What's Your Definition of Comfort Food?

My definition is food that:

• is seasonal.
• smells great.
• warms me in winter and cools me in summer.
• only has one or two ingredients not on my staples list. This way I don’t spend too much and feel too guilty to enjoy it.

This week my five planned dinners are:

• Black Bean Soup
• Pork Chops with Apples and Shallots
• Pasta with Sausage and Roasted Peppers
• Chicken and Pear Turnovers
• A Nacho Bar (since I’m feeding six children dinner this weekend instead of only three).

My two planned seasonal sides will be:

• Wild Rice with Pine Nuts
• Apricot Almond Quinoa Salad (Quinoa was one of the only grains to make the cut in my recent favorite book motivating me to eat right, “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth About What You Should Eat and Why”

Comfort food needs to be full of flavor. Don’t you agree? The French certainly do. (I’m not sure about the British.) So, though people often associate tea with England, I hope to visit France for the food someday. Once a weekend, my man and I pretend we’re French. We eat great bread, a great cheese, a special appetizer and open a bottle of wine. This week’s appetizer we will make is Prosciutto Wrapped Apple Slices.

And because I’m a mom who doesn’t always rush out the door each morning, married a man who cooks the dinners, and suffers from her share of 21st century mommy-guilt, I will make these two breakfasts this week:

• Pear Pancakes
• Corn Cakes with Apples and Sausage

And because I’m Tea Party Girl, we must have a few special tea treats. This week I plan to make caramel apples (and because I live with children, they WILL be dipped in some kind of sprinkles) and Cran-Applesauce Sundaes.

Now, you might be wondering. Does all this go with tea? Absolutely. Remember, tea is like wine in its intricacies, nuances, and food-pairing possibilities. The children we will host this weekend drink tea daily as do mine, even though five out of the six of them are boys. So all the above will include multiple pots of tea.

Two of my favorite resources for my menu inspirations are Everyday with Rachel Ray magazine and Everyday Food: Great Food Fast. If you want to start cooking seasonally more, but aren’t quite ready for Chez Panisse Café cookbooks, I recommend adding these two resources to your menu planning.

What’s your definition of comfort food? Let us know in the comments below.

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