Oh my, the weather outside has been frightful…as it should be in January in Iowa. Winter’s not my favorite season by any measure. But cooking comfort food make winter much easier to bear. This post takes a trip through the Gravel Road’s recipe file to compile this top ten comfort food list.
10. Crock Pot Bean SoupOut of deference to the Man of Steel, who’s not crazy about bean soup, this recipe sits at #10. But for that, it would be higher on the list.
9. Creamed PotatoesCreamed potatoes make a delicious side dish for almost any kind of meat or fish.
Some year, I’m going to remember to stock up on canned pumpkin during Thanksgiving sales so there’s enough on hand to make this tasty treat all winter long.
7. Turkey Hash This recipe comes from my late mother-in-law. It’s the second best way I’ve found to use turkey leftovers. And it can be made dairy and gluten-free!
6. Barbeque Meatballs Here’s a recipe that comes from the Idaho Family Camp we attend most summers. It makes a big batch, which means some can be frozen for another day.
5. French Stew Here’s another crockpot meal that can be doubled and easily frozen. So, so good.
4. Apple Crisp There’s just something so wonderful about a taste of summer fruit in the middle of winter.
Get creative with this recipe and make your own variations: blueberry, lemon, blueberry-lemom, maple-oatmeal, and orange-cranberry are some of our faves. These are perfect served with winter soups and stews.
2. Balkan MeatballsI just love these, even made dairy-free. Enough said.
1. Turkey (or chicken) TetrezinniHands down, this is the top favorite for every member of our family. It’s also the best way to use turkey leftovers in the universe! And yes, there’s a dairy-free version, too.
That’s the Gravel Road’s list of it’s top ten comfort food recipes. What’s your favorite comfort food? Tell about it in the comment box/
Egg bakes are so yummy, but because of their high dairy content, they’re often off limits to people with dairy allergies. But this egg bake, served by my daughter-in-law at our Christmas brunch, is not only dairy-free, but also delicious. So delicious it received the coveted Hiram Seal of Approval, which may have something to do with the pound of bacon on top. The original recipe can be found at All Recipes. Below you’ll find the modified dairy-free version.
Directions: Place bacon in a large skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown. Drain and set aside. Add the mushrooms and onion to the skillet; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned translucent and the mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes.
Spray a 9×13-inch casserole dish with cooking spray. Place potatoes in bottom of prepared dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top with crumbled bacon, then add the onions and mushrooms.
In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs with the milk. Add the garlic. Pour the mixture over the casserole. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until set. This casserole can also be baked immediately after it’s prepared. In that case reduce the baking time to 45 minutes.
These days, the Gravel Road kitchen is busy putting together freezer meals. Not just for us, but also for our kids, who will be new parents in early 2015. A couple times a week, I double new freezer recipes. The Man of Steel, Camp Dorothy’s namesake, and the cook eat half for supper, and the other half goes into the freezer for the parents-to-be.
The good news is that we’ve taste-tested some delicious recipes. The bad news is that between cooking and caring for Camp Dorothy’s namesake, the cook keeps forgetting to stage good photos of the new dishes. The picture above is a case in point. It doesn’t do justice to the chicken taco soup we all pronounced delicious, even the cook who ate hers without sour cream and cheese. The only change to be made in the future, is to use half the chicken since the amount in the original recipe overpowers every other ingredient and flavor.
1 onion, chopped
1 (16 ounce) can chili beans
1 (15 ounce) can black beans
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer (or broth)
2 (10 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning
3 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts
shredded Cheddar cheese (optional garnish after cooking)
sour cream (optional garnish after cooking)
crushed tortilla chips (optional garnish after cooking)
Place all ingredients in slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. About 2 hours before serving, remove chicken breasts and cool on a plate. Once cooled, shred the chicken and put it back in slow cooker to finish cooking.
Serve topped with shredded Cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips, if desired. Served approximately. 5-6 people.
Christmas movie time is here, and that means it’s time for sipping hot cocoa, all cozy and snug before a roaring fire, just like they do in the movies. Even if a person has to drink dairy-free hot cocoa.
Which is why I pulled down the old Betty Crocker Cookbook (circa 1976) and adapted my childhood favorite made-from-scratch hot cocoa recipe. A little less sugar. Almond milk instead of real milk. And voila! I was sipping hot cocoa all cozy and snug, pretending to be sitting in front of a roaring fire.
Dairy-Free Hot Cocoa
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa*
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups water
4 1/2 cups almond milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Mix sugar, cocoa, and salt in large saucepan. Add water and heat until boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 2 minutes. Add almond milk. Heat through, but do not boil. Add vanilla and serve. Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator and heated in the microwave by the cupful.
*Next time, I’ll use only 1/4 cup cocoa as this was V-E-R-Y chocolatey.
I’m the pie baker for this year’s family Thanksgiving gathering. Thanks to Grandma Conrad’s foolproof recipe, the pie crusts are ready to go. The post below debuted at Down the Gravel Road in November of 2009. Not only does it tell the story of our family’s pie baking tradition, it also is a wonderful memory of Aunt Lois Benson who died just over a year ago.
Yesterday I mentioned that my extended family considers the words “I love you” and “Taste this” to be synonyms. What I didn’t tell you was that yesterday, two of the matriarchs of our extended Hess family’s kitchens, my mother and my Aunt Lois, spent the day baking together.
Now that’s not all we did. Aunt Lois also graciously consented to being interviewed about her memories of life on her parents’ Iowa and Minnesota farms in the 1920s and 30s. And when we needed a break from the baking, we went to our town’s Dutch Oven Bakery for lunch.
But for the most part, I cracked the whip on these two ladies. Back in their baking days, which lasted from the 1930s until the 2000s, they were extraordinary pie bakers. So yesterday, I eeked every possible pie baking secret out of them. If only their other two living sisters could have been here, I could have learned the secrets of Aunt Letha’s sour cream raisin pie and Aunt Donna’s butterscotch, too.
Aunt Lois said the secret to good pie crust is mixing a little baking powder into the flour and using rendered lard – hard to find these days – cutting it into the flour until the mixture crumbles are pea-sized. I wanted to get her pie crust recipe, but she said she never used one, just added ingredients until it looked and felt right.
As a tribute to my aunts, who made pie crust as flaky and tender as any I’ve ever tasted, here is my fail safe recipe. It came from Aunt Letha’s mother-in-law who was also a wonderful cook.
In a 1 cup measuring cup, beat egg with a fork. Add vinegar and enough water to make one cup. Set aside. Sift together flour, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. Cut in lard until mixture is crumbly but not clumpy. Pour liquid mixture into flour mixture and stir with a fork until it forms a large ball.
This recipe makes 5 – 6 pie crusts. Let the dough sit for 10 minutes and roll out all the crusts. When they’re rolled out, place a piece of waxed paper on the crust and carefully roll the paper and crust into a tube. Put the crusts in a 2 gallon zipper bag and freeze. Then, thaw the rolls and use them when you’re ready to bake.
Our extended family will celebrate Christmas the Saturday after Thanksgiving this year. Grandma Josie’s tapioca fruit salad will grace our table. The recipe for this delectable family favorite debuted on this blog in January of 2012 and is making a return appearance for two reasons. First, it keeps making the rounds on Pinterest. Secon I’m still slaving over the PTSD book edits to meet the November 30 deadline so there’s hardly time to cook, much less try new recipes!
Today’s recipe comes from my mother’s mother, Josephine Newell Hess. She made huge batches of this tapioca fruit salad when her 8 children, their spouses, and her 39 grandchildren gathered for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Once she was unable to host the gatherings, the recipe was lost for many years. Finally, my sister and I were so hungry for it, we recreated the dish with help from Mom. Now we serve it at Thanksgiving and Christmas and eat it as greedily as hobbits do mushrooms.
Though the recipe below doesn’t make as big a batch as Grandma whipped up in her prime, it’s still enough to fill a large Tupperware bowl. Why make so much? Because we love to eat what’s left over the next morning for breakfast!
Holiday Tapioca Fruit Salad
1 box (8 ounces) large pearl tapioca
4 cups water, divided into two equal parts
1/2 cup sugar
1 20 ounce can pineapple tidbits
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
1-2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups seedless red grapes, halved
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 apples, cored and diced
2 bananas, sliced
2 oranges, diced
The night before the meal, put tapioca in a medium bowl. Add 2 cups of water to the tapioca, cover, and let soak overnight.
Several hours before serving, place soaked tapioca in heavy saucepan. Add 2 cups water and the sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until most of the tapioca is translucent and the mixture is very thick. Pour into a large bowl and immediately add pineapple (juice and all) into the thick tapioca. Stir thoroughly. Put in the refrigerator or on the porch to cool.
An hour before serving whip the cream. Add sugar and vanilla. In a large bowl mix the tapioca, fruit, (except the bananas), and whipped cream together. Immediately before the meal, slice the bananas and stir them in, along with the nuts.
Out of deference to the Man of Steel, who’s not crazy about bean soup, this recipe sits at #10. But for that, it would be higher on the list.
Creamed potatoes make a delicious side dish for almost any kind of meat or fish.
This recipe comes from my late mother-in-law. It’s the second best way I’ve found to use turkey leftovers. And it can be made dairy and gluten-free!
Here’s a recipe that comes from the Idaho Family Camp we attend most summers. It makes a big batch, which means some can be frozen for another day.
Here’s another crockpot meal that can be doubled and easily frozen. So, so good.
There’s just something so wonderful about a taste of summer fruit in the middle of winter.
I just love these, even made dairy-free. Enough said.
Hands down, this is the top favorite for every member of our family. It’s also the best way to use turkey leftovers in the universe! And yes, there’s a dairy-free version, too.
