Prompt: Tell us about your comfort foods. Where do they take you? What houses, seasons, cities, and life changes circle around those foods that made you feel everything would be OK?
Homemade bread still warm from the oven. My grandma was magic when it came to making bread. She had 12 kids to feed, so got lots of practice. I especially loved her cinnamon swirl. When I was older, sometimes she’d bake a loaf for me for Christmas.
Chicken noodle soup, homemade baking powder biscuits with butter and jam. That year when I had pneumonia and missed so much school I was worried I’d have to repeat the fifth grade.
Annie’s macaroni and cheese, white cheddar shells, supplemented with grilled ham and peas, with a biscuit or toast on the side.
Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Always, at every moment of my life these two have been absolute perfection — store brand canned and fake orange slices on white bread, or made from tomatoes grown in my garden and sharp fancy cheese on thick organic bread. Either way, it just works.
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Quesadillas, my current favorite. They make everything better.
Honestly, anything bread or potatoes, any time. This is and always has been my go to, bread or biscuits, soft and warm straight from the oven, or toasted with butter and maybe some jam. I also love donuts and cake and pie crust, which are breadlike enough to count. And potato chips, yes please. And my mom’s crescent rolls? I can’t even talk about them. I might cry.
I asked Pearl (who is nine) tonight about food and comfort and food and love, curious what she’d say. Her responses: Hot cocoa on snow days, and Annie’s mac & cheese. (Not sure how she’d feel about the peas!) Personally, I’m a bit obsessed with the cookies in the top right.
Jena, the secret to the cookies is to roast the walnuts and use dark brown sugar. ❤