As the days get shorter and the holidays approach, many of us are sorting through recipe cards and paging through cookbooks looking for ways to warm the kitchen and brighten our spirits. It occurs to me that the best recipes are for foods that we hold in our memory – no measuring required. Often these are the foods of our childhood, usually economical and hearty as our mothers and grandmothers tried to stretch the budget to feed their hungry families.

            One of my favorite comfort foods was my German mother’s “Reibeplaetzchen” or potato pancakes. Crisp and hot, we ate them with a side of apple sauce and a cool glass of milk. Mom stood at the stove and cooked while we ate, serving them fresh from her cast-iron skillet. It was a bottomless feast – and we ate until our bellies were full and round like puppies.

            My mother fondly recalls an American dish that she enjoyed after first moving to west Texas with my father. She always enjoyed the rare cool, rainy day – weather that reminded her of home – and she would put on a pot of bean soup early in the day and serve it later with piping hot cornbread.

            I asked some friends about favorite comfort foods and their mouth-watering replies have inspired me to get into my kitchen and start cooking.

            Melissa Alger of Eagle River remembers homemade sausage gravy served hot over pieces of white bread. “Just watching my Granny while she concocted the rue in her big black well-seasoned cast-iron skillet took cooking to a new art form when I was a little girl,” she said. “She would whistle and throw flour into the sausage grease making a little dust cloud before she stirred it. While the gravy was simmering, we would rip up pieces of white bread with our bare fingers onto a plate. Then she would ladle LOTS of that fragrant sauce over the bread pile making it go flat on the plate.  Eating it was the best!”

            Diane Sullivan, who grew up in Peters Creek, remembers, “Coming home from school on cold or dreary winter days to be met at the door with the tantalizing aroma of cinnamon and freshly baked bread.  Following my nose into the kitchen, I would find an array of bakery products upon the table.  Neat loaves of golden-topped bread, glistening with freshly applied butter, a pan or two of dinner rolls, also glistening with the butter garnish, and my very favorite of all – large cinnamon rolls sitting on the cooling racks dripping with a syrupy, nutty filling and smelling for all the world, like a little bit of heaven.”

            Many of our mothers were stay-at-home moms and Ann Haese of Eagle River remembers that her mother baked cookies almost every day. “With four brothers, you can imagine how fast they disappeared,” she said. “I can still hear the sound of the cookie jar as the lid was lifted and replaced. The kitchen was my favorite spot in the house and the warmest.  I would read in the rocking chair in the corner by the window. I guess many of my childhood memories involve the kitchen.”

            Some favorites don’t require much time at the stove, but bring back fond memories just the same. Kristen Newcomber, a young teacher at Chugiak Elementary school, still loves boxed macaroni and cheese – especially the kind with spiral noodles. I chuckled when I heard this because it was a perennial favorite of my sons too. In high school they would come home and cook it up as an after-school snack.

            Christy Andrews of Palmer baked a corn and macaroni hot dish on cold winter days when she and her husband, Mike, were raising their family in Fairbanks. A bubbling, cheesy delight it was one dish that she did not have to coax any of her four children to eat. Recently Christy’s daughter and family came for a visit from Boulder, Colorado where the young family embraces an organic, healthy-food lifestyle. Their son-in-law, Brian, dug into Christy’s hot dish with great relish, coming back for seconds and thirds, wondering about the recipe. Christy’s daughter informed her husband that the dish contains Velveeta cheese – an unlikely item on their grocery list. Brian paused, a bit deflated perhaps, and replied “. . . but it’s so good.”
            That’s comfort food for you. Rich, delicious, and possibly not the most wholesome of fare. But in the end, comfort food is meant to feed more than the body. It offers the taste of a warm hearth, a welcome hug, and place to call home.

PINTO BEAN SOUP 

1 lb. pinto beans
1 sm. jar salsa
1 lg. onion
1 tbsp. vinegar
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt

Rinse and sort beans. Cover beans with water in soup pot and bring to boil; simmer 2 minutes; remove from heat; let stand 1 hour. Add remaining ingredients and more water to cover. Bring to boil and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Serve with warm cornbread and honey.

CORN AND MACARONI CASSEROLE 

1 (14.75 ounce) can creamed corn
1 (11.25 ounce) can corn
1 cup macaroni
1/2 cup butter
8 ounces cubed processed cheese (Velveeta)

Mix together creamed corn, whole kernel corn, and uncooked macaroni. Slice the butter, and mix into the corn mixture along with the cheese. Place in a buttered casserole dish. Cover.

Bake at 350°F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes. Uncover, stir, and bake uncovered for 30 more minutes.