This past Saturday I joined some of the GLOOWFL for a dinner of comfort food at HT's apt.
Delicious piping hot French Onion Soup and even more delicious Mac & Cheese which was cooked up with some bacon ("and bacon makes everything better").
Today I feel like the OWFL is in need of some good old comfort food so share with us some of your all time favorite food pick me ups...now before you start chanting "Hey Czar, we've done comfort foods before!" Today I'm asking you to add a twist to it. Tell us about those foods that comfort you, remind you of a safe and loving place, and also tell us about a couple songs that put you in the same mood. Some old cheesy songs that remind you of simpler times and immediately bring a smile to your face and warmth to your belly..
Just to show what a good sport I am I'll start by admitting to one of my comfort songs; Whenever I hear "Just When I Needed You Most" by Randy Vanwarmer I am instantly transported to my childhood in the 70's and can see and hear my Mom playing records and singing to me. Instant comfort.
What songs and foods put you in your special comfort place?
Tell us about them and don't forget to tell us WFL?
42 comments:
Peanut butter (crunchy JIF)sandwiches dunked in a cup of hot tea with milk (served out of my dad's old 70's brown mugs). Or a big bowl of macaroni and meatballs made with grandpop's sauce.
And I will forever be 5 years old when I hear the song "Christmas Time is Here" (from the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack).
Motown (Marvin, Smokey, Diana, Stevie, 4 Tops and the Temptations, especially) and Campbell's Tomato soup over macaroni with lots of black pepper and parm.
Also, lately I've been going through my mom's old recipe boxes and cookbooks rediscovering the recipes of my past. This practice resurrected MamaHT's beans, so I'll call it a success so far.
Mom's pork tenderloin, sliced, tenderized, breaded, and baked on the stovetop with sliced potatoes and onions. Perhaps even more than transporting me back to a quiet, content moment in my life, eating that stuff (whether it is in prodigious servings the night it is served for dinner or warm on sandwiches for lunch the next day or cold from the fridge at midnight after an armload of cocktails two nights later) plucks a thread back through my life. Obviously, most of those are tied to mom in one way or another. I loves me that shit.
The most transporting song that comes to mind is The Police's Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic. I clearly remember cruising around suburban Atlanta (where I was visiting for a weekend) with a couple of my summer-nerd-camp friends with the windows down, and it really is sort of melting my heart right now.
[single tear]
Not sure WFL. I went to dinner last night with a former colleague who (upon her resignation) graduated simply to dear friend. Every time we have eaten dinner together (outside of work), it has been Thai food. Last night was no exception, but I left my damned leftover drunken noodle AND her leftover pad thai (which I inherited because she was in a refriferator-free hotel room) sitting at home.
Plan B? Yes. I just don't know what it is yet.
Hey Sunshine...as our Special Events/Seminar coordinator I would like to request that November 4, 2006 be posted as an official OWFL seminar/Lady A/Uni B-day/Post Halloween event. I'll be making a cake shaped like a pumpkin.
Not a comfort food by any stretch, but were any of yinz aware of P.I.N.K. vodka, which is infused with guarana and caffeine, so no need for sugary red bull (b/c so few bars actually have sugar free red bull)? This is wonderful news. I am on a mission!
For lunch I am meeting a friend I lived with in Budapest at Cafe Berlin for schnitzel and things. I hope it doesn't rain, as I'd like to sit outside.
Also, the other night, I made the cheese sauce for the mac and cheese, and had it over pasta so it was like the best alfredo ever.
I swear, I'm going to be 300 lbs. before I get a job... and normally I LOSE weight when I'm not working. Bah.
KIKI!! I LOVE popcorn balls, but yeah, was only allowed to take them from trusted neighbors and friends. Oooohh... I'm totally going to make some of those. I have no idea how though. I remember a lot of them being so hard you'd be afraid of breaking a tooth - I don't want my balls to be hard and dangerous. I'm going to have to do some research...
LOOK AT PEEP'S CROTCH!!!!
The traditional way of making balls seems to be with corn syrup, so they get all hard. But my girl Martha uses marshmallow, which I think would be better, making the balls more like Rice Krispies treats, though I have some fear that it will make the popcorn itself chewy... I will have to experiment with a variety of balls to determine which is best.
be wild n' crazy and make caramel popcorn balls.
comfort food: my mom's bbq sauce chicken ("sauce chicken" as we called). using drumette chicken legs and then sauting them in (sesame???) oil and soy sauce and then bbq sauce. the combo of sauces made it salty and sweet. she'd add carrots, and the soft carrots would be marinated in that sauce. we'd put the sauce chicken over sticky white rice. then for weeks, we'd just have the left over sauce and mix it in with white rice and eat it plain like that...it was just that fucking good.
the reason for eating rice all the time is that it's the cornerstone of any asian diet. also we grew up with one of those fancy pants rice cookers where it keeps your rice warm all day long. so when we got home from school, there was always warm rice waiting for us. it was always the easiest thing to snack on.
the other thing my mom would make is this korean shredded beef side dish called "jang-jo-reem". it's like a hunk o' meat that you marinate in sesame oil and soy sauce for hours...and then you shred up the meat and store it and the sauce in the fridge for days. it lasts FOREVER and we'd eat it with rice, kim chi, toasted salted seaweed, etc. the sauce for that was perfect too for mixing with rice and a fried egg. (poor man's version of bi bim bap...holla!).
wow, i'm getting hungry all of the sudden.
we'd always put on this perry como xmas album during the holidays, so hearing him croon always makes me feel nostalgic and comforted. there's also this korean pop star from years back that sang this one cheesy love song that my mom loved. miss chibi, the C-choi, and i would sing along to it in our toyota previa minivan at the top of our lungs...and we loved it!
Kiki - if I made you popcorn balls I'd HAVE to use that cheese/caramel popcorn mixture from that place we went to when we visited. That stuff was heavenly.
Mmmm...caramel popcorn balls.
Let me just say that I would like to catch a whisper about any popcorn balls, caramel or otherwise, that get made in the vicinity of our nation's capital in the coming month. I would be more than happy to provide my testimony to the creator's greatness in exchange for one tasty ball to pop in my mouth.
Nothing says "I Love You" like Infarto!!!
Lady A, both FoodTV.com and Martha have some caramel ball recipes. Martha also has some pink peonie balls that have dried cranberries in them.
Going to eat Wurst and Schnitzel now. And beer. Lots of German beer. Yay Health!
Much like that muffin lady on Grey's Anatomy, I find myself cooking all the time with my new found, uh, time.
EQ - look for some balls in the coming days. I might even make some to go camping. Not that you can come camping (Chicks Only!) but I can set some balls aside for our compadres with, uh, balls.
Fluffer Nutters, Red Beans and Rice, coffee with mostly milk, hot coco, drop biscuits and sausage gravy (SOS), etc etc
I could go on forever. As for music it just makes me gag now .. but Mom always used to put on Garrison Keeler on Saturday nights and we would listen until the sun set in Houston (beautiful sight). At that time I'd be on my way out or at a much earlier time, watching Dukes of Hazzard (remember .. I'm a total white-boy).
Today I'm going to get red beans and rice from downstairs.
mmmm Daisy ....Dukes of Hazzard ... what was the actress' name again Jo?
HT, while a night or two in the woods with a gaggle of ladies is tantalizing, I understand my exclusion.
Catherine Bach, whom, along with the rope climb at McCoy Elementary in Carrollton, TX, I credit with the earliest stirrings in my "peep region."
How bout chocolate marshmallow balls? (like those half smores/half rice krispies treats made with golden grahms instead of rice krispies.) That would be delish.
My fave comfort food is my mom's Curry Chicken and Shells casserole--it involves both cheese and condensed soup, so it's really, really comforting.
Comfort music varies depending on why I'm in need of comfort, but what I always find comforting, is turning on golf in the middle of a weekend afternoon. I never actually watch the golf game (usually read or nap), but the sooting tones of the announcer's voice and the occassional polite claps brings me right back to my parents' living room. Weird, I know.
2 half smokes for lunch.
one with chil & cheese, the other with cooked onions and mustard.
grape soda and sun chips on the side
WFL today is the complete opposite of what i wrote of: turkey and swiss...i forgot mayo. makes me sad.
I've been on a minor grilled cheese and chili kick lately. The late morning/early afternoon cloud cover here in northern Virginia brought that kick to the fore yet again.
With a side of wasabi peas.
Comfort food: Steakum's. They weren't the best, but something about that thinly sliced beef really was appealing.
Comfort music: Hazy shade of winter, the Simon& Garfunkel version, not the Bangles. Though "walk like an egyptian" was perhaps the most brilliant prose of our generation
More music:
Any song from Prince's Purple Rain.
I used to totally rock the solo from "Lets Go Crazy", including the power slide across the hardwood floors.
I was so fucking awesome!
found a packet of hellman's mayo in my desk drawer...my turkey sandwich is saved!!!!!!!!!
"The sky was so purple there were people running everywhere..."
I wonder what Prince eats for lunch...besides of course...starfish and coffee, maple syrup and jam, a butterscotch cloud, a tangerine and a side order of ham.
I know that Prince serves pancakes to those he vanquises on the basketball court.
Blouses beat shirts every time
When I was sixteen, I was making out with a cheerleader named Julie Jill in my mom's car outside of a house party. At some point in the middle of the making out, she pulls back, looks me in the eye, and says, "I really want to fuck you."
My reply? "Um...I don't know if we're ready for that."
That was the most disappointing moment of my life.
Until today when I opened my package of wasabi peas only to discover that they weren't the wasabi kind, just the toasted pea kind.
What a shitty day.
On an up-note, the grilled cheese and chili were both exceptional, and Julie Jill got really fat in college.
But Earthquake...did you make your grilled cheese with a hobo pie maker?? Cause that is the shizzle nizzle!
Actually, I made my grilled cheese with the well-intentioned middle-aged Asian woman at the dumpy deli in the building next door.
mmm definitely grilled cheese sandwiches made with Velveeta and real butter and a side of wavy lays chips... mmmm it makes me want to curl into a little ball and cry with happiness.. that and post thanksgiving turkey rice soup.. i heart that too... comfort music? Doowhop usually does it for me although most garage rock from the early nineties does that for me too.. ooh and Elliott smith.. yeah.. and old pirate songs..
i love music.
and food.
like kal-bi (lachoi reminded me).. i had a roommate in college that would make bulgogi or kal-bi at least once a week and we would eat pounds of that stuff and drink bottles of gin... ahh simpler days...
lunch today was a "tex-mex skillet".. a pretty bland amalgamation of chili, tortilla chips, cheese (a tiny tiny amount.. wtf?) and guac...
what is up with jersey and the aversion to properly seasoning shit?
Earthquake, GAAAAAAYYYYY!!!
Regardless, most little girls don't say that crap unless they are screwed in the head at 16.
So let copy and paste your words into Google Language Tools ... "I don't think we're ready for this."
.... ok done ... now tranlate text from "16 year old hormonal male" now select the to "adult jaded alpha male",
Google says:
"Wooooahhh, crazy bitch check time everyone (makes timeout hands)!".
Just what I figured .. you didn't want to knock up a girl that had been gotten to by her creepy uncle.
Man! Work meeting! I didn't have time to check until now - well 1/2 hour ago. I've been catching up since then.
Everyone's reminisces are making me kind of sad for the good old days!! To what everyone's added, I'll say, my dad's classical music (especially Handel's Water Music & the Messiah) take me back - usually he would play these records with the fireplace going & I'd do my homework or whatever with a glass of milk & some cookies. Christmas music always takes me back (except for these new-fangled songs that boy-bands like 'N Sync make up - what's that crap??). Certain Beatles songs take me back - my mom would play them & I can still remember some of the thoughts I had about the weirder songs (i.e. 'Fool on the Hill' - the eyes in his head could see the world spinning round? Those are some pretty big eyes!). But my favorite Beatles song is Penny Lane. My mom & I stayed up really late (like 9 o'clock!) listening to the Beatles & making decorations for my 6th birthday party, and she let me have a Coke! I'm sure we had cookies or something. Ah, good times. As for food - Christmas & Thanksgiving meals and leftovers always take me back. It's always weird when my mom decides to make something besides a turkey - it's just not quite right. Usually she cooks a turkey breast the next day, specifically for leftovers. I'm trying to get her to get a turducken this year, though. Mmmmm. Back to the list: grilled cheese, Saltines-broth-ginger ale (for sick days only), grilled chicken, mashed taters, pb&j, my mom's pound cake, my mom's lamb-tomato-eggplant stew, the enchiladas she used to make from scratch, and oh god, the pasta she used to make from scratch. That was some good pasta. Mmm. I'm hungry now (again).
Lunch was a QUIZNO'S SALAD QUIZNO'S SALAD QUIZNO'S SALAD QUIZNO'S SALAD QUIZNO'S SALAD QUIZNO'S SALAD - Cobb. Yum. But it was huge & I only ate half. The original plan was to have the other half for lunch tomorrow, but the new revised plan is to toast the bread & eat the rest in about 20 minutes. Mm mm mm mm toasty.
Speaking of turducken, have I mentioned that I'm heading down to Atlanta this weekend to visit my goddaughter and eat turducken?
God bless you, maniac who gave us this fowl-within-a-fowl-within-a-fowl!
diz: your analysis is spot-on. That doesn't change the fact that today's Earthquake wants to grab yesteryear's Tremor and shake him until he can give a cogent answer to "what the hell are you thinking?"
These non-wasabi peas aren't getting any better.
More cheesy songs...Mom would play these albums almost non-stop: Carol King's Tapestry, Bob Marley's Survival, some Nina Simone thing, some CSNY thing, Billy Joel's 52nd Street, and an Al Jurreau album that had a cover of Elton John's "Your Song" on it.
wow Jo your mom was half-way cool for her time... I got classical and really bad Hank and Jr songs (Crystal Gale how I want to choke the life from your Ghetto-rat-eye-shadowed eyes).
EQ, just give up on the non-wasabi peas. They ain't never gonna get no better. (Oh, yeah, I tripled up the negatives.)
Ooh, my dad had a best-of album from Little Richard! That was great stuff! We would put it on & dance like fools. Which is really the only way to dance to Little Richard. Good Golly, Miss Molly!
Jo reminded me of my mom's Carole King thing, not to mention her affinity for CCR, Jefferson Airplane (Surrealistic Pillow, precisely) and Steppenwolf. She was also a big fan of Nancy Wilson ('Theme From Hotel' not Heart) and the Fifth Dimension. She also took me to see Hair when I was, like, 7, so...
Anyhoo, lunch today was the Munchner Schlactplatte at Cafe Berlin. This consisted of several assorted German sausages and Kessler, with Sauerkraut and potatoes and some sort of gravy stuff. I also had two beers, and was oddly feeling sort of tipsy... so much so that I contemplated not driving up to CP to go to REI to buy my Sani-Femme. However, I made the trek and am now in possession of the beautiful cup/tube contraption which will enable me to relieve myself any and everywhere, without having to squat, or remove my clothing.
I'm now home and sort of sleepy, and am thinking it's time to take a nap.
Actually, LT, I have a trough, a spout, and detachable, directional tubing.
Once in a great while on a rainy or snowy weekend morning/early afternoon I get in the urge to do a "jazz breakfast".
Music is usually Miles, Bird, Monk, maybe a little John Scofield.
Big fat fluffy cheese & sausage omelet (hint: use a little Sprite or 7up to make it fluffier) with, toast, hickory bacon on the side & a tall glass of pulpy OJ.
These are the only times I listen to jazz.
Freddy Hubbard's Red Clay. Forgot about that album, it was one of my Dad's favorites when I was a kid.
I kinda whiffed like Rob Deer on today's topic.
My go-to comfort food with a cheesy songs is the grilled cheese sammich. Havarti, pepper-jack, maybe a slice of tomato in the mix.
Put on the "Have A Nice Decade" 70s box set and let the bad tunes roll.
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