re: Your 'comfort foods'

Jumbalaya and just about anything fried.

My mom's spinach squares
Grandma's baked maccaroni and anything she made for breakfast.

Soooo......Thanksgiving then?

Well I didn't get to my grandmother. Only my mother.

My grandmother lived on a farm so I ate country food. Squirrel cooked down in a gravy and served over rice.

She made chicken gizzards on a gravy that she cooked down for hours to make them tender and served that over rice. I make this about twice a year much to my family's horror. They normally have a Happy Meal that day but I love it.

She always had cornbread. Every day she made cornbread in a cast iron skillet. Every day. A snack was a Bama Jelly Jar filled with ice cold whole milk and cornbread broken up in it.


My father being a WWII veteran always cooked creamed dried beef on toast. shite on a shingle from his Army days. I grew up eating it and made it for breakfast last weekend. This is good stuff.

My father cooking Habbersett Scrapple for breakfast with basted eggs and toast. This is one of only TWO items I eat ketchup on.

I haven't had it in years but I grew up on it and loved it. If I went out on the farm, killed some squirel's and cleaned them she would cook them. If I killed a squirrel in her yard. She would beat in the head with an old hairbrush and take my gun away. She fed them corn and pecans in old canned ham cans she had nailed into the oak trees. I had a squirrel blind not far away.

Think I'll take my 410 H&R crackbarrel this season and hunt some squirrels. I haven't done that in twenty years.

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I haven't had it in years but I grew up on it and loved it. If I went out on the farm, killed some squirel's and cleaned them she would cook them. If I killed a squirrel in her yard. She would beat in the head with an old hairbrush and take my gun away. She fed them corn and pecans in old canned ham cans she had nailed into the oak trees. I had a squirrel blind not far away.

Think I'll take my 410 H&R crackbarrel this season and hunt some squirrels. I haven't done that in twenty years.

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Do it! I grew up inside of city limits but I built a squirrel trap out of scrap wood and chicken wire when I was young. Worked great for a while but my mom made me throw it out

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Neighbor just brought me some homemade hummus, warm pita bread and a big glass of wine.

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Wish I had neighbors like that. Mine brought me a tomato once.

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Wish I had neighbors like that. Mine brought me a tomato once.

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Nothing wrong with a tomato. We have about eight or ten of us that cook and send kids up and down the street on any given night to bring a dish to one or to pick up a dish from another. Its nice because all of us are not afraid to try something and we all know if we don't like it we can tell them. We get to eat some things that we wouldn't normally cook and if we like we take the recipe and claim it as our own.

Tomatos are on my comfort food list. I'm all about homegrown tomatos. I ate so many tomatos and so much basil this summer I might move to North Louisiana Sicily. Kapeesh?

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Calves liver with caramelized onions. for real?

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Yes. Not your cup of tea?

Paul, I've been to many of those rural NELA reunions, and you're right.

I dream about the venison stew, whole fried bream, and banana pudding. If you want something close, try going to a Baptist potluck sometimes. Best sweet tea you've ever tasted.

I've made it one of my cooking missions to try to preserve some of those comfort foods- Mamaw's chicken spaghetti (red sauce), chicken and dumplings, iron skillet cornbread, roast with rice and gravy, beef stew. I love having the opportunity to honor my heritage in the kitchen.