Comfort Cooking - Not Necessarily Comfort Food

lavender

Cautiously Optimistic
Joined
Apr 6, 2001
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Do any of you like to get in the kitchen and cook just to ease stress? Cooking as therapy?

Well today I'm engaging in some serious cooking therapy and also crossing off something I wanted to take care of.

I'm currently cooking lasagna- making extra for a friend who is about to have a baby to stick in their fridge to eat during the craziness of the firt few weeks/months of having a new baby!

Just finished the meat sauce and have the pasta ready for boiling! The meat sauce is simmering on the stove right now and smells great (can't beat the smell of fresh herbs, garlic, onion and tomato!)

Now I have to go grate all the cheese and make the filling mixture!

About a month ago I made a comfort homemade blackberry cobbler - first time to make my own cobbler "crust." It was great!

So what do you like to cook as "comfort cooking?"
 
I frequently do Italian. I like my sauce. It's (mostly) my creation. I never simmer it on the stovetop, however, since I am too lazy to stir. I set the oven on its lowest setting, cover the pot, and put the pot in the oven. It never sticks this way.


I did some baking this morning and made a total botch of it. It is still edible, but I guess I won't be serving that bread to company. Maybe the commercial is correct, that "real men don't bake".


Bah - they're full of shit.
 
I like cooking italian - primarily because it is easy. Time consuming - but easy.

I want to learn to make a really good pomodoro. But, I just can't seem to make a tasty version of something so simple. Baffles me.
 
when I want to comfort cook, I usually do one of the Slovak recipes from one of my Grandmas...it takes me right back to being in their kitchen when I was a kid.
 
So what do you like to cook as "comfort cooking?"


I tend to bake a lot when feeling stressed or anxious.

I will bake cakes - cupcakes - cheesecakes and brownies.

I will give them to family and friends.

I will also try new receipes I find in cooking magazines or online.

:)
 
when I want to comfort cook, I usually do one of the Slovak recipes from one of my Grandmas...it takes me right back to being in their kitchen when I was a kid.


Please do tell - what recipes from your grandmother do you have? I'm always trying to learn dishes from that region.
 
It almost doesn't matter what I cook as I find the act of chopping veggies and timing everything just right does it for me.
 
I usually bake. Not only does the activity soothe me, but I love the way my home smells during and after.

The other thing I tend to do is make some type of "one pot" meal. Chicken & dumplings, beef stew, taco soup, etc. Easy, hearty comfort food.
 
What a thoughtful gift, lavender.

Like some others in this thread, I am also a baker. I love the coming together of ingredients, the scents, the tastes, the textures.... The watching as your creation comes together and is born in the oven.... I love sharing the fruits of my labor, I love sharing recipes with friends, I love surprising people with food gifts.

Baking is the best stress-buster I know of. If I am seriously tense, only multiple cookie recipes will work, back to back.... So time consuming but yet almost mindless, busywork, unlike a fancy dessert. I can bake for hours, until my legs ache from being on my feet for so long. Even the cleaning between batches is part of the comforting ritual.
 
Please do tell - what recipes from your grandmother do you have? I'm always trying to learn dishes from that region.

my favorites are stuffed cabbage, chicken paprikash, sauerkraut cake (which try as I might, I have yet to master), and the one I make most is halushki with homemade drop noodles...SO good!
 
my favorites are stuffed cabbage, chicken paprikash, sauerkraut cake (which try as I might, I have yet to master), and the one I make most is halushki with homemade drop noodles...SO good!

But can you make a tasty burger??
 
I enjoy cooking because the payoff is pretty much immediate and I can get into the Zen of it. Same with gardening except the payoff is a little longer in coming.
 
:)

I knew you would make a tasty burger! I bet you have a fancy kitchen gadget to help prepare that burger in some way.

well, if you want to call my hands fancy kitchen gadgets...I won't stop you.:)
 
I'm not one for cooking but I find baking pies to be easy. I've inherited my mom's talent for making pie crusts from scratch.
 
I tend to bake a lot when feeling stressed or anxious.

I will bake cakes - cupcakes - cheesecakes and brownies.

I will bake in the fall and winter months - muffins, breads, cakes, etc. I find that I don't bake much in the spring and summer months.

I think it's because when I think of baking I think of the spicy flavors of the Thanksgiving and Christmas season.
 
I'm not one for cooking but I find baking pies to be easy. I've inherited my mom's talent for making pie crusts from scratch.

I LOVE to bake pies...my family calls me the "pie queen"
 
When I'm stressed I make banana bread. I used my grandmother's recipe and bake the bread in empty soup cans. That's how she used to do it. I love the way the "loaves" look when they are done. I always slice them along the grooves from the inside of the cans. Takes me back to my childhood and uses up the overripe bananas that keep falling out of my freezer.
 
I'm not one for cooking but I find baking pies to be easy. I've inherited my mom's talent for making pie crusts from scratch.
I have the same talent. It was from my mom MAKING her girls make the pie crusts when she was volunteered to make pies. It drove me crazy as a kid, but I do make a damn good pie. Making a good pie crust is an art and there sure are a lot of women who don't have that skill.
 
I will bake in the fall and winter months - muffins, breads, cakes, etc. I find that I don't bake much in the spring and summer months.

I think it's because when I think of baking I think of the spicy flavors of the Thanksgiving and Christmas season.

During the spring/summer months I tend to incorporate fruits and all kinds of sweet berries into my baking.

:)


I also tend to have more down time during these months so I am able to find some fun interesting receipes.
 
I like cooking but I never seem to have the time to do it so much these days.

That said, I have been making my own soups lately, mostly on Sunday evening so I have healthy food to take to work for lunch on Monday and Tuesday. Yesterday's was leek and potato. The other week I made a really good pumpkin and sweet potato with chives. Perhaps I'll try mushroom this weekend.
 
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