BS: Winter comfort food.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: gnu
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 03:10 PM

Oh, Yeah. The pair of crows that stay here all winter because the female has a bad wing got a goodly bunch of the beef fat from that roast. I hope they had some comfort from it in this nasty winter weather... I know I did.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: gnu
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 02:41 PM

I coulda bought Honeycrisp apples for $2.49 a pound, or grapes for $3.99 a pound, or cherries for $4.99 a pound, or....

I bought a nice blade roast of beef for $2.49... onions, turnips, spuds, green beans, wax beans, carrots, summer savory... smells good in here... dumplings going in the pot in twenty minutes... not as good as fruit, but comfortable on a cold winter day.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 10:12 AM

More comfort food for us tonight.... venison casserole. I've made the stock this morning with the bones and will cook the casserole slowly this afternoon. I might even make dumplings!

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Art Thieme
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 10:00 PM

gefilte fish and hummus sandwiches with the crust cut off--and ketchup on the side for dipping.

Nothing is better!!!

Art

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 09:33 PM

Speaking of chili powder brings to mind a family story which I can't forbear to tell here.

My mother was an enthusiastic bridge player, and belonged to a club which rotated its meetings among its members' homes. The hosting member would make a light supper for the members for halfway through the evening's play. When it was my mother's turn to host, one of the other women suggested that she make a pot of her fabulous chili, of which she'd heard so much, and so my mother agreed.

In the early evening, just before her friends arrived, she was putting the final touches on everything, tasted the chili for "finish", and decided it needed "just a little more" chili powder. She shook the chili powder can lightly over the pot, and the whole top came off, dumping all of the almost-full can of powder into the bubbling chili.

Mother quickly fished out the can top and skimmed what she could off the surface, but most of the powder was mixed in.   She tasted the chili, and decided it was WAY too hot to offer to her bridge friends. It was too late to make a fresh batch before they arrived, so she put the pot aside, and hurriedly made egg salad sandwiches.

When it came time to serve the food, several of the women said they'd thought they were to have "Edna's famous chili", not sandwiches. Mother confessed what happened, but there was a clamor of protest from all the good sports in the club, so nothing would do but that that hellfire chili should be served and eaten. My mother reluctantly acquiesced, and everyone gamely ate the bowls of chili put before them.   

There were NO requests for seconds.

Next day mother gave the remaining HALF-pot of chili to my grandmother. It was too hot for her, but she made a full batch of chili herself, putting no spices in it at all, and then added the remaining half-pot from the night before. The result was STILL too hot for my grandma!

Backing up, while the ladies were having their chili the night before, I was eating my chili supper in the kitchen. I thought it was good.

I hasten to say that the recipe I posted earlier is not anywhere in the league with that hellfire batch for the bridge club.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: frogprince
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 05:17 PM

We've been working on a big mess of bean soup with ham that the Mrs. made a few days ago. Just now she's fixing chicken stew with biscuits.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: SINSULL
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 01:43 PM

Jacqui was horrified when I dumped a few tablespoons into a pot of chili. Then she tasted it and dumped in a few more. Not to be confused with Cayenne Powder which is hot but still not as hot as UK chili powder which I suspect is of Indian origin.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 01:16 PM

I did wonder about that SINS

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: SINSULL
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 12:32 PM

UKers - US chili powder is not the same as you use hence UncleDaveO's 7 tablespoons. Lethal if you use the stuff Jacqui brought me.
SINS

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: DougR
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 12:15 PM

Enchiladas, tamales, or both.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Alice
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 10:10 PM

Baked macaroni and cheese is good in winter weather, too.
comfortable

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 11:13 AM

january first good luck meal is black eyed peas..

My Mom always served black eyed peas on New Years too and for the same reason. She would serve anything that swelled, mac and cheese, biscuits, anything that swelled when you cook it is supposed to bring prosperity.

Courgettes = zuchinni

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: GUEST,Hi Lo
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 10:58 AM

For us it cottage pie with mash and peas///treacle tart for afters/
Tomorrow we are having proper corned beef and cabbage, I am making it today as it is always better after it sits a day or two. We also fall into raptures over a good pot of leek and potato soup accomnied by a loaf of good cottage bread and garlic butter.
   Ah, but a seafood casserole sounds grand, must do one soon. Oh this is making me very hungry.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: RangerSteve
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 08:59 AM

I'll make a chili casserole tonight. Chili made in a cast iron pan, then topped with corn bread batter, baked in the oven.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: open mike
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 12:24 AM

what's "so courgettes"?

january first good luck meal is black eyed peas..
what's it called/?? Johnny Jump up?? Jumpin' Jack Flash??
oh yeah..Hoppin' John

also i just had some cream of potatoe soup...

and baked squash...such as butternut squash with butter, and cinnamon

and curried pumpkin soup...i like this for thanksgiving

with enough tequila you don't notice the cold as much...
this and long johns help for anti-freeze

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: michaelr
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 09:25 PM

Spaw is Italian???

We're not really experiencing winter here in NorCal (it was 84 last Monday), but I did make a very comforting spaghetti dinner recently.

Now, they say it's Bolognese if you use beef, and Ragu if you use pork. I'm not so sure about that... but I used both.

1/2 lb beef chuck, 1/2" dice
1/2 lb pork shoulder, 1/2" dice
2 large cans of whole tomatoes
1 small can of tomato paste
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
5 anchovy fillets (trust me on this, you won't taste them)
1/3 bottle of red wine
thyme, salt, pepper

Brown the meat well, then add the other ingredients and simmer for three hours. Serve over spaghetti. You will be well comforted.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: gnu
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 08:36 PM

My colon does not agree.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 08:21 PM

one or two fresh garlics per meal.

This has to be a unaminous decision.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 05:37 PM

The essential meal (or at least one of two) for cold weather: Chili.

Here's the way I do it, modified some from the way my sainted mama taught me to make it. This will make four meals for the three of us, or three if we're feeling a trifle piggish.

2 pounds ground beef
2 large (or three medium) onions, chopped medium-fine
5 to 8 garlic cloves, minced
3 15.5 oz. cans kidney beans
7 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 ounces dark bitter chocolate, cut up coarsely

1 Saute the onions and garlic in olive oil until translucent. Reserve
2 Fry up the ground beef in olive oil, until all the pink has disappeared
3 Add back the onions and garlic
4 Add the kidney beans
5 Add the tomato juice
6 Add the chocolate and the salt

Simmer half to three quarters of an hour.

Serving suggestion: Serve with Fritos or with oyster crackers. With chopped parsley on each bowl. Another possibility, serve with corn bread. We drink cold milk with it at our place.

A word of caution: Around our house, serving chili with pasta of any kind in it or under it is considered heresy or worse, and is punishable with hanging or burning at the stake, whichever comes first.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 04:59 PM

We had homemade chicken and veg soup with homemade bread for lunch and cottage pie and veg for dinner.

Tomorrow I'm thinking about making a hot chilli to sweat out this cold I have got. Trying to keep it off my chest as my asthma isn't too great at the moment.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 04:48 PM

Lamb stew, with potatoes, onins, carrots and turnip. All cooked up together. Sweet as a nut.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: gnu
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 03:11 PM

Salmon River Hash.

Greasy hamburg (ground beef fer ye ferinners). Onions. Spuds.

Coleman stove (white gas). Iron frying pan. If windy, garage, if available. Substitute backyard or patio, lee side of wind.

-20C (optional).

Fry with beer (if I gotta explain that, never mind) until slightly burnt.

Oh, yeah... proportions... whatever.

Season to taste.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 01:40 PM

Peking Buck needs national attention. Rachel Ray needs ideas like this.

I often use a few drops of Sesame oil to bring essential life to some boring soups.

Raman or egg Noodles and potatos bulk up delicious stews and removes excess broth.

cinnamon and butter can spice up more than bread.

Breakfast stew with oatmeal eggs bacon/ham/sausage, potato and seasoning makes an interesting fritatta.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 01:36 PM

Root Veggie Cobbler. So nice, so simple.
Whole Lentil 'Sheperdess Pie' with Greens. Hardended carnivores love it.
Rich Mushroom and Red Wine Ragout with Garlic Mash.
Cheese and Potato Pie, with proper Boston Baked Beans done in the slow cooker.

I'm not veggie, but I tend to cook veggie meals while leaving the meat cookery to the bf. Love cooking and eating hearty veggie winter brews. And never miss the meat.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 08:06 AM

Seamus

Doesn't crannachan usually include raspberry coulis? I thought it was a dessert not breakfast. But what a good idea. Instead of Bacardis in your coffee, you can have Laphroig in your oatmeal/porridge.

Just imagining the Quaker Oats man already pretty pink looking on the carton - three sheets to the wind and in a bust up with Cap'n Crunch.

Hmmm good start to the day for kids. We don't need ritalin. Send them to school wi' a bit of whiskey in em. They will sit nice and quiet.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 08:05 AM

Burns Night next weekend, haggis tatties and neeps, great.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 07:07 AM

I used to make a creamy chicken, potato and bacon chowder.

Fry package of streaky bacon to crisp but not burned. Set aside.

Boiled whole chicken with celery, onion, stock and Kroger's Zesty Blend seasoning. Pick the meat off and set aside.

Put skin and bones under the broiler to carmelise. Then tip back into the broth and boil the flavour out.

Strain broth. Add loads of cubed potatoes to strained broth cook until nearly done. Spoon out some of potatoes. Mash and add to thicken the broth. Tip back in with picked chicken meat and single cream or whole milk and half of the bacon crumbled up.

Simmer until cubed potatoes are done.

Serve with shredded cheddar and rest of crumbled bacon as garnish.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: artbrooks
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 06:29 AM

Beer...spring, summer and fall, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: bobad
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 10:50 PM

That's muh man!

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: catspaw49
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 10:38 PM

LOL.....I'm Italian and to tell the truth I never give garlic a second thought as its in damn near everything I cook! From whole cloves to ground, there is always some garlic somewhere. So if you read something from me that omits garlic (except most desserts) just assume its there.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: KT
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 10:28 PM

Latin American Pork Stew- chock full of goodies like pork, sweet potatoes, black beans, onions, tomatoes, cilantro & garlic and a little bit of cayenne. mmmmmm........

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 10:14 PM

Great recipes, Spaw! But, yes, add garlic.

I find hot soup and chili specially good in wintertime. Hot cider too.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: bobad
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 10:09 PM

Those recipes sound good Spaw, but you left out one key ingredient - GARLIC.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: catspaw49
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 09:57 PM

Take a deer roast and prepare a rub of half teaspoon each of GROUND ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt, pepper, nutmeg. Mix with enough soy sauce to make a paste and rub the roast on all sides. Let sit in fridge overnight.

Place orange slices in bottom of pan and set roast on top and cook covered in 350 oven for time appropriate to size of roast.....do not over cook. With 30 minutes left, baste the roast with a mixture of orange marmalade or Plum Jam, honey, and soy. Finish cooking.

We call it "Peking Buck"



OR


Same roast rubbed with rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper, and mint leaf mixture in Sherry. Then roast as above and in the final half hour baste with a mixture of Sherry, honey, soy, and a lot of mint leaves. Serve with mint jelly.

We call this one Lambi Bambi



Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 09:38 PM

In our cohousing community it's a point of pride never to turn on the heat in the winter. But if it's cloudy and chilly for more than one day, baking anything in the oven becomes an attractive idea. We had cornbread more than once around Christmastime.

Lately, it's not a problem. ;-)

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: bobad
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 09:09 PM

I've got a couple of deer in the freezer so it's venison ragout, venison vindaloo, venison chili, venison steak, venison burgers with oven fries on Saturday - you get the idea.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 08:45 PM

I'm not kidding about this:

breakfast, oatmeal (porridge) with a tablespoon or 2 of Irish whiskey, a tablespoon of honey and a little heavy cream.

Dinner: split pea soup with carrots, onions, ham and 2 tablespoons of Irish whiskey. Try it, you'll like it!

Seamus

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: gnu
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 07:17 PM

I haven't made a seafood casserole in ages. Mine is usually just a recipe like thick New England Clam Chowder with lots of seafood and haddock, but with an added white sauce and a tad of cheese.... anybody got any "great" recipes for such?

Oven time is at a premium when it's -20C on a sunny afternoon... but don't tell NBEPC I said that! Thay have ears everywhere. (they do... they all come from Pointe LePreau where that thar nukular power thing is).

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Alice
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 07:04 PM

Soups
Favorites, creamy garlic potato soup (bake the potatoes, scoop them out and make soup with garlic, milk, pepper, salt, a little flour).
Chicken or turkey vegetable soup.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: gnu
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 06:41 PM

Charmion.... thoughts to your plight of house arrest. Mom Nature's a bitch.

Your choice of dietary compliments to your menu shows a level of health conciousness akin to mine. "I dunno. What's in the fridge that's past the date? I'll just boil it all together and see what happens."

Ya pays yer money......

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Jeri
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 05:46 PM

Mac & cheese is good, also spaghetti. You can't eat spaghetti in summer. It's also probably healthier than most of the stuff I want to eat in the winter because there are tomatoes, garlic, onions and olive oil. Not to mention olives, mushrooms, meat, or anything else that I want. Sometimes it's big chunks of pepperoni.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Charmion
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 05:42 PM

It's so flipping cold in Ottawa I'm under house arrest -- asthma and minus 29 Celsius don't mix. Out of sheer boredom, I'm eating my way through a loaf of Edmund's French bread ... Toasted slice with peanut butter and strawberry-and-rhubarb jam. Yessss.

Cold roast beef with mustard on it for supper, with rather a lot of broccoli. And a glass of wine.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: CarolC
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 05:39 PM

What is synaptic shock?

Black bean soup, lentil soup, Jigg's dinner, mac and cheese, veggie pie.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: maire-aine
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 05:35 PM

Oatmeal for breakfast, with some brown sugar, maple syrup & a bit o' butter.

Finished off the last of the yellow split pea & ham soup for lunch.

Have got a piece of beef to make pot roast tomorrow.

And a "drop" of Scotch whiskey at the pub tonight.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 05:23 PM

Lentil or French Onion soup. No-one else in the house eats soup (other than Limpit and her tinned tomato soup) so I make a huge batch and eat it all myself (in stages... usually I freeze half of it in portion sized containers)!

Must admit to a penchant for hot buttered crumpets, but as butter is not really included in the present eating plan, I've had to curtail my crumpeting activities.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Becca72
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 05:01 PM

Cream of Wheat hot cereal with brown sugar and walnuts for breakfast and Pot Roast with all the fixin's for dinner.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 04:56 PM

Old family recipe--

Take the juice of one fifth of bourbon...

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 04:49 PM

I had a friend here today who has some serious food allergies: risk of synaptic shock from tomatoes, peppers of any kind (including chilis) and potatoes and relatives.

So the slow cooker got loaded early with

Small amount of water with stock cube and gravy powder and cornflour

Tip in everal crushed cloves of garlic and herbes provencale and fresh basil and some whole black peppercorns

Fry bacon and onions, then add and fry in flour. Add to slow cooker.

Meanwhile, simmer small amount of pearl barley, carrots, some swede, some parsnip for about 15 mins. After said 15 mins add to slow cooker (with water - more like juice already)

Topup slow cooker with so courgettes, celery, and cabbage.

Add small amount of water to top up slow cooker.

Leave for 4 to 5 hours, slowcooking.

Thick, sticky, warming and satisfying.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: gnu
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 04:42 PM

Whiskey wie yer grool? That would bae tae sure make mae furrier!

Subject: RE: BS: Winter comfort food.
From: Megan L
Date: 15 Jan 09 - 04:29 PM

Darned furriners jings a we drappie cream or whiskey and some salt