Comfort Food of Yore

by Courtney Pierce

When I was a child in the early sixties, colds required soft-boiled eggs with melted butter and toasted Wonder Bread. My caring mother’s loving fix for everything. Today that remedy would require a chaser of Lipitor. Foiled TV dinners of Swanson’s Fried Chicken in front of The Flintstones and The Jetsons were a Friday night treat. Now, the treat is roast chicken with a salad in front of an On Demand episode of Outlander or Downton Abby.

Oh, how times have changed. How spoiled have we become? Very spoiled hypocrites. 

Health consciousness now reigns with an over-wealth of unhealthy food―if only enjoyed vicariously with a remote control and the Food Network. Paula Dean and her butter pats inside a hamburger and mayonnaise on just about everything used to crack me up―until she disclosed her diabetes. My eyes travel from Guy Fieri’s spikey hair to his sphere above his belt. Look away and check out what he’s cooking on that grill.

Even though unthinkable, I recall picking off that crispy chemical coating from the chicken and waiting as long as possible to empty the foiled compartment of its sweet-and-savory apple crisp. I still can’t get through a cold without that runny egg and toast . . .  sans the butter. Even at my worst, I follow the new rules while I reach back to my youth. Gets in the DNA.

And remember sandwiches slathered with Deviled Ham, Spam, or fried Taylor Ham (for those of us who lived in New England)? Yeah . . . salted road kill of lips, snouts, and tongues. But those options were standard fare for lunch, accompanied with a chemical salt powder of fake Lipton's noodle soup in a mug. Today―while I write―I pile butter lettuce with unsalted wild-caught albacore and garbanzo beans with a drizzle of fresh lemon and olive oil. Fills the void, but I enjoy it―my new comfort food.

Don't get me started on breakfast.

We little champions started our day with toy surprises, luring us kids to boxes of sugary cereal that might as well have been Cracker Jack with whole milk. I shake my head when I think about it now, spooning raisins over my plain Shredded Wheat soaked with almond Silk.

So, how have I remained alive? I have no idea. Must be the preservatives still hanging out in my organs.

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Oregon with her husband of thirty-seven years and bossy cat. She writes for baby boomers. Her novels are filled with heart, humor, and mystery. Courtney has studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. Active in the writing community, Courtney is a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and is a member of Willamette Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, She Writes, and Sisters in Crime. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal. 

New Release!

The Dushane Sisters are back with Courtney's new release of Indigo Lake. More laughs, more tears...and more trouble. Protecting Mom's reputation might get the sisters killed―or give one of them the story she's been dying to live.

New York Times best-selling author Karen Karbo says, "Courtney Pierce spins a madcap tale of family grudges, sisterly love, unexpected romance, mysterious mobsters and dog love. Reading Indigo Lake is like drinking champagne with a chaser of Mountain Dew. Pure Delight."

Colorful characters come alive in Courtney's latest trilogy about the Dushane sisters. The fun starts in The Executrix. When three middle-age sisters find a manuscript for a murder mystery in their mother's safe after her death, a whole new view of Mom will guide their future. Is it fiction . . . or truth? 

Check out all of Courtney's books at: 

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com.

Maligned Comfort Food & Fond Memories

By Linda Lovely

I’m not sure why April is our chosen month to blog about comfort foods. Maybe it’s the need to seek comfort after completing our tax returns, because we’re either (a) weeping over how much we owed the government, or (b) sighing that we didn’t earn enough to owe a penny. Authors often fall into that second category unless they have a day job, rich parents, well-paid spouses, or some combination of the above. But I digress.

I consider almost all foods a comfort. I LOVE food—including items from every section of the food pyramid. Broccoli and Brussel sprouts. Turkey and gravy.  Potatoes au gratin. Chocolate chip cookies. Any flavor of ice cream.

But as comfort foods, I’m obliged to list two of the most maligned entrees that grace American (well, at least, Midwest) dinner tables—tuna noodle casserole and meatloaf. Both made frequent appearances on our plates when I was growing up.  They top my comfort food list because of the fond memories each provides. (Okay, I liked how they tasted, too. I don’t have a sophisticated palate.)

Let’s begin with tuna noodle casserole. Cost, simplicity, and the ability to reheat leftovers made this a go-to favorite of my working mother. The fond memories come from all the different recipes and ingredients we tried to add variety. As I recall the starter version had canned tuna, egg noodles, frozen peas, mushroom soup, and breadcrumbs. Later iterations featured potato chips, corn flakes, fried onions, green peppers, corn, carrots, onions, pimentos, and cheese.   The winner? A casserole we baked in a bread pan so it resembled a meatloaf (more on that later) and could slice when cold. Cold was my favorite!

I can’t share an actual recipe as I’m not sure we ever wrote one down. But, if I were to make it today (and I might, despite my husband’s avowed aversion to any form of tuna-noodle casserole), I’d cook and drain a package of elbow macaroni, chop and sauté a an onion and a (sweet) red pepper, drain a couple cans of tuna, and stir all the ingredients together in a big bowl. Then I’d make a thick cheese sauce with milk, flour and a combo of Velveeta and shredded cheddar. Mix and pour into a couple of bread pans, top with buttered bread crumbs and bake.  Yum.

Now it’s time to put meatloaf in the spotlight. When I think of meatloaf, I always recall our annual family vacations. Each summer Mom drove us from Keokuk, Iowa, to Spirit Lake, Iowa, where we visited her brother (my uncle) and his family. Mom liked to start out at five a.m. to avoid some of the heat of the day. She always packed meatloaf sandwiches for our “lunch.” I’m not sure if we ever made it past the Keokuk city limits before my sister and I started asking for meatloaf sandwiches—slathered with ketchup, of course.

Mom was convinced that tomato juice and eggs made meatloaf “tough.” So her version was held together with milk and cracker crumbs, kneaded together by hand. She also used a combo of ground beef, pork and veal (it wasn’t that expensive then). I still make meatloaf three or four times a year, though these days the meat tends to be ground turkey, and I use breadcrumbs and tomato juice/sauce, an egg, chopped green peppers, celery, mushrooms & onions, basil and oregano. No recipe. My cooking is like my plotting. Seat of the pants.

What comfort foods bring back good memories for you? Do you still cook/eat them?

Time to quit writing, I’m suddenly hungry.

Ice Cream: Comfort Food Then & Now

by Kristin Holt

I love ice cream. My #1 Comfort Food. Doesn't matter if it's snowing or 40 below. I never met an ice cream I didn't like (well, perhaps one flavor).

Ice cream may be produced in factories today, but it was originally a back-porch homemade treat.

"In 1843, New England housewife Nancy Johnson invented the hand-cranked ice cream churn. She patented her invention but lacked the resources to make and market it herself. Johnson sold the patent for $200 to a Philadelphia kitchen wholesaler who, by 1847, made enough ice cream makers to satisfy the high demand. From 1847 to 1877, more than 70 improvements to ice cream makers were patented." [source]

This bit of Americana history made it easy to slip cherry ice cream into The Menace Takes a Bride.

Excerpt: (California, 1895)

LUKE STOOD inside the kitchen, watching Garth and Mitzi through the screen door. They sat side by side on the porch swing. Garth moved the swing to and fro with a gentle push of his feet.

Luke couldn’t see Mitzi’s face from his vantage point, but he knew she enjoyed the ice cream immensely. He’d tasted the treat delivered by the creamery. Plump, fresh cherries, frozen in sweet cream with plenty of sugar. Mitzi had been delighted.

Satisfaction swelled in his old heart.

By Jupiter, it felt good to give the dear girl a bit of happiness.

Garth, idiot that he was, may have ordered Luke to cease and desist with the presents. Luke had thought about it, for all of about five minutes.

He’d believed that eventually Garth would do his duty and court his own wife. Until then, somebody had to do it for him.

‘You can’t teach an old man to suck eggs,’ Luke had wanted to say. Who was Garth to question his father’s experience? Did he think he could tell his dad something he didn’t already know?

Luke had lived through two wars and survived a gold rush. More importantly, he’d been a husband for twenty-two glorious years. A pang of loneliness tightened about his heart. He’d been around plenty long enough to understand how a courtship ought to progress.

Garth may have ordered him to stop giving presents, to stop meddling, but Luke knew better. Besides, ice cream didn’t count. It was food, not a bauble and certainly not meddling.

On the porch, he heard Mitzi’s moans of pleasure. Luke grinned at her little-girl delight. Until tonight, the poor thing hadn’t ever tasted ice cream.

Imagine that. Ice cream. He shook his head, amazed at the simple life she’d lived.

Silhouetted against the setting sun, Luke watched with pleasure as Mitzi rested her head on Garth’s shoulder. From this distance, he couldn’t quite hear what they talked about, but they were talking. That was good enough to ease an old man’s concerns.

Cora stepped up to his side, her tread light on the kitchen floor. She folded her arms and watched the young couple for a minute, perhaps two. “You did a good thing, Luke. A very good thing.”

Yes, he had. The more he saw of Mitzi and Garth together, the more he knew he’d done the right thing.

They looked like a husband and wife, and the image made Luke grin.

A husband. He’d made his boy a husband.

He wanted to jump up and down, hoot and holler with the thrill of victory—but that would interrupt the most domestic, tender thing he’d ever seen going on out on the porch swing.

An idea came to mind, a most exciting thought. It wasn’t a gift, he rationalized. Merely her due. Mitzi was a Wakefield, not a nun. She deserved more than a plain gold wedding band. If Garth had found Mitzi on his own, he would’ve wooed her with a diamond the size of a quail egg.

If Garth knew how to court properly, he would’ve bought Mitzi a diamond already. The boy would appreciate a little help getting the shopping done.

“I need a woman’s opinion,” he said to Cora.

“Oh?”

“Tomorrow morning, you and I are visiting the jeweler.”

 Copyright © 2013 Kristin Holt, LC

OLD FASHIONED ICE CREAM [credit]

1 c. whipping cream 1 c. milk 1/2 c. sugar 1 tsp. vanilla 2 children (or more) 1 lb. coffee can 3 lb. coffee can Ice 3/4 c. salt (rock or kosher works best) Put all ingredients in a 1 pound coffee can with a tight fitting plastic lid. Place this can inside a 3 pound coffee can with a tight-fitting plastic lid. Pack space between cans with crushed ice. Add 3/4 cup of salt over the ice. Place the lid on the 3 pounds can and roll back and forth on the cement or floor (that won't scratch) for about 10 minutes.Open the big can and remove the smaller can; wipe the outside of the can and lid and open to scrape down the sides and stir ice cream. Put the lid back on and put it back into the salt and ice and continue rolling for another 5 to 10 minutes. Open and enjoy. Serves 2 to 4.

 

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Savoury and Sweet Comfort Foods

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of SciFi and supernatural stories to engage your emotions. I'm a big fan of comfort foods, as my stomach sadly bears witness to. Couple that to my husband being a great cook with a sweet tooth who loves spending time in the kitchen, and my waistline has little chance. So I thought I'd share one of my favourite (and healthy) comfort foods - soup - with my husband's Killer Brownies to follow.

Thrown in Anything Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:
Cooking oil
1 onion, red or white
Mixed root vegetables of your choice (sweet potato, potato, squash, pumpkin, leek, peppers, carrots, parsnips, swede etc)
Bag of leaf salad (kale is currently my favourite, though you could use spinach, rocket, mixed leaf etc)
Lentils if you like them
Water
Vegetable stock cubes
Method:
1. Take a large cooking pot/saucepan, and pour in enough oil to cover the bottom. Add one chopped onion (and sliced leek and/or pepper if using)
2. Chop/dice your mixed root vegetables (the smaller the pieces the quicker they will cook, and the less household energy you'll use!). I generally chop enough to half fill my big soup pot.
3. Gently fry the onion until soft, then add your chopped root vegetables and make sure they're all coated in the oil. Leave to sweat on a low heat with the lid on for ten minutes.
4. Add enough water to just cover the root veg, plus a stock cube, and lentils if you want them. Then add enough leaf vegetable to fill the rest of the pot to the rim (this will then steam cook, preserving the goodness!).
5. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until all the root vegetables are soft. Blend to your preferred consistency. 

This is a great way to use up odd vegetables, and easy enough that most people can cook it (well, I manage, lol). Incidentally, this recipe ended up in my time travel romance novel Keir.

And if you have a sweet tooth, then there's my husband's special: Killer Chocolate Brownies. And they're called 'Killer' for a reason. We only have this as a very special rare treat, like birthdays or Christmas, because they are very, very rich (but also very yummy).

Killer Chocolate Brownies
Ingredients
275g/10oz plain chocolate (70% cocoa)
170g/6oz milk chocolate chunks/drops
325g/12oz caster sugar
175g/6oz plain flour 
1 tsp baking powder
275g/10oz unsalted butter 
4 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 170C/325F/Gas3. Line a 30x20x3.5cm/12x8x1½in tin with buttered greaseproof paper or foil.
2. Put the plain chocolate and butter in a large bowl, place over a pan of boiling water and allow to melt.
3. Sieve the flour and baking powder and set aside. Remove the melted chocolate from the heat and stir in the sugar. Add the eggs. Fold in the flour and milk chocolate chunks.
4. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 20-25 minutes. The top should be firm but soft on the inside. 

5. Allow to cool in the tin. Serve warm with icecream or whipped cream, or eat cold later with a good, strong coffee (or try it with raspberry sorbet). Enjoy!

Want to chat? Swing by my website or talk to me on Twitter as @pippajaygreen

My Alaskan Comfort Food by Lynn Lovegreen

We all have comfort foods, at least one food we go to when we need stress relief or a reminder of home. In Alaska, that comfort food is often wild salmon.

When I was growing up, our family would go camping at Willow Creek while my dad was fishing with friends. I remember Mom cooking hours-fresh salmon filets, pan-fried with a light cornmeal coating. When we got home, we’d wrap each fish, name, and freeze it. (It kept us girls entertained to come up with the names and write them on the freezer paper.) All winter long, Mom would roast a salmon, announce which one it was this time, and we’d dig in, thanking Gertrude or Sammy or whoever we were eating that night.

Now, my husband is the one that catches salmon, dip-netting on the Copper River. Our favorite way to cook it is grilled, basted with half olive oil and half lemon juice, with a little garlic, chopped onion and spices added. When it’s too cold to grill or we want a change, salmon is also good smoked, or in chowder, quesadillas, omelets, patties…. You get the idea. 

I am so lucky to have comfort food that is tasty and actually good for you, thanks to salmon being omega-3 rich. May your comfort food feed your body and your soul. Isn’t that why we eat anyway, for both reasons?

P.S. Celebrate spring with RTG’s Spring Has Sprung! Join us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/1061234633949174/ or Pinterest at https://www.pinterest.com/marciakinggambl/spring-has-sprung/ until April 26.

Lynn Lovegreen grew up in Alaska, and still lives there. Her young adult/new adult historical romances are set in the Alaska Gold Rush, a great time for drama, romance, and independent characters. See her website at www.lynnlovegreen.com.

Comfort Eating? Are you guilty?

by Diana McCollum

What is comfort food? Is it food we love and eat any old time, because we love it, or is it food we eat when we are worried, stressed or feeling sorry for ourselves?

com·fort food

bread pudding

noun

1. food that provides consolation or a feeling of well-being, typically any with a high sugar or other carbohydrate content and associated with childhood or home cooking.
2. 
   

Comfort eating:

 ​eating because you are ​feeling ​worried or ​upset and not because you are ​hungry

I could eat chocolate or cheese cake or pizza anytime it’s put in front of me. But when I’m upset or worried, give me homemade mashed potatoes smothered in butter. Give me bakery made sweet rolls or bread. I'll eat a couple pieces of toast with jam and a cup of tea. Those are foods I normally try to avoid. But when I’m upset, I need my comfort food!

My friend Kathy Coatney wrote a great blog post on stress eating. Check it out.

If you've ever wondered where the term comfort food comes from: 

It appeared in an article in The Atlantic in April 2015 in the 1977 Washington Post magazine article on Southern cooking.

"When the Oxford English Dictionary added a definition for “comfort food” in 1997, it traced the term’s etymology back to a 1977 Washington Post magazine article about Southern cooking: “Along with grits, one of the comfort foods of the South is black-eyed peas.”

So are you a stress eater or comfort food eater? What foods comfort you the most?