Comfort Food, Tuesday, October 27, 2015

It is a rainy fall day in Middle Tennessee...the kind of day made for sleeping and for being lazy and for eating COMFORT FOOD.

Yesterday, a college friend posted asking what COMFORT FOOD her friends suggested for a horrible day she had experienced...she decided on Mexican and who can blame her~~ooey gooey cheesy goodness and warm tortillas!  yummmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeee!

Don't think for a second that Charcoal doesn't know what a buzzer in the kitchen means!  He is on the move!!

At my house, Potato Soup was the cure all for just about anything~~to heal an upset tummy...to nourish a hungry soul...to prepare when nothing sounded good or a run to the store was badly needed....ANY TIME.

Now, when I share with you HOW we made our Potato Soup, most of you will YAWN!!

The way it came about was quite out of necessity.

Although we lived on a Dairy Farm, no one in my family really liked milk...to this day, I do not like the taste of MILK, but if you put some chocolate in it, I'm good with it...Mother was allergic to dairy products.  Luckily, we were able to support the industry through the cheese and the ice cream that Daddy ate~~cheese could NOT be cut too thick for my daddy!

I NOSE you have something I WANT...I can smell it AND I can SEE it!

Mother would start to save some of the potato soup without milk for her.  Since she couldn't taste ours to season it as well as she seasoned all of our food, I could taste the milk and did not like that at all.  I would ask her to set some aside for me without milk and one day, Mother asked if Daddy wanted milk in his and he said NOT NECESSARILY...so Potato soup became:

1 onion, chopped finely
LOTS of cubed Potatoes
Water/Salt/Pepper

Place the top on the pan and bring to a boil, turn to low as soon as it boils and cook for 10 minutes!!

OH MY GOODNESS...the thought of that with a pan of crunchy hot cornbread cooked in a skillet makes my mouth water now!!

Don't hate me because I live such a FLAVORFUL EXCITING LIFE!! ;)

As I got older, I discovered this soup was the basis for lots of other additions~~a frozen bag of California Veggie...replace the water with chicken broth...add some peas and carrots...how about noodles...AND might as well throw in some chicken...(Isn't this called Chicken Noodle Soup??)

Tonight, I wanted potato soup for my comfort food, but then I thought some chicken broth would make it homier...then of course, I added some chicken and threw in some tortillas for some added depth...I almost had chicken and dumplings!  

This made me want an open-faced cheese sandwich~~another childhood memory.

Mother "got" to take Sunday Night off from cooking...EACH of us usually made ourselves an opened faced cheese sandwich~~slather it with Salad dressing and chop off some American Cheese from the 5 pound block that was always in our refrigerator.  We would sit around and see the first one who went to the kitchen to get the cheese, and of course, that person "got" to cut a slice for everyone...it was quite a strategic operation to wait until just the right moment!

Yep, Charcoal gets his own sammie...and look at that yummy cheese melted onto the pan~~perfection!!

I have discovered that most any food becomes comforting when you are sharing with those you love!  I am so thankful that I was raised around a table that expected us to be present and to participate each and every night...We didn't eat before we said our blessing, and I believe to this day, I am receiving blessings because of those said by my parents...HOW BLESSED I AM...I send blessings to YOU...~charlotte