If you enjoy “comfort food”, you will be happy to hear my friend and cookbook author Chef Leslie Bilderback cookbook from her line of Complete Idiot’s Guide series called Comfort Food. It “savors the flavors of home cooking with over 350 delicious recipes”.

 What Is Comfort Food?

I guess what foods you declare comfort food is based on individual tastes and memories. For example, growing up, I remember my mom preparing roast leg of lamb with mint jelly on Sunday afternoons. Now when I prepare leg of lamb at home, it conjures up great memories of those earlier meals and is “comforting”. I’m sure we all have these memories.

Today, I think of meals like beef stew, pasta with Bolognese sauce (I plan to make some today), braised beef, lamb or pork shanks & homemade soups as some of my favorite comfort foods. These are meals that I enjoy preparing when it is cold outside while I’m watching a football game on a Sunday afternoon. Yes, you can make comfort foods all year long, but I yearn for them more often in the colder weather. Did I mention mashed potatoes?

But then again, a juicy cheeseburger grilled outside in the summer is also comforting and brings back memories of my dad starting the charcoal grill in our backyard. He would get busy with some project he might be working on and forget about the burgers or the chicken pieces and they would have a crispy exterior but we still enjoyed the food and loved the event.

So before I go too far down memory lane, let me tell you more about Chef Leslie’s book. It’s a guide filled with recipes that she describes as food that will “soothe your soul – and your stomach – with homemade favorites” like creamy potato soup, chili con carne, chicken a la King, Yankee pot roast, meatloaf, crab cakes, candied yams, and let’s not forget green bean casserole or tuna casserole for that matter.

These are recipes that we are all familiar with and crave every once in a while. Chef Leslie offers over 350 “mouth-watering” recipes that are easy to make at home with step-by-step instructions as well as tons of helpful hints that only someone with her experience can provide.

What I really like about Chef Bilderback’s recipes is she gives you a complete recipe with lots of how to’s. They are not just a list of ingredients and a few lines of instructions. They really explain how to prepare the recipe so you get it right. My kind of recipe.

So if you are looking for a collection of simple recipes that will bring back memories of foods that you remember, I highly recommend you check out Chef Bilderback’s The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Comfort Food.

Tomorrow I will post one of the recipes my wife prepared from the book for Potatoes Anna that we served as a side dish. She added her own “comfort” addition to Chef Leslie’s recipe that I think you will enjoy.

What are some of your favorite “comfort foods”?

You can list some of your favorites below in the comments area or better yet, head over to my new Cooking Community Forum and post the entire recipe.

I asked a few of my favorite chefs for their advise on preparing the biggest meal of the year for most of us and put together this Top ? list to help make your holiday a little easier.

You can also check out my article called Let’s Talk Turkey or my blog post, Turkey Basics or head over to my new RG Cooking Community and check out some of the posts on Thanksgiving Day Dinner Tips. If you have some of our own, please sign up and post them.

Chef Introduction

First I would like to introduce the chef’s who offered up their professional advice and thank them. If you click on their links, you can read all about them in my Novice2Pro interviews with them.

Chef David Nelson, co-founder of Chef4Students.org

Chef Leslie Bilderback, Certified Master Baker & Cookbook Author

Chef Jennifer Field, creator of PastryChefOnline

Chef Mark Vogel, Newspaper columnist

Here’s are some of their very helpful suggestions:

PREPARING YOUR MENU

Chef Field - “Make a chart listing all the dishes you plan to serve, prep time for each, whether it can be made ahead or not, etc.  Then, you can plan to get some things done on Tuesday or Wednesday (or even the weekend before, depending on what you’re making).  Spread out over a few days, Thanksgiving is much less daunting. 

Oh, and set your table completely the day before, and according to your list. (If you’re passing 4 sides at the table, you’ll want to make sure you have the right serving pieces).

 It seems like such a small thing, but it’ll save you from having to run around like a crazy person trying to find a pickle fork at the last second!”

HOW MUCH TURKEY SHOULD YOU BUY?

Chef Nelson - “ 3/4 of a pound will get the job done, but he recommends, “one pound of uncooked turkey per person, to ensure lots of choice and some leftovers.”

WHAT KIND OF TURKEY SHOULD YOU BUY?

Chef Vogel - “Wild turkeys are a little tougher, (although more flavorful), than commercial turkeys since they get considerably more exercise.  But that also means less fat and ergo, less succulence. Younger turkeys will be more tender than their older counterparts.  For the most tender, juiciest turkey, pick a young one that’s been cooped up in a pen.”

(more…)

Help Me Pick Your Favorite Caption

Now that the entries are in, it’s time to pick your favorite. Thanks’ again to everyone who sent in a caption for the RG Mashing Potatoes cartoon. There were some very funny comments.

This time around I’m going to ask you to choose your favorite caption from a group of four that I picked out. With my new Cooking Community Forum, I can offer you polls and get your opinions on culinary questions and cartoon captions. So if you haven’t seen it yet, check it out at The Reluctant Goumet Cooking Community 

You have to sign up to vote or leave a comment but it only takes a minute or two to do so. And while you’re at it, be sure to introduce yourself at the Say Hello to the Group forum.  Just start a “new topic” and say hello. The Register button is at the top of the page.

This cooking community is brand new so I welcome you to get involved, ask questions, provide answers and get to know the other members of the group. The forum is there to help us be better cooks. If you have a tip or recipe you think the rest of the group would enjoy, please contribute.

If you have a question that you would like answered, please ask it. And of course, if you can answer someone’s question, please do. Most importantly, be nice and respect each other.

Thanks and look forward to seeing your favorite caption.

LINK TO CARTOON CAPTION POLL