Comfort of Childhood Food During Difficult Times

     Comfort Food - according to Google, comfort food is food that provides consolation or a feeling of well-being, typically any with a high sugar or other carbohydrate content and associated with childhood or home cooking. I am sure many of us have enjoyed a favorite "comfort food" in the last few weeks during isolation. What is it about these home cooked foods that bring us comfort? Most of the time, it is the memories that we associate with these foods. There are very strong memories tied to smells and odors. Being a country girl, I can remember when fresh hay was cut in the fields, the smell of the kitchen when Mom was doing baking for an upcoming holiday, or the wonderful smell of rain in the air. These are all aromas of comfort and a simpler time from when I was a child. One of my comfort foods is mashed potatoes. Warm and full of butter, milk, salt, and pepper, mashed potatoes go with just about any meal. Very rarely do I make homemade mashed potatoes. Now that I am an adult, I consider them a luxury that I can't always afford time to prepare, especially when I work. 
     Our time in quarantine during the Corona virus has caused me to dust off many of my cooking skills and recipes that I haven't used in a while. I have always enjoyed working in the kitchen and I enjoy cooking, it just isn't something I always did during a busy work schedule. Well, I have had plenty of time lately to pick up the skill again. One of my favorite things to make with leftover mashed potatoes are potato cakes. In the Jewish culture they are called potato latke, but they are essentially a pancake made from mashed potatoes. This is a very simple recipe and is easily found on the internet, but I wanted to include them in my blog. Since I very rarely make mashed potatoes, I rarely make potato cakes but it is a great way to use up those leftover mashed potatoes. 

     Anyone can make mashed potatoes. All you have to do is peel your potatoes, Yucon Gold make the best mashed potatoes, cover them in water and boil until you can mash them with a fork. I usually put salt in my water and I have also used chicken broth to boil my potatoes. It gives them a great flavor. Drain the potatoes after they are soft and either mash with a hand mixer or I like to mash them by hand with a hand masher. Add butter, salt, pepper and milk. I have also added sour cream or buttermilk. Just depends on what you have in the fridge. I have even heard of people using plain Greek yogurt, garlic powder, onion powder or bacon bits in their mashed potatoes. I would call those loaded mashed potatoes. 

Old Fashioned Potato Cakes

1 cup of leftover mashed potatoes

2 Tablespoons flour

1/2 tsp onion powder (you can use real onion but I have found that children eat them better with onion powder)

1/4 tsp garlic powder (optional, I just love garlic)

1 egg

salt & pepper to taste

chives (optional)

Mix all of the ingredients together to make a batter. It should be thick. If too thin, add more flour as needed. 

Make sure your oiled skillet is hot. Dip the potato mixture into spoonfuls on the hot griddle or skillet. Let them cook for 2-3 minutes, until they start turning brown on the edges, before turning them over. Once you turn them over, smash the patty so it is flat like a pancake. 

Once the second side is brown, take it out of the skillet and set on a paper towel on a plate. This helps to absorb the oil. I use very little oil with the griddle I use, so oil isn't an issue. Some nonstick skillets may not require oil at all. This usually makes between 5 and 6 patties about tablespoon sized dollops before you flatten them out. You can make them as small or as big as you please. 

     Just like comfort food, the right book can be a comfort in difficult times. My favorite genre is historical fiction. I just finished reading The Orphan Sisters by Shirley Dickson. This is the story of two sisters, Dorothy and Etty that are left at an orphanage by their mother. It is 1929, right before the start of WWII and the two orphaned sisters vow to stay together and to take care of one another. The story of why their Mom left them at the orphanage when they were 8 and 4 is unclear. The characters are well developed and the story is easy to follow and you just get roped into their lives quickly in this book. I read a variety of books, but sometimes you just want one that is easy to read, easy to follow and easy to get lost in. The Orphan Sisters will have you  cheering on Etty as she encourages her husband to have a backbone and stand up to his meddling mother and weeping as the girls go through losses. 

The Perfect Cup of....

     I haven't always been a coffee drinker. As a kid I didn't even really like soda. I was more of a Kool-aid kid. I liked the tropical punch flavored Kool-aid or Country Time lemonade. I have never been able to tolerate a lot of caffeine. Even today as a grown woman, I do not drink anything with caffeine in it except the occasional Diet Dr. Pepper and my daily cup, or two or three, of coffee. I only drink coffee in the mornings. It helps me to get awake and moving. If I drink it past midday, I am up all night. My room mate in college got me to try cappuccino. This was back in the 80's before all of the fancy flavors.  I liked it, but being on a college student budget couldn't always afford it. Then, I discovered the Frappuccino at Dairy Queen. Lots of sugar, but I enjoyed the coffee flavor and caffeine buzz. Once I moved from an elementary library position to the library media specialist at my current high school, I was introduced to flavored coffee by a colleague and I have been hooked ever since. I have a small coffee station in my library in a back office. If anyone runs out of coffee they know they can rely on me to have a K-cup, ground coffee or creamer. I very rarely run out. I guess I consider it "essential" as part of my work. I gradually got on the Starbucks bandwagon and enjoyed a "fancy" coffee whenever I was near one of the establishments.  Caramel macchiato is one of my favorites. I enjoy trying the seasonal flavors, but the caramel macchiato is probably my go-to coffee flavor at Starbucks.

     Whenever I go to meetings, professional developments, or gatherings I am finding that fewer and fewer young people know how to make a pot of coffee. I blame this on the K-cup people. Don't get me wrong, I love K-cups. They are quick, easy, and you always get a decent cup of coffee in a matter of 2 minutes or so. However, it doesn't involve knowing the coffee to water ratio. Just pop in a cup, fill the reservoir with water and push the button. How do you translate this into making a pot of coffee in a coffee maker? You don't. There is much that is lost in the conversion. In this time of quarantining many have had to either do without coffee, use k-cups if you have them at your house, or just stare at a coffee maker wondering how to make that perfect cup of coffee. Going through a drive through is another alternative, and I do support local businesses. I love small, independent coffee shops. However, it is more economical to make your own coffee at home and save the coffee shops for special occasions.
     Since my husband and I have been married, almost 13 years now, we have gone through about 3 coffee makers. We love coffee and enjoy sharing a pot on the weekends. Each coffee system is a little different, but I finally found a system to making the perfect cup of coffee.

     We have a Ninja coffee pot that gives you the option to brew one cup, a travel mug, 1/2 pot or a full pot of coffee. It has a 43 oz. water reservoir. I like that it just gives you ounces, instead of cups. The cup of coffee has changed over the years. According to coffeechemistry.com, in the 1950's a cup of coffee was about 4-6 ounces. Today, most people consider a cup of coffee to be between 8-14 ounces. For die hard "venti" lovers it is 20-24 ounces of the creamy java.

Most mainstream grocery coffee says to use 1 tablespoon of ground coffee to 6 oz. of water. That makes a pretty stout cup of coffee. I like strong coffee, but this makes it too bitter for me.
I have found that if I use 4 tablespoons of ground coffee to the 43 ounces of water, I get the perfect cup of coffee. I know that is all a matter of taste. But, if you have no clue where to start to make a pot of coffee, then it is a good starting point. I found my perfect measures by trial and error.
     What is great to snuggle up with a warm cup of coffee? A feel good book about friendship and sharing a cup of coffee. The Supremes at Earl's All-Up-Can-Eat by Edward Kelsey Moore is one of those books where you will catch yourself laughing out loud as you read. I listened to the audiobook version of this book and I often caught myself chuckling and shaking my head agreeing with the narrator. Three girls in the 1960's, each of whom is very different from the other, become friends and meet regularly at Earl's. They even have their own table. They continue their friendship on into adulthood and they meet at Earl's on Sundays after church, with their spouses or significant others for the all-you-can eat. Their stories will make you laugh and cry. They have ups and downs but manage to remain friends. It is a feel good book that goes great with the perfect cup of coffee.

The Perfect Cup of Coffee

Always make sure your coffee maker is clean. I clean my machine with vinegar about once every two weeks. Run a pot of white vinegar through your machine then run two more pots of just clean water through to make sure all of the vinegar is gone. 

Use cold water. Some people keep a pitcher of cold water in their refrigerators to use for their coffee. I just get my water from our filtered water tap at our sink. Cold water makes the best coffee. 

Use 4 tablespoons to 40-45 ounces of water. This will depend on how strong you like your coffee. If you do the math, it is about one tablespoon to one 10 ounce cup of water. 

How you then doctor up your coffee is up to you. I will talk about some economical ways to have flavored coffees at home at another time. 

 

I would love for you to share your favorite coffee with me. Thanks for reading. 

In Search of Homemade Nanner Puddin'

     It all started when I was planning for Thanksgiving of 2019. I was assigned to bring banana pudding, or nanner puddin' as it is affectionately called in my home, to our Thanksgiving meal at my Mom & Dad's house. I could do the instant kind of pudding or the boxed pudding mix, but I did not grow up with that kind of pudding when I was young. Yes, my mom maybe fixed instant pudding cups when we were little as a snack or treat. She put it in those little Tupperware cups that were multicolored with clear plastic lids that would stack on top of each other. But if she made a pudding for dessert it was always cooked, homemade pudding.
     So, I went where I always go to look for copycat recipes, new creations, what to do with leftovers, or a recipe that someone talked about at lunch one day at work...Pinterest. All of the Pinterest recipes for banana pudding were the no cook, Eagle brand milk, yummy banana pudding, but not homemade pudding recipes. I then went to Google and searched. I really couldn't find anything similar to what I grew up with. Then I got to thinking, what is going to happen when all of the old recipes that I grew up on are gone?! My Mamaw Carman rarely wrote any recipes down. I do have a few that she wrote down in an old yellow spiral notebook. They are treasures to me. I also have many of my Mom's recipes in a recipe album she made me when I graduated from college. I still text her and email her from time to time asking about things she cooked when I was growing up.
     I collect recipe books as well. I have all kinds of church recipe books, which by the way have the best recipes! I have senior citizens center cookbooks, family cookbooks, and homemakers clubs' cookbooks. They are my favorite to collect, because of the family history that usually goes into each recipe.  They have the old time recipes in them that are becoming extinct as we speak. So, I start looking through some of my grandmother's handwritten recipes and I find one for Butterscotch Pie. Well, that was one of my Mamaw's specialties. I knew if I substituted the brown sugar for white sugar, it would be vanilla pudding. So, that is what I did. I ended up having to double the recipe to make a whole banana pudding since this recipe is for a pie.

     So, I got to thinking...what if I start a blog sharing all of the old time recipes from when I was a kid. Not sure if anyone is interested and I really haven't searched out the internet for bloggers that may already do this. I figure in different parts of the country the recipes would all vary a little bit anyway so here I am, starting a blog about old time cooking. I am also hoping if this blog gets popular, others will share their old recipes as well. What better way to bring the old time recipes and cooking to the new way of searching for recipes. Also, what better time to start this blog than during the quarantine of the Corona-19 virus of 2020. After all, I am hoping for a captive audience and what better audience than one who is on lock-down at home, surfing the web, looking for something to occupy their minds.  

   Since I am a librarian, I have to talk a little bit about books. When it comes to comfort food, like a fresh warm nanner puddin', what is more comforting than a cozy mystery. You know the ones I am talking about. They have fun characters, usually a really mean bad guy that everyone loves to hate and the main character is a curious character that either solves crimes by profession or on the side as a hobby. The book I am currently reading is The Secret, Book, and Scone Society by Ellery Adams. The main character is a former librarian who suffered an accident that left her with severe burn scars and she left for the country to open a small book store, for a new beginning. She befriends some other women in the town, one being the local baker at The Gingerbread house, and together they try to solve a murder that takes place in the sleepy little town. I read a variety of books, but nothing is like a cozy mystery that involves a character that knows her books and another that is good at baking. 

*book cover from Amazon.com

     Thank you for taking time to read my first blog entry. I hope you have discovered a new(old) recipe to add to your repertoire of desserts.  And hey, why not make a homemade banana pudding while you are at it. Banana pudding is my Dad's very favorite. Mom usually makes one for him on his birthday in April. Enjoy!

Homemade Banana Pudding

2 cups sugar

1 cup white all purpose flour

1/4 tsp. salt

5 cups milk(whole milk makes the best pudding)

4 egg yolks

3 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp. vanilla

3-4 medium sized bananas-lemon juice to preserve the bananas 

graham crackers or vanilla wafers- whichever you choose or a combination of both

Mix your sugar, flour and salt with a whisk until well blended. Add the milk and cook over low heat. Use a whisk to blend the dry ingredients with the milk. I do not use a double boiler, but if you are easily distracted from the stove, you should use one to keep from scalding the milk. Cook until it starts to thicken a little. If it starts to bubble, then turn the heat to low. Then you need to temper your egg yolks. So, take a ladle and put one scoop of the pudding mixture into a bowl. Mix your four egg yolks and then add the yolks to the bowl. Mix well then add this back to your mixture on the stove. If you just drop your egg yolks into the pudding mixture on the stove, you will cook the yolk whole. Mix well and keep stirring until the pudding begins to thicken. You want it fairly thick. It will thicken more when it cools, so don't cook it too long. Depending on your stove, usually about 15-20 minutes total cooking time. Remove it from the heat and add your butter and vanilla and mix well. Now you are ready to layer your bananas, cookies/crackers and pudding. Just start with cookies in the bottom of your dish, add sliced bananas (i drizzle just a little bit of lemon juice on the sliced bananas before adding them to the pudding. Helps with keeping them from turning brown so quickly), then pour about 1/3 to 1/2 of your pudding. How many layers is up to you. If you like lots of bananas Try a deeper smaller around dish to layer your pudding in. It also looks great in a trifle bowl. Always finish off the layers with pudding on top. You can decorate the bowl with vanilla wafers around the edges if you like or graham crackers. I also like a little sprinkle of cinnamon on top. When you serve it, you can serve it with cool whip.

*I used Archway Chessmen cookies  for my pudding. Any kind of shortbread or butter cookie will do.