We are now entering the cozy season. The blankets, the comfy clothes, but perhaps the most exciting is the comfort food!
What exactly is “comfort food?” It’s what we picture cozying up with on a nice day at home.
Usually it’s warm and hearty, and even the thoughts of making the dish are part of the vision. One of those rare times where you can leisurely cook in a clean kitchen, taking in the experience of chopping and stirring, creating a food so beloved you can smell it in your mind. You might even be picturing making it as a child in a loved one’s kitchen.
Fall and winter are often times when schedules might slow and the temperature has shifted so that a warm oven isn’t minded, and many of these comfort foods are moving from daydreams to dinner.
Having trouble pinpointing your comfort food? Start with your family’s favorites.
Food that lives in my head and heart? My aunt’s ham sliders that she makes by the actual 100 for family gatherings. The lasagna and pastas at my cousin’s barn wedding on a rainy, drizzly day with laughter and candlelight. Making reuben sandwiches as a child and wrapping them in foil to bake.
Heck, even Stouffer’s lasagna has a special spot because those things take forever to bake but are worth the wait!
Want to know a food that’s simple, beloved and prepared differently by everybody? Eggs. With three kids, we frequently have visitors over.
One day I was making our family’s “cheesy eggs,” and one of our frequent flyers piped up and said, “That’s not how my Paw Paw makes them!”
A few weeks later I found myself making eggs for their sibling, and there it was again, “Let me show you how Paw Paw does them.”
I laughed and mentioned it to their mom, and she said she didn’t even think there was much special about their eggs, but as it turns out, their Paw Paw is a heavy on the salt and pepper man.
My aunt, meanwhile, thinks fondly of her dad’s “Confetti eggs,” scrambled eggs with peppers, onion, ham, potatoes and all the goodies folded in. Another family member went to college in the southwest and brought back his roommate’s family huevos rancheros recipe.
Are your food memories starting to crank?
Perhaps the most buzzed-about food is macaroni and cheese. Warm, filling and with endless variations, with everyone swearing their loved one makes it the best.
It never seems to matter if the beloved cook hands over the cheese blend and recipe or not, it never seems to come out the same as when they make it.
And, well, not to be discouraging, but unless you are the crowned M&C queen, you’d be best just bringing another dish to the potluck!
Now, I don’t think I’ve ever made a dumpling in my life but the families that “do” dumplings are committed and dumplings rank high on the comfort food list.
A friend says her family pairs them with peas while another swears it must be chicken and dumplings.
Sometimes it comes down to either having time to make the meal or the time to enjoy the meal, so a friend going through her young family phase says frozen dumplings also work in this season of life.
Chili is a favorite filling supper for many.
But, of course, someone (me) could be picturing it in a bowl with corn chips (Scoops!) and sour cream during a hockey game, while another family might ladle it out for chili dogs in front of football.
Pinto beans, kidney beans, white beans, black beans — depending on whose table you are around, you’ll see the difference! Rotate it into your family’s routine if it isn’t already.
Can you smell a certain muffin or bread in your sleep? Warm with a square of butter melted on top. Mmm! Baked goods — and of course, chocolate chip cookies — top lots of foodie lists.
There are Strawberry Pretzel Salad makers or and there are Strawberry Pretzel Salad partakers.
This favorite hits tables year round, though the jury’s out on whether it belongs on the table with the meal or with the desserts! My neighbor swears her family’s Christmas is not complete without it.
Speaking of which, “Christmas is not complete without …” is another fill-in-the-blank question that can get a lot of answers.
I must admit, I do get a little teary making sausage gravy on Christmas without my dad around to eat seconds and maybe thirds with me, but it does still warm my heart.
Worried you haven’t nailed down a holiday food tradition? It can be a lot of pressure if maybe you grew up having Citrus Cinnamon rolls on Christmas but now you find yourself traveling to your in-laws or maybe you had a full dinner spread that you can’t pull off with the age or size of your family.
You can always start a new comfort food — it’s allowed!
My daughter Lucy and I now like to make lemon ricotta pancakes for select special days throughout the year.
While it was a new recipe we saw online, we’ve made it our own special memory and the flavor is one we really look forward to. I do have my fingers crossed she’ll come back and make them for me when she grows up and leaves me. (Luckily, boys still have cooties for now!)
The Grinch got a lot of flack for stealing all the who-hash, but you should not be afraid of stealing other’s comfort food ideas.
From a co-workers’ tres leches cake to a hockey friend’s tamales, a comfort food can be one you’ve never tasted. If it smells good, pipe up and ask for a taste and a recipe.
Chances are, they’ll love sharing it with you.
If you are looking for a conversation starter — and not worried about your tummy rumbling — this fall, ask someone, “What’s your favorite comfort food?”