Comfort foods....

[Tesha]

The post on Velveeta got me thinking the other day.
So when I ran across a recipe for Salisbury Steak... well, I fell for it.

Ground beef was in the freezer, I had enough onions...
add mashed taters and green peas.
The only thing we were missing was the little weird dessert and we would have had a TV dinner!
It was wonderful!

Does winter make you think of comfort food?
and what foods from your history do you find yourself drawn to.
I'd love some ideas to see us through the next few weeks of storms.

[japple]

1. Mac & cheese. The homade kind, with sharp chedder.

Also homemade vegetable soup.

[Tesha]

11. right...

I'd better start a list...:9

[cbayer]

2. I am making one of my favorites for dinner - beef and sour cream burrito smothered

with green chile and cheese. I don't make it as well as my favorite restaurant in Denver, but I try!

:hi:

[Tesha]

12. that sounds good..

how do you make it?

[cbayer]

27. Brown ground beef with onions/garlic. Add spices. Put sour cream in flour tortilla

and top with meat (drained of fat). Fold up. Cover with shredded cheddar or cheese of your choice and green chile. Bake until hot and bubbly at the ends.

Serve with lettuce and tomato on top.

Easy, cheesy and they were fantastically good last night (one left over - can't wait for lunch!)

:hi:

[Tesha]

30. oh gosh...

that DOES sound good...

thank you!

[yellerpup]

3. I like chicken and dumplings with mashed

potatoes, or chicken pot pie with biscuit topping, or pot roast beef and onion gravy, or potato-leek soup, or a pot of spicy chili with crispy tortilla chips and a nice pasta fagioli. Had the urge to do Salisbury steak last week myself and tossed in a raft of mushrooms along with the caramelized onion. It's a great cold weather meal. Stay warm, Tesha!

[Tesha]

15. ah - great ideas!

this has been such a stormy January... and nothing warms like a food from childhood.:hi:

my mom made cornbread - calling it johnny cake - with her chilli.
steam on the windows, snow falling outside and a bowl of something warm... mmmm

[grasswire]

4. a lot of the dishes I would like to have again are just too carby.

Dumplings. Damn. I love dumplings.

But tomorrow I am going to make salmon patties the old way with crushed saltines and canned salmon. It will be a carb hit, but the omega 3 is some compensation, nutritionally.

[Tesha]

16. I loved salmon patties...

but I never have slatines in the house...

Carbs a problem for you? I found this online, would it help?

America's Test Kitchen Dumplings

Stir together in a bowl:

1/2 cup Kevin's flour blend (I used the Carbalose version) http://www6.netrition.com/tova_carbalose_page.html
1/4 cup white whole wheat flour (King Arthur)
1/4 cup regular all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Use the back of a spoon to make sure any almond meal clumps from Kevin's flour are blended well into the mixture.

In a microwave-safe measuring cup, put:

1/2 cup CC milk , whole if you can get it (I didn't have this so I used half cream, half water)
1 and 1/2 Tablespoons chicken fat (skimmed from broth) or unsalted butter
Microwave for 30-35 seconds. Do not overheat. You want it just warm.

Stir the warmed milk/fat into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon and stir till well incorporated.

Have the soup at a gentle simmer before adding dumplings. Use a soup spoon to gather a golf ball -sized portion of dough. Use another spoon to push dough onto soup. Leave a 1/4 inch space between dumplings to allow for expansion. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 15 to 18 minutes. Dumplings will almost double in size.

I got eight dumplings though the recipe said you would get nine. They did not quite double, as indicated, and this is probably due to the LC ingredients. I used a Dutch oven and the eight dumplings pretty much filled it up.

[housewolf]

5. I ALWAYS think of comfort food!

Guess it's what I reallly love the best (after desserts, that is!)

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Tesha]

17. ho yes...

and then there's the desserts...

we should talk about comfort desserts. :rofl:

[GoCubsGo]

6. Winter makes me think of soups and stews.

Soup is usually my dinner this time of year. Lentil, split pea, chicken, cheesy vegetable, black bean. If I can get a deal on pork, I make chili verde. I also like Italian food. I grew up on the stuff, and could eat it three times a day. I miss my grandma's spaghetti and risotto.

[Tesha]

18. I've never tried risotto...

I can't get past the time it takes to stand and watch it.
Is it as difficult as I think it might be?

We made a lasagna on Sunday - added some salami and spinach - comfort plus

[GoCubsGo]

56. It's really easy to make.

You just have to keep adding broth to the rice and stir often. Tedious, maybe, but not difficult.

[hippywife]

62. I know how you feel

about gran's spaghetti. I make a great sauce myself, every bit as good as hers, but still not quite the same as having hers. :hug:

[pengillian101]

7. Comfort food...

Just today I made Swedish meatballs - wrapped up in lefse, with the gravy over the top. M-m-m!




I started out with my Betty Crocker recipe (this is close to the original 1969 version, but a bit different (http://www.ifood.tv/recipe/swedish_meatballs_7) but I tweaked it with only using ground beef, soaked one torn up piece of fresh bread with crust removed and soaked in 1/2&1/2, used beef broth instead of water, omitted gvater (whatever that is) and added a little horseradish to the gravy.

This was one of my best versions.

These aren't my pics.

EDIT to add, these are normally served over noodles or mashed potatoes.

[Arkansas Granny]

13. I haven't made or eaten lefse in years. My mom used to cook it directly on the

top of the old wood cookstove we used in the winter time. I've only made it in a cast iron skillet. We would just spread it with a little bit of butter, sprinkle it with sugar and roll it up and eat it out of hand. Yummy!

[pengillian101]

45. Cooking on a wood stove.

Fun memories, huh? I have had a few and they are fun to cook on. I've never thought about using a cast iron skillet - isn't it hard to turn over? I've only used an electric lefse griddle.

Now look at this inventive use of a newer stove. I bet it works.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.chase-ingthedream.com/2010_10_01_archive.html&usg=__qGag1HDujp-oqH1LocXYtsB5t5I=&h=1067&w=1600&sz=141&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=OE0xJ8mrYtOjEM:&tbnh=115&tbnw=153&ei=jxQ5TeuKD4PbgQfy0bCqCA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Delectric%2Blefse%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1271%26bih%3D608%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=680&vpy=199&dur=3376&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=164&ty=128&oei=jxQ5TeuKD4PbgQfy0bCqCA&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:0

:hi:

[Arkansas Granny]

52. I would have never thought of cooking directly on the glass stove top.

That's a really inventive method.

[Tesha]

19. IKEA has these...

I wonder if they're anywhere near as good as homemade...

I looked at the recipe and I think gvater was a typo for water - since there is no gvater in the description but there is water missing from the list...

:shrug: :rofl:

Soak the bread in broth - That's brilliant!

[pengillian101]

46. That sounds close enough.

Here's their recipe. http://www.food.com/recipe/ikea-swedish-meatballs-165531

Just image, food at a furniture store! :crazy: :silly:

PS, I soaked the bread in 1/2 and 1/2 instead of milk. I used beef broth instead of water.

[Tesha]

54. oh - I got it...

creamier and beefier, can't go wrong there.

and yes - IKEA is a whole different kind of place.

[csziggy]

8. Hubby had oral surgery the other week - the first real food he asked for

Once he could chew a little bit was tuna casserole - canned tuna, boxed mac & cheese, a bag of mixed vegetables. It kind of surprised me since he usually thinks this is too boring but I guess what he doesn't like about it - lack of texture - is why he could eat it.

[Tesha]

20. boxed mac and cheese...

my hubby likes that better than mine!

but I've never tried it with tuna and veggies...
sounds like nursery food - soft and warm.
:loveya: That's love - making something special for him

[csziggy]

42. I've made pasta and cheese from scratch and it is pretty good

But for a fast casserole nothing beats the boxed kind. I do throw in a few addtions - this time a can of broccoli cheese soup, non-salt seasoning, and paprika. I thought about mushrooms, but hubby vetoed them.

He gets special food most of the time - since I am basically retired, I figure I can save money and make good, healthy food as often as possible. The night before his surgery I cooked rainbow trout - rubbed with a little soy sauce, sauteed with onions, garlic and ginger and served over a brown rice blend (various kinds of organic brown and wild rices from the food co-op). And the night before that we went out to Ted's Montana Grill and had buffalo steaks. We don't normally eat so fancy - the Ted's visit was on a gift card and we had not had steak in years. I had planned on taking home leftovers and making something from them, but the steaks were so good we both cleaned our plates.

As soon as hubby can chew a little better, he will get meatloaf - that is one of his favorite foods. This time I think I will try it with ground turkey and beef and see if he can tell the difference!

[NMDemDist2]

43. brilliant idea, mixing turkey with the beef

since I add sausage for moisture anyway i bet ground turkey would save me a bunch of fat

Mr. Ketchup would be crazy happy for meatloaf, since we've been on such a low fat diet all year :applause:

[csziggy]

44. I've read meatloaf recipes that call for beef and pork

I figure substitute turkey for the pork and lower the fat. Of course, I always make my meatloaves with oatmeal instead of breadcrumbs - I've been claiming that it gives us a jump on reducing cholesterol. :evilgrin: In reality, it is how Mom made hers and I like the texture of the oatmeal.

[NMDemDist2]

47. true, but the whole point of the pork sausage is to add moisture

lean beef and turkey = no fat

and if i add oatmeal (or breadcrumbs) that just sucks more moisture out of it. Stinky says you can add ice chips (we had a veritable flame war on meatloaf a few years ago) and that'll help.

hmmmm, I'll have to think on it :dilemma: or I could just start a meatloaf thread !! :think:

[csziggy]

48. I've never had a problem with dry meatloaf

Maybe it's the BBQ sauce and whatever I add to it? Or that I use really cheap, high fat ground beef?

My starting point for a recipe:

2 pounds ground meat
1 cup oatmeal
1 envelope dry soup mix (usually a onion based version)
1/2 - 1 cup of whatever is in the fridge at the bottom of a bottle - BBQ sauce, A-1, soy, catsup, etc.
A little water to rinse out the bottle
1 or 2 eggs

Mix well, put into loaf pan, Put catsup, A-1 or BBQ sauce on top. Bake about 1 hour at 350 F.

It changes every time I make it, depending on what I have on hand, my mood, what I have to serve with it, and so forth.

[NMDemDist2]

50. high fat ground beef is the ticket there

my recipe goes more like this (when i make it, i make 3)

3 lbs beef
1 pound pork sausage (different flavors depending on what strikes my fancy or is onsale LOL)
'shrooms
onion
grated carrot
tomato sauce (2 small cans usually)
tomato paste (1 can)
3 eggs
spices and breadcrumbs to adjust texture

i freeze two and have one of those inserts for a bread pan that allows the grease to drain off

mine changes all the time too, depending on what's around

now with us getting all skinny and stuff and trying to eat low fat, i may have to make smaller batches until i figure out the dealio with out fatty ground meat

[csziggy]

51. That sounds good

But I have to be ultra careful with sausage. I am allergic to peppers so most sausages are off limits to me. Mostly I just avoid it.

[hippywife]

61. I don't know how it could still turn out dry

with all of the tomato sauce and paste in that recipe. Should work for turkey, too. :hi:

[kurtzapril4]

63. I love meatloaf.

I use:

1 lb. 90-95% lean ground beef
1 lb. ground chicken

then I make a panade...2 slice of white(or wheat)bread with 4 tbsp. of milk. Tear the bread up into quarters, and put in food processor or blender to make a paste. Mix the meats with the panade.

Then I add an egg. Then some A1 sauce. Some garlic powder, some onion powder, (or use finely diced onion and garlic) a pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper. I mix it all together.

Then I form the whole dang thing into a loaf. I make it kind of long and flat to insure even cooking. I bake @ 375 for 40 minutes, covered, take it out of the oven, baste with barbecue sauce, put back in the oven, uncovered, for another 20. It's very moist.

If I'm feeling very ambitious I replace the panade with steamed, pureed carrots. If the mixture is too loose, I add some breadcrumbs.

It also has a fairly low calorie count, especially if you use egg substitute for the egg, and carrots for the panade.

[GoCubsGo]

57. I make it that way, too, along with the low-carb version.

That would be the macaroni-free kind. I use the frozen vegetables with the cheese, and I mix tuna into it. If I have some cooked brown rice around, I might add that, too.

[hippywife]

60. My roomie and I lived on something similar

when I was in my late teens and early twenties. Except we didn't use mixed veggies, used a can of whole stewed tomatoes well drained and smooshed up (because you couldn't buy petite diced tomatoes back then.)

We'd have starved if it weren't for lots of tuna-mato casserole. :9

Hope he gets all better soon. :hug: for him

[NMDemDist2]

9. Pot Roast baby

a fatty cheap old 7 bladed chuck roast, roasted with taters, onions, mushrooms and carrots

then make stew out of the leftovers

I'm in heaven!

but not on my diet this year, maybe in a few months I can splurge......

[Tesha]

21. winter's the best time for a roast...

warms the house, then warms you.
and then the leftovers do it again.

[TreasonousBastard]

10. Too carby, but I risked death and destruction with Chicken a la King yesterday...

Mashed taters are were calling me, and this time I could not resist.

(And had some Velveeta sammiches earlier.)

[Tesha]

22. I know this sounds silly, but

What is Chicken a la King?:shrug: I've never tried to make it.

Is it like chicken pieces in gravy?
or the filling in a pot pie?

Whenever I have leftover chicken meat - these are the things the family asks for, so I've never looked farther.

[TreasonousBastard]

26. Could be a regional name-- the way we had it as kids...

was just chicken and peas&carrots in gravy poured over mashed potatoes.

(Chicken and gravy is good stuff-- fills pot pies, can become a soup, tops noodles and potatoes, or just can be eaten out of the pot with a big ol' spoon.)

[Tesha]

31. Chicken and gravy

are so versatile. My grandmother made biscuits with chicken fat to pour chicken in gravy over.

It was the next day leftover meal after a roast chicken with mashed potatoes.

Funny... I always piled my veg on top...
Just like your Chicken a' la king!

[grasswire]

38. the classic chicken a la king...

..is made with a cream sauce, pimentos and mushrooms and a bit of sherry. Supposedly an invention of a beach hotel in the 1880s.

Many a ladies' luncheon gave chicken a la king a starring role in the twenties and thirties!

[Arkansas Granny]

14. My daughter and I are making a big comfort meal for my son's birthday this weekend.

He has requested lasagna so all we have to do now is decide on what side dishes to fix and bake a cake.

[Tesha]

23. We made that this weekend!

and are still eating the leftovers!

We has some fennel salami left over and some spinach to use up so we tossed that in.
That with a salad seems like a good meal...

now for that cake...

:9

[Arkansas Granny]

24. His favorite cake is German Chocolate so that's probably what we'll go with.

[Tesha]

25. is that the one..

with cherries in the middle layer?

[Arkansas Granny]

29. The one we are making doesn't have cherries. We're using this recipe.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/German-Chocolate-Cake-III/Detail.aspx?prop31=1

It's a new recipe for us, but the reviews sound really good. The last time we made German Chocolate cake we used a mix and were very disappointed. It seemed very dry, for some reason.

[Tesha]

32. That won't be dry...

Did you look through the images - wow!
that's the chocolate cake with coconut frosting.
Let us know how it come out, OK?

and this is cool - the site lets you get the ingredients list with a different number of servings.
no math while cutting the recipe! woohoo!

thank you!:hug:

[Arkansas Granny]

53. I get a lot of good recipes at that site. The reviews can be very helpful, too.

[grasswire]

35. that looks like the original recipe published by Baker Chocolate

I used to make it a lot. It's delicious.

[grasswire]

34. you are thinking of black forest cake

schwarzwalder kirschtorte

[Tesha]

39. that's the one!

I got confused
the Black Forest in in Germany -:rofl:

[Blues Heron]

28. I second Potato Leek soup!

made some yesterday.

Chicken broth
(four whole chicken legs
1/2 large onion
bay leaf
celery stalk
herbes de provence
2 cloves garlic)
simmer 50 minutes
(save the boiled chicken for another use - it still has lots of flavor)


Soup
Chicken broth
4 large Russet potatos
4 leeks
1 large carrot
salt and pepper


sweated the leeks in butter
cubed the potatoes
cubed the carrot

simmered all 30 minutes
reserved a couple of ladles for chunkiness
blended the rest using my new stick blender

*YUM* !

I think next time I'll reserve even more - chunks are good!

[Tesha]

33. ohhhh - I've never tried it this way before

I've use Julia's recipe - so simple - just basically potatoes and leeks

this sounds really good!
thanks!:hi:

[Warpy]

37. I always just extract the stick blender before it gets completely smooth

because yeah, it's really nice to find the lumps once in a while, although I don't think Julia would approve.

It's also nice to do a mixture of potato and cauliflower and save lumps of both.

[housewolf]

40. Love Potato Leek Soup - thanks for the memoroy!

It was one of my dad's specialties. He made it similar to the way that you do, except he added half & half after pureeing - oh my gosh, was that ever GOOD!

[cbayer]

41. I like it super smooth. I push it through a strainer after blending. And I love it cold.

:hi:

[Warpy]

36. I bought a tough free range chicken this week

and made Julia Child's chicken fricasee.

I can't think of anything more comforting than that in midwinter.

[auntAgonist]

49. cabbage rolls or if I'm lazy cabbage roll casserole.

Same ingredients as the cabbage rolls (stuffed cabbage )just dumped into a big baking dish.

It's my all time favourite food, anytime.

[Tesha]

55. my husband asks for that...

but I have no idea how - he says it should be sweet and sour... is that like what you make?

[auntAgonist]

58. No, mine is quite tomatoey ( i know that's not a word heh)

I use lots of tomato juice and paste. I wouldn't say it's sweet and sour at all.

[kurtzapril4]

59. Could you post a recipe for the Cabbage Roll casserole?

Pretty please with sugar on top?

[auntAgonist]

66. Here is a recipe, similar to what I make....

I don't use a recipe at all but I did find this one that is fairly similar. I don't use beef broth. I use Tomato Juice OR V8
I don't even brown the hamburger.
I also add ground pepper to taste. I use extra lean ground beef and usually don't have any fat that needs draining.
I mix everything in a large casserole dish.

My way of cooking this takes about 1.5 - 2 hours.




* 2 pounds hamburger
* 1 cup chopped onion
* 1 can (29 oz) tomato sauce
* 3 1/2 pounds chopped cabbage
* 1 cup uncooked white rice
* 1 tsp salt
* 2 cans (14 oz each) beef broth

How to make it

* Preheat oven to 350F.
* In a large skillet, brown hamburger in oil over medium high heat until redness is gone; drain off fat.
* In a large mixing bowl, combine the onion, tomato sauce, cabbage, rice and salt. Add meat and mix all together. Pour mixture into a 9x13-inch baking dish. Pour broth over meat mixture and bake in the preheated oven, covered, for 1 hour. Stir; replace cover and bake for another 30 minutes.

I hope this helps a bit. It's SO SO SO easy ...


aA
kesha

[kurtzapril4]

67. Thank you very much.

It's going to be for dinner tomorrow night!

[auntAgonist]

68. I hope you enjoy it!

I sometimes toss a can of diced tomatoes in it too. Just play with the recipe. It really is so easy.

:hi:

aA
kesha

[shanti]

64. tapioca pudding

noodles and butter, and homemade bread. love those carbs (but they don't love me) ;-)

[Iwillnevergiveup]

65. Tortilla chicken

Good the first, second or even third days. I've served this many, many times and everyone loves it.

You use a package of flour tortillas cut into 1" strips. Line the bottom of a 9x12 baking dish with these going all in one direction. Bottom should be completely covered.

Sprinkle pre-cooked shredded chicken on top. Chicken can either be boiled or baked - I bake 2 breasts and 2 thighs beforehand for a good tasty mixture. Add enough shredded Jack and cheddar cheese, diced green chiles and finely chopped onion to cover the tortilla strips. Then add another layer of strips going in the opposite direction and repeat adding other ingredients. I usually end up with 3 latticed layers with tortilla strips on top.

Mix 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup with about 2 cans of milk, depending on how thick you like your "sauce" and pour over the top of the whole casserole. Bake about 20 minutes, then add a bit more of the cheeses and chiles over the whole dish and return to the oven for another 25 minutes. Should be nice and bubbly. Great with hot French bread and a salad. And very, very comforting.