comfort food

[boxofdelights]

I came home from my house (have I mentioned that I have a house?) in sore need of comfort food. So I boiled some potatoes (well, first I dug up the potatoes) and kale, and smothered them with cheese sauce.

Daughter, who is recovering from flu, ate only potatoes with salt. Son, who is coming down with flu, ate nothing. I left salt out of the cheese sauce, so husband could eat it if he chose, but he is not yet back from evening treatments at the Raptor Center.

I told daughter that when I was a little kid, comfort food was creamed tuna fish on toast. Daughter made vomiting noises.

What's your comfort food? What was it when you were little? Do you ever eat your kid-comfort food now?

Comments

[aedifica]

Yay house! *is excited for you*

Comfort food: it varies, but sometimes a big bowl of popcorn the way I make it for myself. I've been going through phases of popcorn-eating since I was young, but I don't think it was a comfort food yet then.

Creamed tuna fish on toast sounds pretty good.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

house pictures! house pictures!

meatloaf is pretty comforting. also hotdogs.

[boxofdelights]

yes ma'am.

[carbonel]

The two comfort foods I carried forward from my childhood are tuna casserole (tuna, elbow macaroni, cream of mushroom soup) and macaroni and cheese made by the simple expedient of boiling and draining elbow macaroni, then sprinkling Kraft cheese food over it -- no cream, milk, or butter, just the powdery cheese sprinkle stuff.

When I'm not dieting, I sometimes emulate the latter by boiling a Kraft mac-and-cheese dinner and sprinkling the cheese packet directly over the macaroni. It's not quite right because it isn't elbow macaroni, but it's close. I haven't made tuna casserole that I can recall, though.

For more recent comfort food, I'm quite fond of Pat Wrede's potato glop -- boil potatoes and onions until they're soft (in just enough water to cover them), mush them up with a potato masher, add some milk or cream, and pour over cubed cheddar or swiss cheese. Add lots of salt and pepper, and eat.

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

I dunno if there was.
I have fond memories of salmon patties (one can salmon bits, one bag ritz crackers, an egg, mix and smoosh into patties) because that's what we'd have when the power went out as it so often did and all we could manage was to heat over the fire. Pancakes worked, too, I guess, but salmon patties were a lot easier.

I'm guessing neither of the kids would care much for them...

[maribou]

General:
Kraft dinner with weenies in.
Rice Krispie squares.
Jello.
Toast.
Honey.
Toasted peanut butter and banana sammiches.


Emotionally, not having a physical component:
wild berries, freshly picked.
Grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup.

And yup, I eat all those things still. I don't eat them a LOT because I like to save them for when I need them. If I ate them all the time, they would lose some of their magic powers.

[boxofdelights]

I know what you mean. Wish I didn't.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

My comfort food is tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

My childhood comfort food was sardines on toast. I don't eat it any more for environmental reasons. My comfort foods now tend to be things like vegetarian shepherd's pie, apple crumble with custard, and other such British favourites.

[boxofdelights]

Do you ever do a vegan shepherd's pie? What do you put in your shepherd's pie? Also, my daughter would like to know why we call this a pie when it doesn't have a crust.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

No, my version isn't vegan - it uses Quorn, which contains small amounts of egg. "Pie" originally meant a medley - the association with pastry came later, presumably after shepherd's pie, cottage pie etc were invented.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

When I was little, tomato soup with toast, I think. In youth, vanilla tapioca pudding.

Tapioca pudding would probably work now.

But now, hot tea, sushi, Korean soups.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Yes, tapioca pudding! Just follow the directions on the box of tapioca. Yum.

Also, homemade cookies, chocolate chip (which I make myself) or stuff that my Mom/Grandma made.

[redbird]

Hot tea, now and again when I was a child: it's so much a part of my daily routine now that I have to be careful not to have too much, or too late in the day, which might be easier if it weren't also still a great comfort.

Chicken soup, sometimes, especially matzoh ball soup.

Pudding was, I think, once in a while. (Now, it's something I eat and like now and then, but with no emotional overtones.)

One I no longer eat, or want: canned cream of mushroom soup.


Things that weren't comfort food as a child, and are now (these are things I never had as a child): oatmeal, congee, pho.

I can't think of anything I didn't like as a child that is now comfort food (the general category "didn't like as a child, do now" is not quite the same as "vegetables I will now eat," but the two are fairly close); also, nothing is coming to mind that was just okay when I was a child and is now comfort food.

[pennski.livejournal.com]

Cheddar cheese on toast! Nowadays it has to be sheep or goat's cheese - halloumi works best.

Yay house!

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

OMG I love halloumi. I should get some, it's been a while.

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

We had a dish the family fondly refers to as "burger slop". 1 lb. browned ground beef, 2 cups cooked rice, some peas and a can of cream of mushroom soup. My hub thinks it's gross, but that's my comfort food. Mac & cheese with tuna and peas or broccoli comes a close second.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Cookies. All kinds cookies. If I'm feeling really upset and discombobulated, I bake them myself in extraordinary quantities.

In fact, all kinds of things you can bake comfort me, but mostly because it's the act of baking that is soothing. Eating them is kind of incidental.

If I'm having a really bad week, you can generally tell because there is meringue.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Yes, making cookies is highly therapeutic in itself. Sometimes I just make the dough. It's the creaming butter and sugar part that I find most soothing, really.

Other comfort foods: good macaroni and cheese, tuna casserole with peas, hot fudge sundaes.

[fourgates.livejournal.com]

When I was little: instant butterscotch pudding. (yes, eaten occasionally now).
Now: I don't know; guts are messed up today.