Comfort foods

[mrsl]

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Have any of you ever had a taste of Texas Cake? It is the most wonderful chocolate cake I've ever made. It's made from scratch and takes less than a half hour to mix and get in the oven. The frosting is a fudge that can actually be cut up as fudge squares, but dribbled on the hot cake straight out of the oven, it is heaven :!: :!: :!: :!:
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[markfp]

How about a grilled cheese sandwich and a cup of Campbell's Tomato soup for chasing away the cold?

Oh yes! That was a favorite of mine when I was a kid and still is. I'm glad you mentioned Campbell's because it's got to be that brand. I've tried others, like the market's private label brand, and it's just not the same.

[markfp]

....rice puddings.... I always make loads of soup and eat it for days.

You got me drooling. I'd do almost anything for a good rice pudding and I'd be very happy to live on nothing but homemade soup. I got very spoiled at a young age. My grandmother (on my mother's side) lived with us. She was a delightful French-Canadian lady who was a fabulous cook. I don't think a week went by, even in summer, that she didn't make a big pot of one kind of soup or another. And for special occasions she'd make either rice pudding or bread pudding and she'd topped it with hand-whipped cream. Unfortunately, she never wrote any recipes down, just kept them in her head.

[charliechaplinfan]

The great thing about soup is that you can take advantage of seasonal vegetables and make lovely inexpensive soup. The ones I make most often are roasted tomato soup, sometimes I add peppers and red onions, roast them up then add a bit of liquid I usually use passata and blitz. Another is carrot and ginger soup just boil up the carrots and ginger, if you add some cider vinegar and tomato puree you can make it in to a hot at sour soup. Potato and leek soup, watercress and stilton, vegetable soup with anything I can get my hands on. Soups are fairly easy to make. Once you make your own tinned soup just doesn't have the same appeal.

With rice pudding do you bake it in the oven or cook it on the hob. I prefer the hob because I like it lovely and milky but hubby prefers it baked in the oven. Either way it's a cheap dessert.

I wondered about Cadbury's chocolate, it is sweet and creamy and I often think we crave what we are used to. I like dark chocolate too which to me is what Hershey's tastes like. The advantage a good 70% cocoa bar has is that you don't need to eat as much for satisfaction, so I often have that in for me, the kids have Cadbury's but if I get a sniff, I crave it all day.

[charliechaplinfan]

Just made baked beans of toast for lunch, that most American of fast food. They are incredibly popular here, are they still as popular in America?

I'm scouting around for chilli recipes, I've never been entirely satisfied with the chilli that I make.

[knitwit45]

Alison, as I said at the beginning of this thread, I have to dust off the pots and pans before I use them , so I am clueless in the kitchen. What are passata and blitz? I would cheerfully KILL for a really good bread pudding recipe, and that roasted tomato soup sounds divine. When I really feel daring and willing to step out of my comfort zone, I will have Campbell's Tomato Bisque. It has tiny bits of tomato with that same familiar taste as the regular soup.

I thought baked beans on toast was an English dish. (At least in my family, it was unheard of)

[charliechaplinfan]

I'm informed by my husband, by way of Blazing Saddles that baked beans are an American dish, looks like I'm not the only one who gets their education through movies

Blitz is my slang for using a blender to smooth the soup out to puree. Passata is tomatoes cooked down and reduced and then 'blitzed' it's usually cheaper to buy packs of passata. Passata is excellent for soups, pizza bases and pastas or as an addition to curries or chilli.

Roasted tomato soup is very easy, chop your tomatoes in half, place on a baking tray, put a dash of olive oil over add herbs if wanted, roast on a moderately high temperature for 30 minutes, then take out of the oven and blitz.

I don't have any tried and tested recipe for a bread pudding, I'll see if I can find one.

[knitwit45]

Baked beans are a staple with barbeque around here. I just hadn't heard of beans on toast, except in a couple of English sitcoms (which I'm addicted to).

See, you learn something new around here every day!

[silentscreen]

Any thing hot in cold weather is great! Right now I'm enjoying a large mug of freshly ground strong coffee that my brother in England sent me as part of my Christmas gift.

[JackFavell]

I am amazed that no one has mentioned my number one - mashed potatoes, with gobs of butter. Yum!

My mother made the best baked beans -very sweet with brown sugar and molasses - a little crust formed on top that was heavenly. I've never been able to replicate her recipe.

Cheesecake, with a thin layer of sweetened sour cream on top.

Rice pudding, more like a custard or flan, baked in the oven with cinnamon mixed all through it. Sometimes a few raisins thrown in, but not so many that you get one in every bite. They should be a treat to find.

[Professional Tourist]

Baked beans are definitely american, but not on toast. When I was a kid we used to eat the canned vegetarian variety with hot dogs, calling it franks-n-beans. As someone else mentioned, they're also a popular side-dish with barbecue meals.

[charliechaplinfan]

Do you have fish fingers in the USA, a fish finger sandwich is something my hubby loves. I can't stand it myself.

[jdb1]

Fish fingers are what we call fish sticks, are they not? A staple of a kids' diet here, and I don't mind them from time to time now, either.

By the way, how do you keep the beans from falling off the toast?

[knitwit45]

I think you use a fork.....

[Professional Tourist]

Do you have fish fingers in the USA, a fish finger sandwich is something my hubby loves. I can't stand it myself.

We eat fish sticks here, but generally not in sandwiches -- for sandwiches we'll use larger fish filets and add tartar sauce, and sometimes lettuce and tomato.