Pop Quiz: What’s your favorite comfort food? How many of you
said, “Mac and cheese”?
I might be the only person in North America for whom
macaroni and cheese is not a fond childhood memory. My mother’s mac and cheese was the worst!
Somehow she missed the recipe where you fold shredded cheddar into a classic
white sauce (no one called it béchamel
in my neighborhood.) Instead, my mom
poured milk directly over cooked elbow noodles, tossed on a scoop of flour,
dropped in some cubed-up Velveeta, dusted the top with bread crumbs, dotted it
with butter and popped it in the oven. There, everything, inevitably,
curdled. Milk and flour, far from
blending on their own, instead, coagulated. Velveeta turned to runny, orange
pockets of cheesy goo. The bread crumbs became a tough crust. It was truly terrible.
On a positive note, my mom preferred to cook “fresh” and was seldom tempted to
buy commercially prepared foods, such as Kraft Dinner. So while other kids on our
street were scarfing down their smooth, creamy, cheesy KD in front of "The Jetsons”
on TV, I was choking down “homemade” at the kitchen table. Ketchup, in this
instance, was a godsend – and counted as a serving of vegetables!
Mom did, however, make her own version of spaghetti that has
become my guilty pleasure in adulthood. To a potful of spaghetti noodles, she
added one tin of undiluted Campbell’s Cream of Tomato soup and a cup of grated
cheddar. Maybe some dried onion bits on gourmet nights. I was all grown up before
I even heard of ragu or bolognese. Spaghetti sauce at our house
was tomato soup. But I’ll tell ‘ya, if it weren’t for Weight Watchers, I’d be
eating this once a week.
Come to think of it, mother made some really odd meals featuring
ground beef. My dad called this one “Ground Beef Number One:” Into a banged up old pot that wobbled on the
stove of its own accord when the heat was turned on, mom plopped a pound of ground beef, dried onion bits,
chopped carrots and a dash of salt, added water to cover and let ‘er boil for a
half hour. This was served over either the omnipresent mashed potatoes that I
detested, or a thick slab of white bread. It actually tasted surprisingly good,
and probably would have made an apt choice for an invalid’s diet, minus the
onion bits. Certainly a person did not need teeth to eat it.
“Ground Beef Number Two:” This was a mixture of ground beef
browned in a frying pan to which mother added Minute Rice, the ubiquitous onion bits
and a can of tomato soup. This simmered for a half an hour or so. Also surprisingly
not bad and for me it was a bonus because it wasn’t served with mashed
potatoes. Neither of these recipes has made it to my kitchen, however.
To be fair, just about any casserole is better for the
addition of Campbell’s soup. I marked the autumn equinox last week by putting a
casserole in the oven. One of those “family-only” dishes that you’d never let
on to your friends you actually make. Elbow macaroni, ground beef, grated cheddar,
green peppers, onions, zucchini, dill pickles and a can of cream of mushroom. Mm, mm, good. C’mon, admit it. You probably
have something similar in your repertoire as well.
At this time of year, I am really happy to get back to
cooking fall and winter dishes. I find it nice to abandon the grill for the
season. It gives me a cozy, snug feeling to braise or roast something, or make
soup instead of salad, or assemble a rich, creamy risotto or pasta dish. It’s
like wearing a sweater on the first cool evening of September, or putting the
duvet on the bed again. Comforting, you know?
I’d love to hear about your favorite childhood foods. Or was
your childhood home similar to mine? Did you grow up in a homey atmosphere of
comfort food or in a culinary house of horrors?
p.s. my mother more
than made up for the mac and cheese by being an awesome baker of pies, cookies
and what Winnipeggers call “slices.”
