To me, "comfort food" is a misnomer. I find any good food to be comforting, and it doesn't have to be a big Thanksgiving buffet. A good sandwich is comforting to me too. Fall time is a good time for hot foods, long cooked foods, slow roasted foods. Stew, chili, pot roast, meatloaf, turkey breast, ham... Done right, they're all comforting. Add in a pecan or apple pie, spice cake, good cup of coffee or tea and have a feast. Even some good quality bratwurst fit in here too. Never was big on soup. Soup is a side dish, not a meal. I don't drink a meal anymore. I want a thick, hearty stew instead.

We also were dirt poor so there were no elaborate dishes for us. Mom was a plain cook but she could do some things well - fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy (or potato salad) on Sunday. Sometimes we'd pack it up and take it to the "pasture" which was simply a cow pasture owned by Dad's boss and we'd spread our feast out on a blanket on the ground and eat. If Dad had an extra dollar, he'd stop on the way and buy a gallon of ice cream for 99 cents. If he was really feeling rich, a six-pack of Pepsi. Bottles, of course. After our feast, us kids would run up and down in the grass and wade in the creek. Mom could make a great goulash from hamburger, elbow macaroni and homegrown tomatoes, tall fluffy cinnamon rolls with lots of gooey brown sugar on the bottom and minimal icing, and a lemon meringue pie she was extremely proud of. After I watched her make the meringue once, I wouldn't eat it. But the lemon part was good and she was great with piecrust from scratch. My grandma, Dad's mother, was a very plain and unimaginative (English) cook. But her sugar cookies were wonderful. We lived with grandma and grandpa for a short while when I was a kid and when we got off the school bus and ran inside to smell her sugar cookies - bliss! I make her recipe now and it is probably my most memorable comfort food. Tall, soft and cakelike - she didn't use any icing, but I do!

If I’m sick, I want Campbell’s tomato soup, Nabisco saltine crackers, and a real Coke. Other than that, if I’m needing comfort almost anything creamy will do. 🙋🏻‍♀️ Another La Madeleine lover here! When I can calorically afford it, my favorite lunch is a chicken salad croissant with Strawberries Romanov for dessert. Ten or more years ago, they had a wonderful breakfast/brunch dish that was like potatoes au gratin with ham in it. It also had a large clove of garlic baked in the middle. I always just ate around the garlic. I took DD and a couple of her sorority sisters there for breakfast before they hit the road back to school. One of the girls ate the garlic in her dish. What a surprise!

I always find these type of lists fun, fascinating, head-scratching. How they are decided. The LED lighting company that put it together....can't figure out how they came up with the list. Went down the rabbit hole that is 'google trends' for 2020. Tried various key words but 'recipe' gave the best results. I did global, then the US, then by state, county, city, even by week throughout the year. I went to France, the UK, Ireland, Greece, Italy. Must be a 'key word' I'm missing. Did not see corn cakes, grilled cheese, or fried chicken anywhere. -Global on the left, US on the right. Would be interesting to compare 2019 and 2020. Doubt we would see as much bread/sourdough. State-by-state I saw much more pizza, stews, breads. Nice to get a top ten, rather than just one. (the whipped coffee was a tik-tok viral thing.) Sugar, cream, and instant coffee. Ick. We did not change much but did try something new at least once a week. 52 weeks in a year so that was fun. Twice a week at least, a grain/bean or noodle veg bowl. Went through 4 pounds of white miso and gallons of bone/veg broth. Lots of eggs. Seafood, lamb. The ultimate comfort would be the great American burger, and a Salmon, Avocado BLT. Proscuitto bacon. DH would add merquez lamb sausage to the ultimate comfort. Having that tonight in a roasted halved spaghetti squash. New 2020 comforts would be salmon cakes. Now at least once a month. And shrimp-n-grits. If I had to pick just one....three farm eggs, cracked whole, low heat, slow stir so the eggs do not scramble, variegated. Dill and a bit of fluffy parm/romano. DH would say anchovy's, garlic, parm/romano over egg pasta, wide noodles. Comfort together?...the burger. And the BLT....and scrapple, 😂 But we can't get that here. The lighting LED people's conclusion, "...What else makes comfort food even better? When you’re eating it under led lighting that’s designed to make everything under them look better. Our products are designed to deliver superb color quality and complete controllability so not only does your comfort food taste good, it looks good too....