Childhood & Teenage Comfort Dishes

[Margi Cintrano]

Buonasera, Good Afternoon,


The heart warming dishes my maternal and paternal Grandmom used to prepare, have included a repertoire of comfort foods, I have been preparing my family ...

Coming from the Italian paternal side:

Lasagne al forno di Bolognese
Meatballs and spaghetti
Home made Focaccia and Pizza with 4 cheeses
Baked Ziti
Rigatoni baked with sausage and cheese
Venetian Calves Liver dusted / dredged in flour and sautéed on a bed of caramelized onions
Osso Buco
Veal Marsala
Veal Piccata
Baked Eggplant ( melazane di lecce ) Parmigiano
Lasagne with shellfish, fish and seafood
Pasta Fa zool with Cannelli Beans
Cannelli beans and escarole or spinach
Margherite´s Pasta Sauces
All her Pastas

My Mom had prepared a lovely array of French Savoie specialties with a Swiss twist:

Savoie 3 Cheese Fondue with Kirsch
Roast Turkey & Stuffing
Meatloaf
Home made dark bread with seeds
Home made French style baguette
Grilled Cheese
Steak Diane
Prime Rib of Beef
Boulabaisse Shellfish and Fish Stew
Mom´s Chicken Salad
Mom´s Tuna Salad
Mom´s Shrimp Salad
Baked Stuffed Potato
Mom´s Cream Soups
Mom´s Bisque of Lobster and Shrimp
Stuffed bell peppers
Mom´s Cakes and Cookies A to Z

Would enjoy hearing all about your comfort dishes as a teen and a child.

All my best.
Margaux.

 

[Steve Kroll]

For me, beans and brown rice is the ultimate comfort food. I like all kinds, but black beans with southwest seasonings or red beans with sausage are my favorites. We eat some type of beans at least once a week and raised our daughter the same way. These days when she comes home from college, the first thing she asks for is beans and rice.

In fact, I have a pot of them on the stove right now.

 

[Margi Cintrano]

Steve: Thanks for your contribution

My dear Galician Spanish Cuban friend Maria Vilarchao in Miami Beach prepares scrumptuous black beans with rice and Arroz con Moro, a variation using same ingredients.

Interesting reply. Have you eaten black beans with rice as a child or teenager too ?

Kind regards.
Margi.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Interesting reply. Have you eaten black beans with rice as a child or teenager too ?

Never as a child. My father was always traveling for work and my mother was not a very accomplished cook, so we ate in restaurants a lot. As a result, other than some of my grandmother's wonderful German dishes, I didn't grow up with many comfort foods. When I moved away from my parents and began living on my own, I didn't have a lot of money. I quickly discovered how economical, versatile, and delicious beans were. I could buy a pound of dried beans for less than a dollar and make a week's worth of meals by stretching it with a little meat or some bread.

 

[Hoot]

For me there is not a shred of doubt....My Mom's chicken and dumplin's.
I can make 'em and they are good but they just don't taste as good as hers did.

 

[DaveSoMD]

We have had quite a few threads on this topic over the years and some interesting posts. If anyone is up for some historical reading...

DC childhood food threads

 

[roadfix]

Ochazuke

 

[Whiskadoodle]

Mmmm... Grandma's yeast breads, white and wheat, dinner rolls, and best of all-- caramel rolls. When the Grands came to visit, Grandma always brought her big bread bowl along. Grampa brought his fishing gear. As far as I was concerned, they couldn't visit often enough.

And Grandma's Triple Banana cake was the best. With bananas in the cake batter, a layer of sliced bananas and ? (something) in between the layers and frosted with a different banana icing.

Now my mom could ruin a package of jello, as she often did. She did make very good pies. I use her rhubarb pie recipe and it's still one of my favoritie pies.

 

[Margi Cintrano]

Many Thanks For All Your Contributions

Pleased to hear all about your Comfort Foods while growing up.

Appreciate your contributions, feedback, nostaglia and humor.

Margi.

 

[Margi Cintrano]

Dave,

Thanks for providing the 2004 Link.

Margi.

 

[Merlot]

Comforting food to me comes more as a memory of preparation and sound. We used to sit on my Grandparents back porch to string beans, shuck corn and peel apples. I watched them can all day and the sound of the pressure cooker whistling makes me feel like "home". Their canned tomato soup has been the best I have ever ate. I can't believe I will never have a jar of it again from their kitchen.

 

[chopper]

Comforting food to me comes more as a memory of preparation and sound. We used to sit on my Grandparents back porch to string beans, shuck corn and peel apples. I watched them can all day and the sound of the pressure cooker whistling makes me feel like "home". Their canned tomato soup has been the best I have ever ate. I can't believe I will never have a jar of it again from their kitchen.

I used to sit on the porch with Grandma (on her glider) and snap beans. Yesterday I sat on my deck (on my glider) and snapped beans. Great memories!

 

[Margi Cintrano]

Chopper & Merlot,

I wish to thank you both for your contributions and feedback.

I can empathize as I too, miss my Grandmother and Dad very much. Though Mom Eva is alive and in top shape for someone 95 1/2, she lives in Assisted Living.

Thanks again for the feedback,
Margaux.

 

[Claire]

For a little while my dad was a survival instructor at Stead Air Force Base outside of Reno, Nevada. He was a Staff Sergeant with three daughters, so budget was the name of the game. I always remember Thursday night dinners. Daddy was "up in the mountains" from Saturday afternoon and got home Thursday afternoons and was ravenous. I don't know this from experience (I was at school) but Mom says she made him strip down in the garage and hosed down everything. Neither parent had much of a sweet tooth, but Mom would bake a cake or cupcakes because he was so darned hungry. Thursday happened to be Catechism classes after school, and I do remember that all of the religious Roman Catholic men would sit in the back of the base chapel for mass, and us kids would go wake our fathers up. Then, at our home it was always a beef bone New England Boiled Dinner because it stretched the budget and provided a lot of food. Mom gave up the ghost on meatless Fridays long before the church did because Daddy only ate meals at home on Thursday and Friday evening and she wanted to make hearty meals.

It really wasn't a long period of time, but I still fondly remember those Thursday meals.

 

[Claire]

We always got to have a special request for our birthday dinners, and I always requested suki yaki. Mom always had "war bride" friends, women from Germany, France, and Japan, and the latter always did suki yaki and I loved it.

 

[Cindercat]

For me there is not a shred of doubt....My Mom's chicken and dumplin's.
I can make 'em and they are good but they just don't taste as good as hers did.

My mom's chicken & dumplings were my family's favorite too. I remember helping make the dumplings all through my teen years & they came out right. Once I started making them on my own they never came close. She used flour, s&p, poultry seasoning, dried parsley & fat & broth skimmed from the pot the chicken was boiled in. She added butter to the pot if there wasn't much fat. We rolled & cut them into squares. They came out fluffy & slightly gray green from the parsley. We loved them. Mom stopped making them after we assigned chicken & dumplings as "punishment" for deserting the family & going with dad & friends to CanCun over Christmas one year.
I've taken over as the family's bear claw baker for Christmas breakfast. Every holiday also must have Waldorf Salad (wardrobe salad, as my dad says).

 

[Cheryl J]

I remember my mom's chicken and dumplings, too. Comfort food in our home as I was growing up. She made the puffy, biscuit style dumplings, it wasn't until way later that I heard of the thin strip style of dumplings.

Another comfort food at our table was my mother's pork chops and applesauce, and my dad's 'every-friday-Mexican-fiesta'. Great memories.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Dad's Udon Noodle Soup...always the best.

 

[purple.alien.giraffe]

Hamburger soup. It's really simple but tastes so good. Oh, and slow cooker beef roasts. Those were a common Sunday dinner.

 

[Whiskadoodle]

When I was little, it was the best when the Garden Peas were filled out.

My brother and I learned to weed and take care of the garden from a very early age, so it was double cool when we were able to actually help produce food for the table. He and I would bring up a bucket full from the garden, along with whatever size small carrots and after we sat on the back porch podding the peas, Mom made Creamed peas and carrots for lunch. Dad always came in from the fields mid day. He always acted surprised, like It was his favorite thing. Served on mash potatoes or toast. Who knew my parents could be vegetarian. It was a treat to have a hot lunch in the summer. Usually it was sammies, baloney or salami on white wonder bread. and kool aid.

--
In college, my first experiences with cooking consisted of heating frozen pot pies or frozen pizza. I think the PP were 19 cents each or 10 for a dollar on sale. Ramen noodle packets and the blue box mac n' cheese apparently hadn't yet been invented, or discovered although Campbells soup surely was. Oh, and a room mate always had a connip-fit when someone "ruined" his Cast iron fry pan cooking eggs in it and either washed it or didn't wash it. I never understood the difference at the time. Eggs is eggs. Sheesh. And no one ever admitted they used the pan. Like no one admitted eating anyone's loaf bread or drinking their milk. Room-mates.

With my next set of room-mates, it was brown rice and veggies ( sliced carrots, onions and tamari sauce) 7 days/ week for a year and more. Cold rice with honey or tamari or cinammon for breakfast. It was good.
No one had any money. Yet we all made our way for the nightly trek to the all-night market for snacks and munchies

I still like brown rice, and tamari sauce. And scrubbed but not peeled baby carrots.