Favorite comfort food . . .

[stevew443]

I dearly love my mother's lemon meringue pie. Unfortunately I don't have much of my pancreas left which means I am diabetic and must take enzymes to digest my food, so my current comfort food is salty cottage cheese. One must take comfort where one can find it, although on the rare occasion when I can visit mom, I will eat a sliver of her lemon meringue pie.

 

[Big J]

I can help you with a Bourbon milk shake - I'm also a big fan of milk punch, a great Southern treat.

Ingredients:
6 ice cubes
2.5 cups premium vanilla ice cream
2 cups milk (whole preferred of course)
1/4 cup bourbon (a sweeter tasting brand like Knob Creek or Maker’s Mark is best)
Preparation:
Put all ingredients into a blender and blend for about
20 seconds-to break up ice cubes and make a thick, smooth shake.
Pour into glass. Makes 3-6 oz. servings.

Ha! That's great! Should be just the thing for breakfast.
Thanks!

 

[jamespowers]

I can help you with a Bourbon milk shake - I'm also a big fan of milk punch, a great Southern treat.

Ingredients:
6 ice cubes
2.5 cups premium vanilla ice cream
2 cups milk (whole preferred of course)
1/4 cup bourbon (a sweeter tasting brand like Knob Creek or Maker’s Mark is best)
Preparation:
Put all ingredients into a blender and blend for about
20 seconds-to break up ice cubes and make a thick, smooth shake.
Pour into glass. Makes 3-6 oz. servings.

You are about right but I don't use ice cubes and replace bourbon with scotch---and use more than a 1/4 cup.

 

[pawineguy]

You are about right but I don't use ice cubes and replace bourbon with scotch---and use more than a 1/4 cup.

I almost edited to note that more than a 1/4 cup is certainly encouraged. When drinking a milk punch I usually ask the bartender to add a floater to the top.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A plain hamburger on white toast, no condiments. Taste the meat, not the sodium benzoate.

 

[Fading Fast]

A plain hamburger on white toast, no condiments. Taste the meat, not the sodium benzoate.

While I admit to usually putting cheese, mayo, maybe ketchup, sometime lettuce and tomato on my burger, I agree, a simple no-frills one is a wonderful comfort food experience. A diner near where I grew up in NJ used to serve them that way - although on a hamburger bun not white toast - and I will always have a soft spot for them done that simple way. And when I first started working in NYC, there was a literal hole-in-the-wall hamburger place that was from the 1920s (if I remember the sign correctly, this was the '80s) that grilled them in the windows and served them on a plain bun - nothing else - and the line was always several deep.

 

[pawineguy]

A plain hamburger on white toast, no condiments. Taste the meat, not the sodium benzoate.

http://louislunch.com

A must stop for you, if you are ever in the New Haven area. They share your philosophy. Vertically grilled burger on white toast, in a ketchup free zone where requesting condiments could lead to being shown the door.

 

[Zombie_61]

http://louislunch.com

A must stop for you, if you are ever in the New Haven area. They share your philosophy. Vertically grilled burger on white toast, in a ketchup free zone where requesting condiments could lead to being shown the door.

I'll take two, please. Hold the onion.

 

[pawineguy]

I'll take two, please. Hold the onion.

No onion is one of the requests that they do honor. The first time I ate there many years ago, my friend and I ordered two each (with cheese) and when they brought over one for each of us, I reminded the woman that we had ordered two. She looked me in the eye and asked me if I planned on eating the two of them at the same time. I stuttered that I didn't plan on it, and she told me that I could wait for my second one then.

 

[Bushman]

Chicken wings slathered in barbecue sauce. There's nothing else that tops that for me.

 

[jamespowers]

No onion is one of the requests that they do honor. The first time I ate there many years ago, my friend and I ordered two each (with cheese) and when they brought over one for each of us, I reminded the woman that we had ordered two. She looked me in the eye and asked me if I planned on eating the two of them at the same time. I stuttered that I didn't plan on it, and she told me that I could wait for my second one then.

View attachment 28716 View attachment 28717

Yes, I am going to eat them both at the same time. Bring it!

 

[jamespowers]

A plain hamburger on white toast, no condiments. Taste the meat, not the sodium benzoate.

Taste the meat? Just go straight to steak tartare:

 

[pawineguy]

Taste the meat? Just go straight to steak tartare:

Tartar looks good, fries look downright amazing.

 

[Fading Fast]

No onion is one of the requests that they do honor. The first time I ate there many years ago, my friend and I ordered two each (with cheese) and when they brought over one for each of us, I reminded the woman that we had ordered two. She looked me in the eye and asked me if I planned on eating the two of them at the same time. I stuttered that I didn't plan on it, and she told me that I could wait for my second one then.

View attachment 28716 View attachment 28717

Saw this place on one of the 800 food shows that are on TV and thought, that might be worth the trip. The grills are incredible (again, based on the TV show).

 

[Fading Fast]

In no particular order:

Buttered noodles (growing up, my Mom was not good at cooking and a plate of buttered noodles served as many meals and still tastes good to me)

Grill cheese sandwich (the center bite might be the closest to heaven one can get on earth)

Marshmallow Fluff and peanut butter sandwich (I have never not had a container of Fluff and a jar of peanut butter in my house as an adult)

Chocolate chip cookie - one of the strongest arguments for the existence of God (says this devout agnostic)

Planter cocktail peanuts (a handful still takes the edge off an appetite and they, along with Peanut Butter, helped get me through college on a very tight budget)

Sugar corn pops (I know they took the sugar out of the name, but we all know what they are)

Half the baked goods from Entenmann's (see first point, Mom didn't cook much and never baked, Entenmann's was "home-baked" in my house)

 

[dh66]

Sugar corn pops (I know they took the sugar out of the name, but we all know what they are)

High fructose corn syrup corn pops just doesn't roll off the tongue quite the same

I'm with you on the buttered noodles. Sometimes simple is hard to beat.

 

[Zombie_61]

Taste the meat? Just go straight to steak tartare:

Sure. But scrape those weeds off of the top and throw it on the grill for a few minutes first.

...Buttered noodles (growing up, my Mom was not good at cooking and a plate of buttered noodles served as many meals and still tastes good to me)...

My mom wasn't much of a cook either. As she explained it, her parents were wealthy enough to have servants when she was growing up, so she never learned how to cook properly. Still, she had a dish or two up her sleeve, and one that I prepare to this day is spaghetti, butter, and a little Lawry's Garlic Salt (to taste). My wife is a full-blooded Italian who makes a killer spaghetti sauce, and even she will request this from time to time. Like many things, if you keep it simple you can't go wrong.

 

[jamespowers]

Tartar looks good, fries look downright amazing.

Sounds like you are a REAL meat lover---like me. I love it with capers on top.

 

[jamespowers]

Sure. But scrape those weeds off of the top and throw it on the grill for a few minutes first.

And let me guess----you want it WELL done too? :doh:
I cringe every time I have a BBQ and someone wants their steak black. :doh: I just did the BBQ thing for about twenty people a few weekends ago and a lot of them wanted it BLACK on the outside and gray on the inside. :eeek:

 

[Fading Fast]

Sure. But scrape those weeds off of the top and throw it on the grill for a few minutes first.

My mom wasn't much of a cook either. As she explained it, her parents were wealthy enough to have servants when she was growing up, so she never learned how to cook properly. Still, she had a dish or two up her sleeve, and one that I prepare to this day is spaghetti, butter, and a little Lawry's Garlic Salt (to taste). My wife is a full-blooded Italian who makes a killer spaghetti sauce, and even she will request this from time to time. Like many things, if you keep it simple you can't go wrong.

"Like many things, if you keep it simple you can't go wrong"

You are spot on. Yes, complex interesting foods have there place - and (as opposed to my mother) my girlfriend is a talented and always experimenting cook, so I am always eating different and well-thought-out dishes now - but we also still enjoy the simple - everything on my list in my earlier post is regularly eaten in our home.

On the other side of the spectrum form your mom, my mom's parents had very, very little money - just enough to survived - but she has almost no cooking skills. From what she's told me, her mom didn't cook much either, they lived in a city, ate very simple stuff - toast was dinner many nights - and food just wasn't a big deal. They did have enough to eat she said, but it could be rolls with butter, or a sandwich from the local deli (not a fancy deli like many are today, but as she described it, a very frugal affair to serve a very poor neighborhood) or a can of sardines or things like that. Most people in her situation seem to have developed incredible cooking skills just to survive (I just re-read "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" and that woman knew how to make a meal out of nothing), but for some reason, my mom and her mom didn't.