Comfort Food Recipes
Almost every Sunday morning growing up, my father would make a huge apple coffee cake for us after church. Recently I pulled this recipe from the Boston Globe; they had it listed as an apple cake for the Jewish high...
It's apple season here in New England, where I am visiting my goddaughter and her family. We went apple picking a few days ago and came home with so many apples, we'll be cooking with them all week. Today the...
Now here's a classic midweek meal, or a hot dish to bring to a potluck. Baked ziti is a lot like American lasagna, but easier to make; it has practically the same ingredients but you don't have to fuss with...
Planning a gathering for a Fourth of July BBQ? Try these spicy hot wings from Hank. Watch out though, they're good; if you're not careful you might eat the whole batch! ~Elise Many years ago, when I was a cross...
Beef brisket is a fabulous cut of meat. The brisket is located between the shoulders and the forelegs of the steer; these muscles get a work-out, and they are also well marbled with fat. So they are highly flavorful and...
What better on a chilly day than a plate of steaming hot beef stew with light, fluffy dumplings? My super-hero father decided to make goulash for us recently and when the first recipe he tried didn't work out (go figure...
According to the Wikipedia, Beef Stroganoff was invented by a chef working for a Russian general, Count Pavel Stroganov, in the 1890s. It became popular in the U.S. in the 1950s from servicemen returning from Europe and China after WWII...
As some of you may be aware, California has been hit with some stormy weather recently. We warm-weather low-landers don't do cold and wet too well and for the last several days of rainy and cold I've been craving some...
My mother grew up in a house where there was constant entertaining. My nana was somewhat of a social bee and even I remember how every night was a party night when as a child I came to visit during...
Oh la la. This is not your grandma's broccoli cheese casserole. Ever since Christopher Kimball challenged people to Google broccoli casserole, insisting they would be disappointed with what they found, I've been meaning to post a killer broccoli casserole. And...
Recently at dinner my father instructed me, "tell your website readers that your dad says this is a good one." Done, dad. This chicken was good - perfectly tender, well flavored, crunchy - just what one wants in fried chicken...
About once a week, for my entire upbringing, my mother would prepare a very simple side of pasta with a sweet, buttery tomato sauce. Usually she used elbow macaroni pasta, because usually a small bowl of tomato pasta would be...
Winter took its sweet time coming to Northern California this year, but it did finally arrive, and here we are with long, chilly nights and frost-kissed mornings. Perfect weather for a warming bowl of pot pie. There is the classic...
Most kids grow up learning how to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so they can help themselves in the kitchen when they want some lunch. In our family, it was cheese tacos. It's our stand-by what-do-you-make-when-you-haven't-really-thought-about-it-in-advance lunch. There's always...
My friend Michelle loves to throw big parties, with plenty of food and plenty of friends. I think it must be the large Italian family thing, one is never at a loss for food or great company at her house...
Gumbo! (Don't you just love the sound of that word?) Here's a classic from Hank. Enjoy! ~Elise Gumbo is one of my favorite stews in the world. There are Cajun versions, Creole versions, gumbo from Alabama and from Mississippi. I've...
Chicken parmesan is one dish that every busy cook should have in his or her repertoire. Once you get the hang of it, it comes together quickly; it's lip smacking good and utterly satisfying. Chicken parmesan is also one of...
My father's childhood friends Dick and Doris came to visit us last week from Chicago (by train!) and brought the most wonderful gift - a copy of the Marshall Field's Cookbook (sometimes available on eBay), from the famed Chicago department...
Recipe updated Aug, 2011 Chicken and dumplings - the ultimate comfort food. When we were kids, my mother used to make chicken and dumplings for us by simply adding Bisquick biscuit dough to chicken stew. We would always fight over...
Have you ever had the soup can classic chicken rice casserole? I admit, I have not, though the idea of it intrigued me recently. It sort of reminds me of my mother's arroz con pollo, but with mushrooms and without...
So much of our enjoyment of foods comes from the memories they evoke, don't you think? Cinnamon toast. Just saying the words and I see myself 8 years old sitting at our dining room table with assorted siblings, elbowing each...
Today, as I write this, marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of America's Civil War, with the bombardment of Fort Sumter . I recently took my 13-year old nephew to visit our nation's capitol, including visiting Robert E. Lee's...
Why do I love meatloaf? It reminds me of being a kid. Where does one get meatloaf other than at home or at a school cafeteria? When I lived in San Francisco I bought meatloaf already mixed and seasoned from...
Have you ever had colcannon? A St. Patrick's day favorite, it's a mixture of creamy mashed potatoes and usually kale or cabbage. I first encountered colcannon while doing research on traditional Irish cooking. Not surprisingly the Irish have all sorts...
Last year for St. Patrick's Day, my friend Suzanne had me over for dinner with her family and served the tastiest corned beef and cabbage dish. Usually we prepare corned beef and cabbage boiled, but Suzanne had baked her corned...
Let's be frank. If you are of a certain age in this country, and you don't live on a ranch where there are, say, actual cowboys, if I mention the words "cowboy beans" to you, what comes to mind? Uh...
The debate usually begins like this. ME: Dad, how do you make your hash browns turn out so crispy? DAD: Use a potato ricer. It's the only thing I've found that really gets the moisture out of the potatoes. The...
A classic American dish that one can't easily find in restaurants (unless it is a cafeteria) is stuffed bell peppers. It's essentially meatloaf stuffed into bell peppers and baked in the oven. My mom and dad have their own different...
Shepherd's Pie is originally an English dish, traditionally made with lamb or mutton. Americans typically make Shepherd's Pie with beef, I think mostly because we are much more of a beef-eating culture than a lamb-eating one. The English (and Australians...
I had to laugh when I first heard about this recipe from my friend Heidi H. In fact, at first blush the thought of it was not particularly appetizing. You take slices of hot dogs, sauté them in butter with...
Mmmm. Fettuccine Alfredo. So simple, but so so good. Most of us in America know this dish in its cream-based form, with a little nutmeg sprinkled on top. But did you know that the original fettuccine Alfredo sauce didn't use...
Attention sausage and sauerkraut lovers! I think it's time we had our own fan club, don't you? I nominate my Minnesota-raised father as the honorary chairman of that club. All I have to do is mention the words sausage and...
A dear friend of mine from Alabama called me recently and demanded to know, "why aren't there any grits on your site?!" Uh, because I'm not Southern and I don't know what the heck I'm talking about when it comes...
What to do with leftover Easter ham? If it's still chilly where you are, warm up quickly with a simple potato leek soup with some added chopped ham. This is one of our standby recipes when we have extra ham...
Rachael Ray has nothing on my mother. As far as this family is concerned, my mom invented healthful, delicious comfort food that one can cook in 30 minutes or less. This hamburger and macaroni dish has been served in our...
When I was a kid, the only time we ever had meatballs was with spaghetti or in albondigas soup. It never occurred to me that one could simply have meatballs with sauce, until I wandered into an Italian restaurant in...
Burgoo! Just word itself sounds like there should be a song about it (and there is). If you are unfamiliar with the concept of burgoo, it's Kentucky’s most famous stew, usually made for big gatherings (such as Derby Day) in...
Simply Recipes reader Alton Hoover sent me his favorite recipe for lasagna which he has been cooking up since college days. His original recipe created enough lasagna for a small army so I halved it. What is posted here will...
This isn't a quick and easy lasagna. This is a slow and divine lasagna. A memorable lasagna. And we have a reader of Simply Recipes to thank for it. Several months ago a commenter on this site, by the name...
One of the reasons we love serving ham for Easter is the leftover ham, especially the ham bone. That bone can be used to make a flavorful stock for split pea or white bean soup, helping to stretch out that...
What's there to say about this Italian-American classic other than, "red or white?" Linguini with clam sauce comes in either a red tomato-based version, or a white version with cream or white wine. Today we present to you a red...
Updated, from the recipe archive. Originally posted in 2005. A typical holiday feast around here is a rather colorful affair. Lots of browns, yellows, reds, and greens. And then there is orange. I can't remember a Thanksgiving without a vibrant...
Got your grill going? Join Hank for some Memphis ribs! ~Elise There are wet ribs, sticky with a succulent, spicy barbecue sauce, and there are dry ribs, where the flavor is all in the dried mixture of herbs and spices...
Stuffed bell peppers is one of those classic comfort food dishes that my family practically lived on when I was a kid. This recipe my mother got from Adele Davis as mom was teaching herself to cook in the 60s...
New England boiled dinner is a one pot dish consisting of corned beef or plain beef brisket or smoked picnic ham shoulder, with cabbage, carrots and potatoes. When made with corned beef, it's an Irish-American corned beef and cabbage dish...
Recipe updated March 3, 2011 With cheese, onions, and potatoes, how can one go wrong? Unless of course you are on a diet, in which case you should probably stay away from this one. This recipe is easy to make...
When we were kids, my mother used to make this Parmesan chicken that was so good we would fight for drippings, every last crumb. She would use boneless, skinless chicken (after having de-boned a whole chicken and then used the...
There has been much written on the best way to make mashed potatoes - how long you cook them, with peel or without, reserving some of the cooking liquid, etc. etc. I have discovered that the real trick to creamy...
Where to begin with these? Hank and I got an inkling to do a more "retro" recipe, and somehow we ended up with ham balls. Pineapple glazed ham balls. Let's just say the jokes were flying today, Hank being the...
My father found this recipe in a recent Sunset Magazine and it sounded so good he just had to try it. He even made the polenta from scratch instead of using the store-bought prepared version which the original recipe called...
Pot roast was a standard growing up, and still continues to be in my parent's household. It requires slow cooking over low heat to ensure tender, flavorful meat. Pot roasts typically use the tougher cuts of beef - a chuck...
Summer is the season for cookouts and potato salad, isn't it? Our standard potato salad usually includes pickle juice and hard boiled eggs. Here's a completely different take on a summer potato salad, seasoned with mustard, bacon, and the taste...
Pulled pork sandwiches can hardly be called sandwiches. The sauce soaks into the buns and if you tried to pick one up with your hands it would completely fall apart. Well, perhaps if you used a sturdier bun, and wrapped...
I don't know about you, but I could really use some comfort food right now. Updated, from the recipe archive. Originally posted a gazillion years ago. ~Elise A few months ago I prepared macaroni and cheese this way for some...
Something tells me we're not the only ones who get excited over beans and rice. Do you? Rarely a week goes by that we don't have beans of some sort or another, and my mother's chili beans with rice are...
Raising six kids on a teacher's salary, my parents were always cooking on a budget. Being Catholic, with the Lenten requirement of meatless Fridays, this meant that we ate a lot of tuna macaroni salad and fried fish. Frequently mom...
Mmmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmm. Sausage, peppers, and onions. This is one of those classic Italian American street-food, lunch cart dishes. I used to order them at a hole-in-the-wall lunch counter in Burbank, you know the type of place where the big...
There are many ways to make delicious scalloped potatoes. For this version, I consulted several books - Kitchen Sense, two James Beards, and the Joy of Cooking. Basically you layer thinly sliced potatoes with any number of extras - cheese...
Another great dish from Hank. Enjoy! ~Elise Even though I grew up in New Jersey, and my mother is from New England, I still think Louisiana has the best food in America. Every time I cook Cajun or Creole I'm...
From the recipe archive, a warm dish for a chilly day! ~Elise Just hearing the words "sloppy joe" from my mother used to send us kids into a tizzy. There was something wonderfully fun about getting to eat a burger/sandwich...
Ever wonder why Boston baked beans are called "Boston" baked beans? It's the molasses. Boston has been tied to molasses since colonial days, when the city was a trade center for rum from the Caribbean. Molasses is used for rum...
This corn bread is packed with cheese, onions, and whole corn, and flavored with bacon drippings. Need I say more? Recipe courtesy of my friend Lynn R. of Newton, Mass., who I think adapted it from one in The Southern...
Spareribs with sauerkraut is something I've never had outside of my own home. My father claims that there are restaurants in Minnesota (where he grew up) that serve them. But I certainly have never seen them as a menu item...
There's something about winter that just begs for the making of split pea soup, wouldn't you agree? Like the proverbial groundhog, who failing to see his shadow, retreats into the comfort of his burrow, in the chilly, foggy dampness of...
Why is it that baked beans are so popular around the Fourth of July, but making them usually requires several hours of baking in a hot oven? Where we live it gets pretty darn sizzling in the summer and the...
IKEA may have helped popularize Swedish meatballs in this country, but my first experience of them came in the form of room service at a hotel in Stockholm. I was traveling alone for business, holed up in my room in...
A reader emailed the other day asking if I was Austrian on account of the sauerkraut and cabbage recipes on Simply Recipes. My father's grandparents on both sides were from Austria and he grew up with many traditional German and...
Swiss steak is a method of slow-cooking a relatively tough cut of beef, such as a round steak. The meat is browned, and then braised in a tomato sauce. According to The American Century Cookbook, recipes first starting showing up...
We've been in a nostalgic mood lately, thinking of some of our favorite dishes from years past. One that my father remembered that my grandmother used to make was a egg noodle ground beef casserole, with tomatoes, lots of cheddar...
Tamale Pie is one of those quintessential American pot-luck casserole dishes. It was probably invented by someone who had a taste of a real tamale and tried to recreate the flavor in a cornbread casserole. I always loved tamale pie...
One of my favorite desserts growing up was tapioca pudding. You don't see it that much anymore. Kids get pre-made over-sugared puddings from the grocery store. My parents don't make it that often as it requires too much (for them...
3-bean salad is one of those quintessential American summer picnic foods. It's usually made with canned green beans instead of the cannellini white beans I'm using here. But I really don't care for canned green beans, so cannellini it is...
Baked beans are just the thing for a blustery day. My father pulled this recipe out of Bon Appétit magazine years ago and we've been enjoying its tangy, rich flavor ever since. A great side dish to pork or steak.
Almost every other Friday growing up my mother would serve the family this tuna macaroni salad. With six kids she loved this standard; it was easy to make, filling, relatively inexpensive, and best, we all gobbled it up.
Tuna patties! All you have to do is say these two words and I'm flooded with childhood memories. We kids are only a few feet high, have tiny feet, scabbed knees, and boundless energy. In between chasing each other around...
Do you still have some leftover turkey? Here's an idea for a quick turkey grilled cheese sandwich. We just happened to have some sweet pickled onions in the fridge, and some arugula growing in the garden, hence the throw-together sandwich...
Tetrazzini is an American pasta dish that includes a cream sauce, mushrooms, and either chicken, turkey, or seafood. It is thought to have been invented in San Francisco and named after the famous opera singer of the early 1900s, Luisa...
Sometimes deciding what to make for dinner comes starts with the inspiration of just one ingredient. A friend of mine sent us some wonderful blue cheese this week and my father decided that he wanted to make twice baked potatoes...
We've had some wonderfully cold, rainy, winter storms here lately in Northern California. This soup is the perfect hardy accompaniment to a cold winter day. Note, this soup is the kind that is much better the next day, as the...
