Comfort food

There are certain foods that just say comfort to me. Today i pulled out an oldie but a goodie and actually cooked for my family. Is is the odd day when we all manage to gather around the table and have dinner together---i thought i was cooking for a small army and we will now have leftovers for a week. So what did i make you ask? Well years ago my friend Annette gave me a recipe from her grandma(what says comfort food more than a recipe from a grandma)

Hungarian Chicken Paprikash

• 1 lg chicken
• 2 lg tomatoes (i used canned)
• 1 lg bell pepper (i like red or yellow)
• 1 Tbsp. Paprika
• 1 lg onion 8oz sour cream
• salt and pepper to taste

Chop onion,pepper and tomatoes and put in Dutch oven with a little oil. Cook veggies until tender, add chicken and paprika. Cover and cook on med to low heat for 1 1/2 to 2 hours (i used my pressure cooker to speed up the cooking time--can be made in a crock pot as well)

When chicken is tender,remove from liquid. Add 8oz of sour cream to liquid and remove from heat. Pour sauce mixture over noodles and serve with chicken (can also thicken sauce)

NOODLES--German style

• 2 cups flour
• Water
• 2 eggs
• 11/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp butter

Mix flour, eggs and salt together with just enough water to make a moist dough. Put dough on a flat plate and using a spoon,scrape off small pieces and drop them into boiling salted water. Cook 2-3 minutes and then drain. Sift in butter to prevent them from sticking

i loved my grandma--and miss the fact that i can no longer call her up on the phone and tell her what i am doing. The other night for coronation the kids used her dinnerware to set the table--i know she would have gotten such delight to have seen that. She was such a great cook and always set a beautiful table. She loved being a homemaker and could make the common meal feel like it was something special. When we were younger and would come to visit we would walk into the smell of cinnamon rolls and the cookie jar was always full. I think i gained my love of baking from her--she was an amazing woman and i miss her, her laugh, and the notes she would send. I am going to be going to Portland next week and the idea that she won't be there is still hard for me to take--my grandparents home was always the constant in my life. No matter where we lived in the world their house was always the constant. It was home. For 50 years my grandparents shared their life in that home--it is strange to think of someone else living in it. I know that i was blessed to have some many years of memories with her--happy times.



"I loved their home. Everything smelled older, warm but safe, the food aroma had baked itself into the furniture"

----Susan Strasburg