I interpret "comfort food" a little closer to home than I perceive in the aura of some of the suggestions above. Comfort food is something your MOTHER used to fix for you (assuming your mother could cook, blah blah blah, along with the "dads can cook also" disclaimer) and when you grew up you developed your own favorite version. Something that your children quite possibly consider as vital as mother's milk. So as much as I like beer, for me it doesn't go with the category.

My mother cooked and baked most things from scratch, so those elements figure strongly into comfort food at our house:

As someone said, "breakfast, in all of its permutations" falls in this category. Sometimes we're all tired, we want something to fill us up and sooth our tired souls. Pancakes and sausage or bacon, with good syrup (homemade strawberry, in particular!). Macaroni and cheese (homemade, and I've posted my recipe elsewhere on Mudcat). The kids simply inhale it when it is put on the table in front of them. Other comfort foods: those little frozen chicken pot pies. You can't go wrong with one of those if it's cold out and you're not sure what you really feel like eating. Homemade potroast (in the crockpot all day long). And the ultimate comfort food I try to have ready for friends or family who have had hard or long or cold days: home baked bread, hot from the oven, and homemade beef vegetable soup. If you smell that when you walk into the house, and it's there and ready to eat as soon as you take off your coat and wash your hands, you're set.

I should note that I also love that creamy tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich combination--but mom always burned the grilled cheese sandwiches. So even though I didn't care for her sandwiches all of the time, I still love the combination. She had four children, so I know perfectly well WHY she burned the sandwiches, doing a million things at once. I have two children and its a real struggle to keep them from getting too dark. My kids know to step over to the stove and effect a rescue if necessary. :)

SRS