Comfort food WIP

It's cold up here with a capital "C." Temps have been 15 to 20 below zero Fahrenheit at night with 35 to 40 below windchills. Surprisingly, it got up to 5 degrees above zero today and the sun shone brightly. That doesn't mean it was bikini weather, just the same.

It's around this time of year when we start thinking about good food from our childhood and how great it was to come to the table after a freezing day. The aroma of roasts, the thick and hearty broth in a vegetable stew... nothing compares to that when you are chilled to the bone, toes and fingers numb, nose frosty.

Certain meals bring back, not only the memory of meals, but the very scent of the food. Baked ham, scalloped potatoes and green beans. Meatloaf, a baked potato and... green beans. Roast beef with taters, carrots and onions. Black bean soup, bean soup with ham and bacon.

We ate a lot of potatoes when I was a kid. Mashed, baked, roasted or fried. Nobody had ever heard of Gratin Jurassien but Mom managed to make a good equivalent even if she wasn't the most adventurous cook. I doubt she had ever heard of Emmenthaler or Juras but, back those many years ago, Velveeta® was just fine. Potato soup is another one of those lovely food memories. So simple yet so delicious.

We also ate a lot of green beans, not that there is anything wrong with that. (We find that we eat more green beans than any other vegetable, even now.) Mom decided to get fancy with the greensies at one point and, while great for holiday fanciness, they didn't go over well for everyday. The notorious "green bean casserole" never really made much of an impression around our house, you know? We liked those onion-thingies but the whole idea of mixing beans, crap of *ahem* soup and plopping fried onions of top just didn't quite seem to do justice to the beans. Green beans with bacon, onion and almonds was quite nice but, as I said, a bit uppity for everyday food.