Friday, January 25, 2013

Mid-Winter Comfort Food

OK… It was cold outside plus we hadn’t seen any sunshine for a few days… What can we do to make ourselves feel better?  How about a little comfort food just to kick start a warm and secure attitude in the face of old man winter!

 
I convinced Laurie that she could do something with a box of Stove Top Stuffing and a pile of leftover roasted chicken.  She set her mind to the task at hand…using 2 cans of Progresso Chicken Pot Pie Soup with the leftover chicken…and then using the stuffing as a top crust for her creation.

The above creation was enough for 2 meals… It was definite comfort food, kind of like chicken pot pie, (with plenty of chicken), with a nice top ‘crust’.  This casserole was just a tad bland and she’d probably play with the spices a bit more the next time we tried this.  Of course, I added Tabasco and the heat level came in right where I like it!
 
We had purchased some smoked salmon during a recent shopping foray to Costco.  The other morning I cooked a late morning breakfast or brunch.  We used toasted English muffins for the base, then smearing them with whipped Philadelphia cream cheese, adding a layer of smoked salmon and then topping each half muffin with an easy over fried egg.  This was a real winner!
 
 
 
One of my/our favorite comfort foods is Laurie’s meatloaf!  It’s 1  1/2 lbs. of  ground beef to 1 lb. spicy pork sausage.  Add some Worcestershire sauce, a little mustard, some ketchup, an egg, Italian breadcrumbs, spices ( she uses course ground pepper plus a Hot Mix pepper, seasoned salt, onion flakes and garlic powder) Mix it all up till it sticks together like a dough and place in a loaf pan and press it down to fit the edges.  Top it off with a half inch or more of Parmessan Cheese and press that down a bit with a fork...Then shake some Herb de Provence on top of the Parmessan Cheese.  (The herbs flavor it well and it looks pretty too! ) Bake at 350 degrees for about 1  1/2 hours. ( Ovens may vary)...You can see what it's suppose to look like on the inside when done.)  Enjoy!  Everyone we've served this to seems to really like it!

In this case, we tried Gwaltney’s spicy sausage although we have used Jimmy Dean’s, Bob Evan’s and Tennessee Pride at other times.  This sausage did have a nice flavor to it, although we poured off quite of bit of grease when it was done cooking.
 
This was Laurie’s plate at dinner time…cheesy rice, tomato and her meatloaf.   That Parmessan coating on top is a key to her success!  Of course, I add Heinz Tabasco Ketchup plus Tabasco Sauce to the meatloaf just for that extra kick…
 
Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…
Thanks for stopping by and checking out some of our comfort food creations!
Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

3 comments:

  1. Looks like some definite good eats Dave.

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  2. Omy David tell Laurie Im absolutely hungry!!!
    Love these eggs! Aahh nice pictures:)

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  3. It’s a good thing I just finished dinner because all these dishes would make me hungry. I see you had some snow – wish we had some here, but not yet. It’s my husband’s birthday next Saturday, Groundhog Day and I’ll take him to a restaurant – not sure where. I have so many pictures backed-up on trips that I won’t be able to do a post on this upcoming meal, but I’ll take pictures and may do one later on.

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