I don't know that I could identify a comfort food any more. Our tastes are so eclectic and changing that it's hard to pin down. A strong contender would be the Chicken and Andouille Sausage gumbo that I make in cooler weather, along with great slabs of my home made bread- a French country hearth loaf. I don't really have strong food-related memories from my childhood, as I was a picky eater, and Mom was a so-so cook. The only tastes that really transport me back are simple things like a really good tomato, fresh off the vine and still warm from the sun. We recently got some local strawberries that I swear are the best I've had since childhood.

I've had such a hard time finding good fruit, especially all the years we lived in FL, that I feared my taste buds had changed! But I have found strawberries, peaches, tomatoes, and apples that have 'that flavor' that I remember, and they transport me back.

For a comfort food that's quick and easy, which I sometimes feel a comfort should be, it's hard to beat a good pizza. Again- not always easy to find!

Growing up I would have to say pigs-n-the blanket. In college I learned that in other areas pigs-n-the blanket meant hotdogs in cornbread! In my neck of the woods it meant stuffed cabbage- 1/2 Italian sausage, 1/2 lean hamburger with rice, egg, and onion rolled up in cabbage leaves, placed in a casserole dish- sauerkraut on top with stewed tomatoes. Served with more rice or mashed potatoes on the side. Mmmmm, always my birthday dinner and an annual event for New Years Eve. It was the culminating food for the holidays. From what I understand a German tradition, although we also did night of the 7 fishes for Christmas Eve, which is I believe, Italian Catholic.....

Now, I yearn for Wedgwood Pizza from Youngstown, OH (no affiliation). Can't find fabulous pizza here, but I can make pigs-n-the blanket! Problem is, I am the only one who loves it :^( so still only a couple times a year...

Interesting question. As I think about it, I realize that for me it is either ground beef.... meatloaf and mashed potatoes, shepherd's pie, lasagna or it is roasted chicken (preferably with mashed turnip). But ask me what my favourite food is, and I will tell you it is fish.

I'm not sure I have any fond memories of food growing up except veggies. I loved and will forever miss my mother's vegetable garden.

As an adult, my favorite 'comfort' food is really the activity of baking. When I am stressed I just start baking. I love to zone out and methodically follow a recipe. I don't know where that came from but it's a release of sorts for me.

Heather I know those pig in a blankets you speak of. That is what I had as a child growing up but moving to this side of the state they are those other sausage in dough ones and people put ketchup on them. Interesting!

My favorite comfort food growing up was lasagna (always chose as my special birthday dinner meal) and bread. Bread and butter and to this day I love toast and I love French bread from the local deli. My Mom also would make home made egg noodles for chicken noodle soup and fresh green beans cooked with bacon and cubed potatoes. Fond memories of both of those and if she asks for requests to make something I pick either of those!

Interesting how food is so different from one part of the country to the next.

We made pigs in a blanket in girl scouts, and they were simply hot dogs wrapped in biscuit dough and baked, sometimes with cheese inside.

I grew up eating chicken-n-dumplings....the rolled thin kind and cooked in a rich broth with stewed chicken. Also fried potatoes with onions and cornbread slathered with lots of butter. An ultimate carb meal. I still make it from time to time, but dh didn't grow up eating it, so not a favorite of his.

Another would be a big pot of vegetable beef stew with homemade yeast rolls. Again...lots of butter.

Still love once in awhile to have deep fried, toasted ravioli dipped in both pasta meat sauce and parmesan or fettucini cream sauce. The ultimate appetizer/snack. Yum!

I wish I could say that fish was a favorite of mine cause it would be SO much better for me. I eat it...but I can't say it's really enjoyable. :-/

Comfort food, as in, I am sick or sad, what food brings me comfort, is Graham crackers in milk. Waiting just long enough so that some are still crunchy, some soft and near-soggy. Mmmmm.

Can you spell carbohydrates! In any form, they comfort me, but I've never met a potato I didn't like.

It used to be pastina with butter and salt. Or mac and cheese.

For my birthday my Mom always made my favorite brisket and kasha varnishkas, which is groats, sautéed onions and bowtie pasta.

Wow.
As I read this thread, I find myself making low, quivering, ooooo noises. Very seldom met a dish I didn't care for. I love sauces, stews, and anything with mashed potatoes.

Interestingly, I would have once said meat loaf was comfort, but so was steak on the grill. I just don't remember anything special, now. I'll have to ask my sisters.

I am having a disturbing development around food these days. I have returned to my espresso and Reese's cups breakfasts. I'll eat anything involving sugar (but canNOT drink sweet things). Anyway, don't really care much about that element. The highlight of my week has been heading out for a steak, mashed potatoes, and a glass of wine on whatever day was my Friday that week.

Recently, I've discovered I enjoy my dinner's flavor and texture (very important to me) but I come away with "eh" as far as the experience is concerned. A little depression, I think, but I sure wish the "eh" feeling would apply to sugar!

So what I guess had developed into my comfort ritual is becoming no longer enjoyable.

I might have to start to cook again....

Ooooo!! Trashed chicken wings! Forgot those. Yummy, yum yum.

And corn on the cob....with lots of butter. I could make a whole meal out of eating just this. Have you noticed the trend here....Butter! And just food in general. :-)

Trashed chicken wings? Please explain - sounds interesting!

Carbs in general are comfort food for me, too. Mac and cheese or chicken pot pie in particular, or dumplins from Cracker Barrel (just dumplins, no icky chicken breast, please! LOL)

Donna

beachem, I enjoyed your post. Real chicken soup, mostly broth, so flavorful that you just want to close your eyes and breathe over the bowl, that would be my comfort food.

This is such a fun thread to read. I love food and I'm learning about stuff I've never heard of. Keep it coming please.

@mushcreek yum gumbo and crusty French bread. Can't beat that combo either. When it comes to pizza, I will only eat Chicago style deep dish pizza. The thin New York style leave me meh.

@Heather. Your pig n blanket sounds delicious. I've never heard of that style before. Always something new.

@sherri ooh I love shepherds pie too. Is it a good dish to freeze? I like to make difficult things in batches and freeze them.

@autumn I love lasagna but rarely makes it due to the time constraint. Recently I made vegetable lasagna after 10 yrs and froze a bunch so we can indulge without me spending 10 hrs of cooking one dish.

@design, wow I've never heard of or tried most of the food you talked about.

@bpathome and @anglophilia, I'm a carb lover too.

@cpartist. What is pastina? The others sounds like really cool dishes too. And trashed chicken wings. Please tell.

@CEfreeman I found that when it comes to food, ambience is nice but low on the scale for me.

Cpartist- pastina with butter and salt ohhhhhhhh the memory that evokes of being small and comforted. I didn't even remember it. My Grammy would add a soft boiled egg.

Toast, especially sourdough, is my ultimate comfort food, but eating gluten free limits the indulgence. Likewise fresh baked bread.

Popcorn is a close second. Buttered or not, yellow or white, popcorn makes me happy. My mom says it was the first solid food I ate. My dad, also a popcorn lover, made it every Sunday night for as long as I can remember (and that's getting to be quite a while). When I was a baby, he would pick the hulls off and give me the tender middles. I make it in the pan, not the microwave. So much better, and still super easy.

Msmeow and Beachem, trashed chicken wings are first flash fried and then removed, coated in hot sauce and then flash fried again. Extra crispy. They aren't hot after the second fry. Then you can dunk them in whatever sauce you like. My preference is blue cheese or ranch.

For anyone who doesn't know what toasted ravioli is, it's my understanding it's a local thing here in St. Louis that we can buy in the frozen section of the grocery store. It would be interesting to know if other parts of the country have them as well.

They are breaded meat raviolis. You deep fry them until the outside is golden and crunchy and serve them with red pasta meat sauce as an appetizer. I then roll them in grated parmesan.

Comfort food rather than favorite food -- depends on the situation. When I was little and sick, my mother would make scrambled egg sandwiches which was comfort food to me. Also toasted cheese sandwiches made with Velveeta (even now). Cream of chicken soup from the red-and-white can. My go-to for stress relief after a long hard day at the hospital tends to be something unhealthy and crunchy (like a vast quantity of cookies or crackers), or ice cream.

Christine I have been having the same sort of experience with one of my once favorite activities. Yes, maybe a bit of depression in my case -- I have struggled with it off & on for years.

If I had to pick one Proustian comfort food, it would have to be golabki, aka: stuffed cabbage. My golabki is also part of a trio, and must be served with mashed potatoes and cucumbers in sour cream dressing.

It's the melding off all 3 things that happens as I eat the dish that really sends it over the top for me.

Some of the Stouffer's selections are both comfort and nostalgia to me, in particular the macaroni and cheese and the meat lasagna. No question that we were raised on "convenience" foods (mother disliked cooking); I survived and now rarely eat such things but once in awhile will buy a Stouffers. Other than that, both popcorn and chocolate are definite comfort foods. Cinnamon toast, or toast with butter and apricot preserves, are also high up there. I rarely have bread and butter in the house because if I do I can go through a whole loaf way too quickly. Occasionally I just crave a good crusty white baguette.

Well, now I'm hungry. . .

Oh I forgot to add my comfort baking is a 2 step process with the second step being eating my baked goods also 2 step - first raw in dough form and then baked nice and warm. :D

I love butter - LOVE it. Mashed potatoes never had or needed gravy for me. Instead I always made the little bowl in the middle and put so much butter it would be a nice melted puddle. Ohhhhh. So yummy! I also like cinnamon toast for a snack with that yummy cinnamon sugar soaking up the puddles of butter. I wish I wouldn't have typed that - I am trying to ease up on my bread consumption and I love cinnamon toast for a snack and it is snack time!

mushcreek - mmhmm. I like semi-sweet and eat the chocolate chips right out of the bag.

This thread is making me hungry, and I just finished dinner. My comfort foods- pastina and butter, pot roast with noodles, broiled lamb chops. and lately wonton soup from the local Chinese restaurant.

Yum to everything mentioned! I am waiting for my husband to get home with takeout, and this thread it not helping my patience!

My comfort food is usually something warm and soft. Soup. Mashed potatoes. No specific recipe -- I think I tended to eat things that were warm and easy on the throat when I was sick, and that temperature/texture is what defined comfort food for me.

I'm not sure that this is quite the same thing as comfort food, but I also get a warm, family sort of feeling from sharing fresh fruit. Stems from my father's immense delight at purchasing fruit/hearing that we enjoyed eating it. His family was quite poor growing up and could not afford much fresh food, so my whole life, my dad's always been immensely pleased to see his family eat well. Drives my mom bananas (pun intended) because she thinks he spends to much on food, but it makes him SO happy. The fruit basket at my parents' house is probably the best stocked in the country.

Since that was normal for me growing up, I also always have fresh fruit in my house, and my husband is usually so delighted to help me eat anything I've washed/cut up. It's all very homey.

On hot summer days: rollkuchen (mennonite deep fried pastry/bread sticks) with watermelon. Can't eat watermelon without the rollkuchen!

All other days: my grandma's made from scratch chicken noodle soup with her fresh baked bread for dipping

Kristi I had to look up Rollkuchen. Yum! I'm from a Midwest German American family but hadn't heard of these. They do remind me, however, of fritters that we had for meatless dinners. We had corn fritters with maple syrup. Later as a student in Austria I greatly expanded my fritter palate! Growing up we also ate a big German "oven pancake", very eggy and rich, with powdered sugar. More dessert than dinner I'm afraid.

Cassandra, you should try them! Soooo good. I think different heritages call them by different names

Yes, design savvy, a St Louis thing! I lived there for 19 yrs and used to order them at Frank and Helen's on Olive St Rd. Also adored their thin crust bacon pizza. Of course, then there's Ted Drewe 's frozen custard and Crown Candy Kitchen - all favorites I try to visit if I'm back in St Louis.

@mushcreek,

Chocolate is more of a luxury for me as I can't eat much of it. It's either too much sugar if made by someone else or decadently rich if made by me.

When I make a chocolate item, it's so rich in chocolate taste that a couple of tiny bites get my brain humming for hours. I get serious endorphin overdose.

An old fashioned open faced chili burger. The bun has to be toasted. The burger sits on on the bottom and the top is cut in two and set at the sides. The whole thing must be smothered in a bean and meat chili and topped with chopped red onions and preferably diced processed American cheese. Shredded cheddar will do but the stacked diced process cheese is what makes it a traditional diner style comfort food.

When I was ill as a child I never could stand bland things like soup. I still can't. My comfort food was canned Chef Boyardee Ravioli (couldn't eat that now) or a wonderful tripe that a little hole in the wall Mexican restaurant made. Not menudo, just tender tripe in a red hot enchilada style sauce. I lived on toast,honey and orange juice. Sometimes just the juice. But my first meal would be one of those.

designsavvy, the trashed wings sound excellent! Bravo! restaurants here in Orlando have toasted ravioli.

Donna

I'm not sure I need a comfort food, or when I would eat one. I don't get melancholy or sad that often, but when I'm lazy there are any number of super easy foods I always make when I'm hungry and don't want to cook. But whenever I go to my Mom's I have to have her make roast beef with gravy and home made french fries. Mmmm! Love those.