comfort food

Braised beef with red wine and mushrooms is a quintessential dish for winter. Rich, tender beef, slowly braised in a decadent red wine sauce that melts in your mouth. This comfort dish oozes cozy vibes on a blistery weekend night. Although this dish takes time to yield the out-of-this-world results, it requires minimal prep making […]

This baked pasta with cauliflower is my latest and greatest easy meal and I can’t praise it enough. Baked pasta is a classic comfort food that’s been around, in some form, for centuries. Food historians can trace baked pasta dishes to the ancient Greeks, who would toss cooked pasta with eggs and cheese before baking […]

One-pot vegetarian chili is the perfect comfort meal to make, eat, and repeat all winter long. This simple dish is hearty, flavorful, and wholesome, and it could not be easier to make. Perhaps the best part, this chili recipe is loaded with plant-based protein, from red kidney beans and black beans, so you won’t even […]

It’s remarkable to think that bread pudding, something that originated in the 11th century, has risen its way up the ranks to become a “trendy dessert” around the world. In the early 11th and 12th centuries frugal cooks began making bread pudding to use leftover bread and eliminate waste. By the 13th century, the English […]

I will always be a Badger. UW-Madison was an amazing place to go to school. It was beyond cold, but that aside, it is an incredible school. The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin. Founded when Wisconsin achieved statehood in 1848, UW–Madison is the official state university of Wisconsin […]

Pasta e fagioli is one of the most famous dishes in the entire Italian repertoire. This well-known rustic soup is a nourishing dish that falls somewhere between soup and pasta. Pasta e fagioli is a traditional meal with a rich history and is incredibly worthy of making at home if you’ve not done so before. […]

Let’s talk about meatloaf, shall we? Some love it, some love to hate it and some love it in secret and refuse to admit it. I find this fascinating. Historically, meatloaf is considered a traditional German, Scandinavian dish that is cousin to the Dutch meatball. Meatloaf, when you break it down, is exactly as the name […]

Two of my favorite things to bake (and cook) with are olive oil and polenta. Olive oil because it adds complexity and richness and polenta because it adds texture and flavor. I have blogged about my two desserts with olive oil so far: my pear olive oil cake and my chocolate mummy cakes, but I thought […]

I love soup. Soup is comforting, healing, often healthy, hearty, and, except consommé, relatively easy to make. I honestly think I could eat soup every day, even in the summer. This black bean soup is a favorite of my family.  To me it is simple, subtle, and nourishing, and one I have made recently while in […]

My husband loves lamb stew. In all honesty, I think it’s because it reminds him of goat stew, something we both become fond of while vacationing in Anguilla. Can’t say that I’ve ever had (or would eat) goat stew on a regular basis, but in the Caribbean it’s as common as a fish sandwich and […]

Casserole is a term I don’t love. By definition “casserole” can mean a deep pan used both in an oven and as a serving vessel or for the food cooked and served in such vessel. To me, a casserole always sounded like the name for something that was nondescript, randomly thrown together, mushy, and flavorless. […]

I have always loved paprika. My first exposure to it was the light dusting on the top of my mom’s deviled eggs that she frequently made when I was a kid. To six-year-old me, paprika made the simple eggs look elegant. I liked that, even way back then. For anyone who is unfamiliar, paprika is […]

Let’s talk about macaroni and cheese. It’s not health food, but it is a much-loved comfort dish that has been around for a long time. Kids love it, and grown-ups love to hate it–but only because they typically love it themselves and can’t resist it. To be honest, what’s not to love?  It’s indeed comforting. […]

Everyone has their favorite comfort foods, truffle polenta fries are one of mine. Totally serious. I have always been a big fan of polenta; the simple addition of truffle oil is a game-changer. Polenta served in the form of “fries“, is a fantastic way to incorporate an earthy grain into your winter meal without much […]

I don’t think I fully appreciated a good oven-braised pot roast until I turned 40. It’s a great thing. Pot roast is a generic term for browned meat cooked with vegetables in a covered pot.  It began appearing in cookbooks in the late 19th century. But this cooking method known as “braising” (or slow cooking in […]