"Comfort Food" recipes

[Etoile]

What really takes the edge off? Something your mom or grandma made? Something you came up with? Something totally horrible for you?

For me, the ultimate comfort food is my mom's Tuna Macaroni Salad. It's heaven in a bowl. I know it's not glamorous, but wowza. The ingredients cannot be changed, it must have each thing or it's just not right!

Mama's Tuna Macaroni

1 box elbow macaroni, cooked & chilled
1 can white albacore tuna
5 radishes, diced
1/2 yellow or white onion, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
4 hardboiled eggs, diced
1/2 cup or more Hellman's Mayonnaise (or Duke's I hear is good too)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne or ground hot red pepper

You can dice the vegetables one by one in a food processor, magic bullet, press-chopper or crank-chopping machine if you'd rather. Mix all ingredients and use enough mayo to make it good! Add salt, pepper and cayenne to taste (the cayenne adds just a little bite). Best served with love in a big old melamine or Tupperware bowl.

[ee_chick]

Homemade Mac & Cheese is my ultimate comfort food. My mom made it often, and it's still my sis's all time favorite dish. It's not fancy, but it's sooo good. :)

Cook 1 lb large elbow macaroni in salted boiling water until al dente. While cooking, make the sauce. Melt 5 Tb butter until foaming. Add 6 Tb flour, 1.5 tsp dried mustard, dash of cayenne. Cook a couple of minutes, stirring constanly. Gradually whisk in 5 c milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium, stir occasionally until thickened. Take off the heat and add 1/2 lb shredded cheddar and 1/2 lb shredded Monterey Jack. Stir until thoroughly melted. Salt to taste. Add drained pasta. Top with your choice of topping (Ritz crackers are a childhood favorite, but I also use butter & breadrumbs, seasoned as desired. I like a clove of roasted garlic in there. Yum) Put in a casserole dish and cook for about half an hour, until browned and bubbling.

[tenofcups]

What is it about macaroni that's so comforting? ;) It's in my favorite comfort food too!

Mine is "odd" if you haven't grown up with it. Growing up, we always called it "luckshun" and cheese--and that's a completely phonetic spelling of the Yiddish word for macaroni. It's just cooked macaroni in salted water, add some butter, and mix with cottage cheese. Yes, cottage cheese!

I must have been in high school before I realized that was not other people meant when they said "macaroni and cheese." For a while, then, I thought it was a Jewish food. But I've asked too many Jews who have never heard of it. Then I thought maybe it was a New York thing. But nope. I did, however, have ONE friend who grew up Jewish in New York (where my mother is from) and she knew it, loved it, and ate it the same way we did/do -- when you're tired and cranky and just need something familiar and comforting.

[dragonfly28602]

I go through stages... Right now the food most comforting to me is homemade garlic bread. I take a couple good slices of bread and mix up some unsalted butter and crushed garlic together. Spread it on the bread and add some cayanne pepper, a dash of garlic salt, a sprinkiling of mozaralla cheese and a couple dashes of parsley. I toast the bread till the edges are brown and the cheese is bubbly and meltedy... YUMMY.

But if I need a meal its normally something pasta like spaghetti bolognase, or fettuchini alfredo. Gotta have the carbs.

[Amuse Bouche]

I love beef stew, especially in the winter. And buttered toast. Toast is one of those great inventions, and buttered toast is pure comfort food.

[mrsfromage]

tenofcups, re: the macaroni and cottage cheese, I am Jewish and had never heard of such a thing, but an ex-boyfriend also Jewish used to eat it all the time. He was from NYC so clearly there are some other NY Jews eating it today! I always thought it was weird but maybe it's good...

[tenofcups]

I always thought it was weird but maybe it's good...

;) I've never known anyone who didn't grow up with it to like it, but those of us who grew up with it seem to find it the perfect comfort food. To his credit, FH did try it once--took a bite, said something like "uh-huh" and hasn't expressed any interest in trying it again.