Mom comfort foods:

Toasted cheese sandwiches and Campbell's Tomato Soup on Fridays. (They went out to dinner, so this was kid-food.)

Two cookies and a dish of fruit for dessert at dinner almost always.

My daughter at 8 or 9 once asked me why I didn't make really good dinners like Grandma. I make excellent dinners! I baked bread! So I asked her what Grandma made that was so much better than what we had. She said, "You know, turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and pie." Oh. That dinner. It's all a matter of perspective. Her kids will remember their Grandma (me) for stuff like tricking them into eating "little trees" (broccoli). Their comfort food is mac and cheese.

There are several things of my mom's that are comfort foods to me. The main one is brisket and mashed potatoes and gravy. I hadn't had it for years but have made it a few times this year.

There's also a comfort food/place for me. I worked for Marie Callendar's for almost 10 years in various positions. So if I need to go somewhere and have someone 'take care of me', that's where I go. It was awesome when we first moved back here to DH's home town because the MC's here is one of the first (it's store #5) and it used to look a lot like the one I used to go to with my mom (split a piece of pie only, never for lunch or dinner, it was store #7) and a couple that I worked at. But about 5 years ago they did a major remodel, expanded, up dated etc. so it's not as visually comforting to me. But I do still find myself there occasionally to be taken care of.

I have been making a point to make more of the foods I grew up with, whether DH will eat them or not. I need to make some meatloaf this week! Mmmm, meatloaf sandwich on homemade bread.

Comfort foods. My mother's corned beef dinner and her key lime pie. The pie recipe was from our short time living in Florida and is unfortunately long lost. I've spent the better part of my adult life trying to recreate that pie. DH has patiently tested many failures! My Hungarian grandmother's stuffed cabbage and my American Indian grandmother's cornbread.

Nice topic, CEFreeman.

Please forgive me for going slightly OT but a little shout out to Cal_quail. I worked at an early MC (1968ish). I don't know the store number but it was a franchise owned by a man whose family was connected to the McDonald's franchise in SoCal. We only served pie and hamburgers so none of the current menu speaks to me. I long for the gooseberry pies that they no longer carry and the pancake breakfasts the chefs used to make for those of us who came in early to assemble the fresh strawberry pies. MC is also where I learned to eat left over pumpkin pie for breakfast.

Such nice memories.

This is a sweet topic CEFreeman. Sigh!

Mom comfort foods:
Meatloaf and her homemade rolls with fruit on top and lightly frosted.

Comfort places:
Moms arms for the greatest hugs. You knew you had been good and hugged and the world would be okay. My older son gives hugs like her. :)

Farmland--rides in the country bring sweet calm to me. City living often makes me feel hemmed in. There is nothing like seeing the way farmers work the land. It's a beautiful patchwork. Oh, and the clean fresh air and the quiet where you can actually hear sounds of nature and at night you can see the gorgeous canopy of stars & constellations.

Getting older brings a deeper appreciation for things of my growing up years. Makes me smile!

Thanks for the thread CEF!

i love this thread, too! I currently have the worst flu of my life, so i cant really get into a food discussion right now, but I remember when my mom would get sick she'd ask me to make her thin mashed potatoes with mustard. i thought it was so weird at the time. Now i think I may try it tomorrow if I'm up for eating. Who knows, maybe it's a magic elixir. :-)

There was a place, long since closed, that I loved going to when I visited family in another city when I was a kid. I don't know if it was actually any good, but my memories of it are great. I recall it having the best ranch dressing on the planet, which was a big deal to me at the time.

Ahh, comfort food.

Sadly, none of my moms dishes were ever/have ever been comfort food. She HATES cooking and will gladly announce it to anyone who will listen. This is why I took over Thanksgiving as soon as I could.

My grandmother on the other hand? She was a great cook and she loved to entertain. Every year we spent Christmas Eve at her house with all the aunts, uncles, cousins and she would make Mexican food. Beef enchilidas, chicken enchiladas, tamales, burritos, chile rellenos, flautas, and there was ALWAYS a bowl of whole black olives on the table that us grandkids would put on our fingertips before devouring.

Then we would go to the candlelight service at church, drive around together in 2 suburbans looking at Christmas lights before heading back to her house. She would make homemade eggnog (nonalcoholic) and pull out all the tins full of candy that she had made and we would eat and drink while opening presents.

I'm sad that my kids didn't get to meet her and that those traditions are gone. We tried to keep it up after she passed away but it just wasn't the same. Plus all of us grandkids were married now and we had our own families and our spouses families to do things with.

Still, all the candy she always made? I still make it every year and I remember her fondly.

I started MC at age 26 after having just gone through a nice weight loss. Then, as honu3421 said, I learned to eat pie for breakfast. And I was still using half and half and sugar in my coffee and had unlimited access. Not. Good. But still...good times.

texas_gem, that sounds amazing! My mom never liked cooking either- I think she felt it was a progressive thing for a woman of her generation to not like. But then, she barely believes in eating, lol. I think she photosynthesizes.

cal, what's Mc?

CEF, I want to hug you!

When I was small, my family often made the three-hour trip to my grandparents' home. That place was full of comfort food :), but we always stopped at a drive-in/dairy bar in Jamestown, OH, which was about half-way along the route. This was before the convenience of fast-food franchises on every corner, and it was such a treat for us to eat out, although we actually ate in the car, so that my parents didn't have to drag four little tired kids inside. (With the serving tray clamped to the partially rolled down window--remember those days?) I still remember the huge, flat hamburgers, and the ice cream sandwiches.

My mother makes pies for all of our family dinners, which I host. I consider her pie my comfort food, and my reward for hosting--to the point that I'm offended if she offers my leftover pie to any of my siblings to take home.

Thank you for this thread. I had to sit on this one a bit as I just lost my Mom to Uterine Cancer a couple of months ago,yet it has brought back so many wonderful memories!

That being said, I definitely have comfort-food memories! My Mom was a Navy Officer's wife, so she entertained often. She also had two kids and had to feed them. She made this one dish for me and my sister called "Goop". It is a sort of a meaty mac&cheese on steroids (some call it "Trainwreck", but Mom's was better than that). My best friends from HS would request that Mom make it when we all came home for Christmas Break during college. It was the kind of food that just made you feel good, like you were a kid again.

A few months ago I was visiting my Mom and she asked me to make it for her because she was so sick and weak and just wanted something to stick to her ribs. Funny thing was was that towards the end of the preparation she didn't like how I was stirring things. She got up from her chair and said, "Honey, you have to be patient. Let it meld on it's own. Like this."
Even in her weakness, she found the strength to get up and show me how you put the love in the dish, not just how to "make" it. I'm 42 and will never forget this one piece of awesome in a bowl that is totally "Mom" and "comfort" to me and my friends.

I have a few random food based memories.
First, my mom isn't the best cook, but she makes Peanut Butter Dressing/ stuffing like no other.
It was wonderful to have it at Thanksgiving this year!

For my 7th birthday we were back in Upstate NY at my mom's childhood home. My grandmother baked fancy cakes. She did wedding cakes a lot. For my birthday she made me a Cinderella cake. Well it was a few tiers and had a carriage and a prince and princess on it. I really don't remember the exact look, but I do remember walking down the grocery aisle with her deciding on the "flavor" cake to buy. I picked Strawberry. It was probably the first strawberry cake I ever had. But it was "the best cake" ever. A few years later she came to our house for a visit and we could not find strawberry cake mix so she made a lemon cake. My grandmother used buttermilk for the liquids and added an extra egg and more extract for flavor.
I loved that lemon cake too..my mom made it a few times for me while I grew up. I've even made it. But it was the best when my grandmother made it.
BTW, the stuffing/dressing recipe is one my grandmother made when my mom was growing up.

We had a drive-in in town that had the best food..I lived off their double cheese burgers with one of my pregnancies..well all of them..but my middle one it was pretty much the only food I could eat.

I cook/bake almost everything from scratch. My middle son's friends were sitting around the lunch table at school a few years back going on and on about the up coming holidays and how they couldn't wait for the feasts and foods. He did not understand the big deal. "My mom always cooks like that".

hsw-sc- those are the best memories aren't they? When my grandmother started getting sick, I was just starting to get into "real" cooking, not just heating food up to be served.

I remember going to visit her and make a brothy soup I thought she would be able to stomach (chemo) and even in her weakness, she got up from the chair and showed me one of her tips, tapping the stirring spoon with my finger instead of hitting it on the side of the pan so splatters wouldn't go everywhere.

She also complimented me on the soup I served her and, to this day, that is the best compliment I've ever received about my cooking.

I wish I could've had more time with her but life is what it is.

As a child, her and my grandfather traveled all the time so the only time I saw them was at Christmas. I'm so grateful, to the point of feeling sorry for all my other cousins, that in the last year of her life, she was too sick to travel and I spent my days off at their home, cooking for her, visiting one on one, etc.

My cousins and my brother didn't live here, so, at least I feel, they didn't REALLY get to know her the way I did in that last year.

Mom' snickerdoodles. Could eat them all day. She made a pretty good Swedish pancake too.

Hal's Drive-In tartar sauce. I buy some to bring home every time I go visit my mom. They've been making it since the late-1960's when I started eating it.

ps. It's been a long three weeks. I've been following along but too preoccupied to post anything. Today, I finished the grouting on the tile on the bedroom chimney...finally! I have most of Monday off and I plan to install the last of the baseboards around the base of the chimney. After that, the room should be completed by the weekend after the 1st if I get any more time off with work.

Terri - Did you get your trees down? Just last Friday I cleaned up the last of my pile of branches.

Well, I don't know about comfort food but whenever I go home I make my Mom cook roast beef so I can have the leftovers with gravy and french fries. She makes the best roast beef! I can't make roast beef to save my life. Also, I didn't like how she cooked green beans so she always kept some out for me to eat raw.

When I made Skinnytaste Santa Fe Stuffed Peppers for my boys the first time, they loved it but said next time they want their pepper bowls to be raw, so they get raw peppers now, stuffed with the hot filling; they eat the filling and then the raw peppers. That is such an easy thing to do but I think many parents are just, eat it!! People know what they like or don't, it's easy to accommodate something like that.

Both of my parents were teachers - dad at university and mom at an elementary school. A lot of the time she would get home between 6 and 7, and my dad sometimes as late as 9:30. Most cooking involved the microwave or foraging. Cleaning and home maintenance were also given about an equal amount of attention so a lot of the time it really was "fend for yourself."

So my answer is... Doritos? It was about the most common food to be found at home. Maybe peanut butter/chocolate chip Soft Batch cookies but those were usually brought to school with lunch.

At home I am focused on two things right now. Gathering all tax-related paperwork so I can sort it and type it into a spreadsheet, and turning my 3D Sketchup model into 2D layout for the master bathroom area and a second one for the bedroom area. It's been a lot of hopping back and forth between Sketchup and PowerPoint. There has to be a better way.

CEFreeman, can we get a pupdate?

The only comfort foods that I remember were from my grandmothers cooking. My sister and I would go stay summers at my grandparents, she made the best lemon custard. I think that is why I have a passion for lemon bars. I also remember that I loved her poached eggs, I can still see myself sitting in her kitchen eating the eggs and looking at her Fiestaware yellow and orange salt and pepper shaker displayed on the window ledge. I love the memories!

Doug, no but today would have been a perfect day!
They are slated to come down on the 10th or 11th. Let's hope this mild weather continues a few more weeks.

Tuesday last week, I picked up a huge pile of downed branches from the front yard. I'm hoping I can just toss all those into the chipper!

There has got to be several hundred cones in the yard, driveway and street that have dropped in the last few weeks from just the three trees by the driveway/steps.

I spoke the other day about my grandmother, and all the comfort food and memories that came from her. She passed away 8 years ago but the house is still in the family.

I was there a few days ago and, thanks to my GW kitchen obsession, I had to snap a few pics.

The wall color and flooring has changed but everything else remains the same kitchen I grew up with, down to the light fixtures.

I look at it now and I am astounded that all that amazing food and candy came out of this kitchen.

Ignore the counter mess, we were preparing dinner after all, but just look at this time capsule!
{{gwi:2141073}}
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Close up of the tile counter and tiles tying into the sink.
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We are getting ready to put this house on the market, and as excited I as I am to share my knowledge and update this kitchen, I will be sad to see the home of so many memories gone and replaced with something new.

HVAC guys were here today and got most of the ductwork ran and the furnace installed.

{{gwi:2141076}}

Also, tar paper and fascia went on today (painted fascia not shown in this picture)
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The only downside is this means we will most likely start shingling tomorrow, when it is a high of 21 instead of shingling last week when we were in the 40s and 50s.

Oh well, progress is progress right?

Nice... I haven't seen ductwork that looked like a mess in years.

When I was a kid, we went skiing every weekend. Mom would pack us a lunch, including a pan of peanut butter/butterscotch bars, with powdered sugar frosting. To this day I still call them "ski bars", and rarely make them for anything but ski trips.

There's been cooking, some cleaning and a day trip to LA, and job#2 ramping up for new years.

DH made home made pasta for the first time the other night. YUM! He made mushroom ravioli with half and fettucini-ish noodles with the other half. He's 'practicing' for a birthday dinner for his mom on Friday. I LOVED the mushroom ravioli. (One of my favorite things to order a few places). We made a brown butter sage sauce for them and I hit mine with a little cream. Mmm. But there weren't enough of them (he got frustrated making ravioli) so we also had some fettucini with the same sauce. Just as good. Right now, he's making the second batch. Just fettucini and going to serve it with shrimp.

I've made banana bread and I swear a few other things, just can't remember what.

Still haven't finished painting the kitchen.

MC is Marie Callendar's. The restaurant I worked at for years that honu3421 worked at too.

I'm in charge of dessert for MIL's birthday, but I have no idea what I'll make.

Yeah....much colder than we thought it would be. Highest temp I saw was 11 degrees and its snowing so it was way to cold and slick to do any roofing today. Looks like this cold front should lift by Saturday so maybe we will get some shingles laid then.

It's starting to sink in that we just celebrated our last Christmas in the home we've lived in for 27 years. Today DH and I replaced our antique pendants (salvaged from renovation of the 1927 Julia Morgan designed YWCA) with pendants from HD. sorry, new owner. We are slowly replacing our salvaged light fixtures to take to the new house which should be finished in mid spring. Here is a picture of the new pendant with fake leaded glass DR lamp in background. Taxes and electrical tools everywhere! Our home has certainly been a place of comfort and the only home DD has known. So glad she made it home this year from out of state. Meatloaf tonight.

No updates here, just wanted to say Happy New Years to all my GW friends!!!

And Happy New Year back at'cha! Wish you all the best in these next months. :)

Pit Update: Saturday a friend of a friend came and took both of them. She's mature, got a good job, owns her home with a big yard. She's keeping Bobby (aka puppy-boy) and her neighbor is taking sweet Maggie (aka puppy girl). These were the happiest, sweet dogs. Turned out to be clean, trained, house broken, curious, and just joyful. Someone dumped them, I'm sure, but they were house dogs. Perhaps breeders, but definitely house dogs.

It was interesting. All the time they were here, they never left the yard. When I went out, they were right beside me. Bobby, would play catch with a 6' 4x4. Throwing it in the air, standing on it and trying to pick it up. Made it difficult for me to sort out a load of reused lumber, which had nails in it. It had to wait. He was a JOY. What a energetic puppy he was. He'd sit and kinda roll backwards with his feet stuck out in front of him, like puppies do. Didn't quite lift his leg. Hasn't earned his man card yet.

Although they always wanted to ride in my car, they didn't want to go with her. (Leaving me? Awwww) But once in the car, they settled in, with their heads poking out between the seats to look out the window.

The only time I'd see Maggie get excited was when wheels turned. Cars, trucks, bikes. She'd bite at them from underneath the door, vs. from the front. Scared me she'd get a tooth stuck and be crushed.

I mention this, because the week before I had to get 2 new tires. Saturday night when I came out of work, I had a flat. Grrrrr. Had myself towed to my car place. He called me the next morning and asked if I'd hit anything, or was out in the field, etc. [wait for it] There were 2 puncture marks, one torn, in the sidewall of my new tire. So.... I guess Maggie is successful in her mission of killing All Things Tire.

Got my living room painted. It is Beeeuuuuttiful. Even moreso without the crap stacked to the ceiling. Ceiling is Glidden 'Natural Wicker' and the walls are Duron/SW 'Tinderbox.' I just picked up the paint for the bookshelves. All this room needs is trim. and maybe some curtains. Well, maybe not.

So I have 2 rooms done, -trim. This is very, very exciting! Leaves 7 rooms to go. Drywall, finishing, paint, trim. As a dear friend once said, "Baby Steps." Well, it's only 10 years this year from that stupid fire! Baby enough?

Have a great, warm day. Eat those beans and rice if that's your thing, or just watch football. (Got my MI State U sweat shirt on, just for my sisters.)

Take care!

I have a lot of modeling to do today, and some drawing. There's a thread on the bath board about hypothetical layouts and being able to show where windows are and how adjacent areas are set up would help.

Otherwise... I have a mountain of tax paperwork to start typing up and that's about it for today.

Happy New Year to all at GW, and especially on this thread!

Comfort food -- my mother was an excellent cook, and I make several of her recipes (meat loaf, yes!) but I really don't have any association of her cooking with "comfort".

My grandmother made great chicken'n'dumplings, always my birthday treat until she passed away, but again, not a comfort food.

Maybe scrambled egg sandwiches. Mom always made those for me when I was sick. I don't know if my 4 sibs also always wanted that.

I guess the only other thing for me is, believe it or not, Campbell's Soup. We got it when we were sick, we got it probably every weekend, I still love to have cream of chicken or mushroom, chicken noodle, pea, bean, or tomato. Progresso just doesn't satisfy in the same way. (I make a lot of homemade soup too, but sometimes I just want Campbell's!)

There was a little corner restaurant in my hometown, in a building that had been built in the 1800s sometime (still had pressed-tin ceilings and fans, no A/C) that made the most wonderful juicy shredded beef sandwiches with horseradish sauce. We would beg our Dad to go into town to pick some up for Saturday supper. Alas, the place is long closed as is a lot of the downtown. I think the drugstore with the soda fountain is still hanging on. Another comfort memory -- going with my Dad or Mom to do errands and stopping in for a chocolate soda or a flavored Coca-Cola (for us then, getting a soda-pop was an occasional treat, not a daily or even weekly occurrence).

Frisch's Big Boy is the other place for me -- I still sometimes get a longing for their fish sandwich or a Brawny Lad.

Glad the puppies found homes.

I think that I have finally finished my TKO withdrawal. Ready to move on to the basement! Lots of clearing out to do there first.

Coming in at the last minute as always. Crazy week at work and my Mom has been under the weather. She's feeling better and the work thing has another week to go.

Comfort food. Bread I suppose. My mom always baked bread and now I bake the bread. Also risotto, arancini, Kraft Mac and cheese, Campbell's tomato soup, matzo ball soup from the local deli. My mother's sweet and sour chicken, which is nothing like what you get in Chinese restaurants and is amazing. Pretty eclectic mix of things but different moods require different comforts!

Happy to see the dogs found a home.

Happy New Year, all! Today is Jan 3 and my oldest boy is 13 today! Yikes! That went by quickly! He has a hockey game today and so I made 2 dozen cupcakes for the team/coaches and will make another dozen today for the siblings and we will bring them with us. I also made a black forest cake yesterday for him. I messed up on the whipped cream. Every time! I need a time frame, like whip on high for 10 minutes, not some vague "until stiff peaks form." What does that even mean? Anyway, it looks a disaster, but I might take a knife and scrape the drippings so it doesn't look so bad. It's a three layer cake, but no icing on the outside. The batter was delicious when I was licking the beaters so I'm sure it'll taste good. Please tell me I'm not the only one who still licks the beaters!

That's all from here. I need to make the icing for the other cupcakes and toss the next batch into the oven.

TexasGem, that house is really moving along!
CEF, I'm so glad the puppies found a good home.
Terri, any word on the baby? When is she due?

I remember reading an article where researchers studied "comfort foods" and then had people undergo a functional MRI. The brain literally lights up when people eat a comfort food, so, yes, there is some memory associated with them. This makes sense, because a comfort food for me is not the same as my DH.

My mother was a great home cook. I can make her home-made chicken soup just as good. She also made an awesome coffee cake.

Two things I don't make are Polish golabki (stuffed cabbage rolls) --she would make a huge roaster of them, and rolled steak with bacon and onions.

Happy new year!

Edited to add link.

Here is a link that might be useful: study

This post was edited by gsciencechick on Sat, Jan 3, 15 at 13:24

Texas_Gem and Kiwigem, your postings made me feel less embarrassing since my mom could not cook. She had bad attitude too as from her medical profession's point of view, "all dishes look the same once they are in stomach". It grossed me out so bad that I majored in engineering instead of medical.

Not having mom's comfort food motivated me to come up a few of my own for my kids. It is comforting they ask for 'mom's comfort food' each year when we are together for holidays and vacations.