molasses cookies. Brownies with chocolate chips. Creme Brulee. Cheesecake. Pancakes with butter and syrup. A hot mug of excellent coffee with half and half and a nice flavor (caramel, vanilla, cinnamon, whatever). A hot, strong cup of black tea with milk and a bit of sweetener.
Kat
I’m with you Jenn, homemade mac n cheese and yes, you must use Velvetta (along with some other real cheese to fancy it up)
Lee
Risotto; partly because eating it is so comforting, and partly because making it is so soothing.
Also, fresh pasta (not homemade) cooked and then some pesto (from a jar), cream or goats cheese (add parmesan if you can be bothered to grate), maybe a splash of white wine and balsamic vinegar stirred through it. Also insanely comforting to eat, and can be made in less than 10 minutes (we actually call this ‘quick pasta’).
Rachel
Ooh, is this for a new book? And Kinchee Fried Rice, every time.
Constance
Mashed potatoes. Simple- Yukon Golds, boiled, and mashed by hand, unsalted butter, half & half, salt, and freshly ground black pepper. Not too stiff, just-right creamy. Lifts my spirits, every time.
You truly are a Joy, I enjoy your posts so much. I make your food. Thank you for your sweetness, caring, and down-to-earth personality.
Eileen
My go-to comfort food is any kind of custard….be it flan, creme caramel, plain egg custard or custard pie. Tapioca will fit the bill if custard isn’t available.
Love your posts!!
Eileen
dirtgirl
Sounds like Eileen & I could have a giant ‘anything custard’ party. I was brought up in UK and Mum just made the best desserts for us 5 kids, custard, rice pudding, tapioca, sago, semolina. I still to this day just adore those type of desserts and happily make up a saucepan full that only I eat!
Jana Hoffman
I just saw this after I posted my comment. Can I come to the party too? Yay!
Trevor M.
Two foods that ALWAYS pick me up when I’m feeling kinda ‘blah’: 1) Chocolate chip cookies baked to that precise moment when they just melt on your tongue but hold their shape in your hand; and 2) if I have the time, a good rack of ribs or pork butt smoked all day. Except for my wife and kids, nothing brings me greater joy than building a fire and maintaining it all day in order to see smiles on the faces of those who eat something that was hours on the making.