I haven’t seen as many posts about cookie baking this year as I usually do around the holidays. Maybe it’s the algorithm that social media has forced on me but again it could be the inflationary cost of sugar and the lack of decent butter. I know that I had to resort to Amazon to get the candied fruit for my dad’s annual “applesauce cake” (we can’t call it fruitcake, it’s an applesauce cake because nobody would eat a fruitcake).
Around the holidays there are comfort foods that I make and long for – Mimi’s cookies (which I make with butter not Crisco). Mama’s Peppermint Marshmallow Pie that no one else likes so I don’t make it anymore.
My husband wants to make a proper Victorian mincemeat if he can source suet.
Thanksgiving this year made me realize that turkey soup is a comfort food. I’m not even talking good turkey soup. I’m talking the over cooked bone broth, mushy potatoes and carrots that Mama used to make. That and the turkey sandwiches with Miracle Whip and cranberry sauce that my dad did before becoming vegetarian. Although Miracle Whip doesn’t have the same texture it did when I was a child. Something in it has changed it’s more goopy and sticky, not as smooth.
I remember someone telling me that tomato soup and grilled cheese was a comfort food because their father would never let them eat it. They only had it when they were home alone with mom. As an adult she once asked her father why he wouldn’t let them eat it. To him it was poverty food and reminded him of growing up with nothing else available for supper. He had determined to always provide better for his family. Knowing that about her dad made it even more comforting.
The two meals that my grandfather would never allow served were stuffed bell peppers and Navy bean soup. He said bell peppers gave him gas and he had eaten a lifetime’s worth of bean soup in the Navy and he never wanted to eat it again.
Speaking of never eating something because of the military, my husband came back from TDY and announced that there would never be Chicken ala King on our table. For 2 weeks straight 3 meals a day his unit had been served the Chicken ala King MRE. If he never ate it again it would be too soon. So I have never fixed chicken ala King for my kids.
Just so you know, some of the other comfort meals for me are corned beef or tuna gravy (commonly known as S**t on a shingle), creamed peas and potatoes, mujadara, and S&B Mild Curry Roux with potatoes, carrots and peas over rice.
As long as the mujadara is eaten with rice, they’re all high carb foods which makes sense as carbs help the brain release serotonin and that makes you feel better. Do you have any comfort foods that aren’t heavy in carbs? What are they?
Just So you Know 