Kiddy Comfort Food?

by Frannie Banannie 27 Replies latest jw friends

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  talesin

  Hey, insomniac,,, the boiled dinner is one of mine too, only we use American Plate corned beef and cabbage, with the potatoes, carrots and onions thrown in. As someone else said, too, macaroni and cheese. Oh, heavenly!

  A 'down-east' dish, and one of my absolute favorites, is salt cod and pork scraps. You boil off the cod. Fry the pork fat till crispy, add sliced onions and saute. Make a bearnaise sauce. Then serve it up with mashed potatoes, pour the sauce on the cod and potatoes, and top it all with the crispy pork fat bits and sauteed onions ... mmmmmmm.

  My two grandmothers played a big part in my life. Grammy always had a pot of strong tea on the stove ... a cup of tea means I'm home. My other grandmother and I always had a couple of softboiled eggs with lots of butter and black pepper, tea you could 'stand a spoon up in' with evaporated milk.

  When I was sick, it was Campbell's tomato soup, with lots of saltines crushed up in it ...

  And the best, and final of the comfort foods,,,, chocolate, of course! We didn't have much money, so a chocolate bar was a real treat. Even now, when I'm feeling bad, chocolate does the trick.

  tal
• 

  GentlyFeral

  And I totally forgot my grandmother's ritual feast that she made us two or three times a year:

  • Swedish meatballs
  • rye bread and sharp cheddar
  • (some kind of potatoes, I think)
  • Swedish fruit soup: not a milk-and-fruit purée, but a kind of dilute stew of prunes and apricots and peaches and large tapioca, laced with home-preserved tart cherries. Another thing I can't eat now, dammit.

  gently feral

  Totally forgot to add the RICE PUDDING! The fruit soup, though sweet and flavorful, was part of the DINNER. Rice pudding was dessert.
• 

  Frannie Banannie

  Oh, and Creamsicles

  refrigerated biscuit dough deep fried and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar

  Rebel8, I remember those! We used to hound our parents for nickels and dimes so we could meet the icecream truck when it came ting-a-ling-ing down our street. My fav was those "nutty buddy's" I think it's a waffle cone with a scoop of vanilla, covered with a chocolate shell w/peanut chips.

  Ohhh...and I forgot my grandmother! ; She used to make these thick homemade noodles with chicken and gravy over lumpy mashed potatoes. ; Man, I forgot about that.

  Stop that, Billygoat! LOL! (mind starts wandering into the fridge and cabinets) That reminds me. There were two things my Mom made that I could NOT duplicate and I can duplicate everything else she cooked. Those two were her homemade dumplings (like really thick noodles) and her homemade (from scratch) pecan pie. I never could conquer those.

  Frannie
• 

  Frannie Banannie

  My Swedish stepfather used to make a spaghetti sauce that would have passed muster in any household in Italy, I'm sure. He started with Contadina tomato paste, fresh Roma tomatoes and a couple of heads, not cloves, of garlic. Somewhere in there he fried up a couple of pounds of Italian fennel sausage. He would add more garlic as needed. Over the course of eight hours, a miracle occurred and produced about a gallon of deliciousness – thick, bright red, and bright-flavored, too. It hit ALL the right flavor spots.
  
  Today I can approximate it with Classico spaghetti sauce fortified with fennel sausage and extra garlic, but it's still not quite the same.
  
  My (French/Scots/Irish) mother made killer enchiladas, too – never with ground meat, as I remember; usually chicken. She drenched them with either Old El Paso or El Tapatio canned enchilada sauce before baking.
  
  Oh, and my mother's turkey stuffing! Take sage, onions, and a pan of cornbread; fry up a couple of pounds of little link sausages, drain, break up the sausage and cornbread and mix everything together. She also made cowboy cake for Sunday breakfast - it's a spice cake baked in a pie plate and topped with a spiced streusel.
  
  Store food: Kraft macaroni and cheese; ham sandwiches – made with mayonnaise, not Miracle Whip or butter!

  That reminds me, GentlyFeral. Paul Newman's Sockarooni sauce is close to my Italian g/mom's, but mine's better...heheheh.

  My Aunt (from Mexico City) taught Mom how to make hot tamales and enchiladas homemade, so every family b'day was celebrated with a huge Mexican food feast! My daughter socked down a WHOLE DOZEN hot tamales when she was 13 mos. old!

  My Mom's cornbread dressing w/giblet gravy was so moist and good that my bro-in-law would take my sis and kids to his parents house for Thanksgiving dinner, then stop by our parents house on the way home and eat all the dressing that was leftover...

  I love mac and cheese most ways, but Mom's was custardy and cheesy without the cheese overwhelming it. And I'm with ya on that MAYO, GF. I hate Miracle Whip. All it is is mayo with horseradish and sugar in it.

  Grammy always had a pot of strong tea on the stove ... a cup of tea means I'm home.

  Talesin, that comment about the corned beef and cabbage reminded me. When I lived in Dallas someone up there taught me to fry the cabbage in butter until it's scorched. Deeee-licious! And that tea comment reminded me of my Mexican aunt. She used to boil cinnamon sticks in water until it brewed a cinnamon "tea". She added sugar and milk and called it carmella. It was soooooooo goooood. We all loved it.

  
  Frannie
• 

  talesin

  OMG,,, fried bread dough!!! Another one of my grammie's (and mom's) things to make for a treat.

  After the first rising, take pieces of dough and stretch it, fry in hot fat like a pancake, and serve with butter and molasses. It puffs up and is all crusty on the outside.

  Another 'extra' bread dough or pie dough thing mom used to do... stretch/roll out the dough, slather with butter, sprinkle with dark brown sugar and cinnamon, roll it up, slice and make cinnamon rolls.

  t <----- 'cause I can't eat them anymore (wheat).
• 

  Elsewhere

  LOL, Else! What other options did you have? Was there something else YOU could have fixed for your lunch, if you had a mind to?

  Hell, ANYTHING other than a peanut butter sandwich, a banana and a pickle. That was just nasty.
• 

  talesin

  Oh, GF, you just reminded me with yr comment about rice pudding.

  Bread pudding.... made with butter and those big Sultana raisins,,, served warm with cream poured on it ...

  Hey, poor folks really know how to do comfort food, don't they?

  tal
• 

  Billygoat

  talesin,

  I'm allergic to wheat too. It stinks! It keeps so many things out of my diet. But then again I keep a lot thinner that way. Most gluten-free stuff I've eaten are pretty gross. Lately I've discovered some things that I've that are really good. Do you have a Whole Foods in your neighborhood? They have gluten-free items that are REALLY fabulous. Sandwich bread, peanut butter cookies, corn bread, chocolate chip cookies (to die for!), poppyseed cake with lemon icing, and other stuff. Here is the link:

  http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/products/bakery/gf_bakehouse.html

  They might ship something to you if you aren't in the area of one. Or if you come to Dallas to visit, I'll run you buy there.

  Andi

  Edited to add: Oops! I just realized you live in the UK...sorry.