Typical Maine Winter Comfort Foods (home, living in, yard)

[woolwiTch]

Originally Posted by CoastalMaine

I got to thinking about this and realized there are others I've left off the list. Now that the kids are grown and gone, I don't make this stuff very often. How many of you still do?

In addition to the ones above, there's:

Swedish meatballs

Beef Stroganoff and Noodles

Stuffed Cabbage

Stuffed Peppers

Creamed salmon and peas

Pea Soup (okay, I still make this one!!!)

and my mom used to make Curried Chicken (My God that was spicy!) lol

I make beef stroganoff and noodles pretty often in the cold months. When I was a poor student I used to make hamburger stroganoff and it was quick and pretty good.

I keep thinking I need to make swedish meatballs again; we used to have it a lot when I was a kid. My father was Slovak, so we also had stuffed cabbage a lot too. As a kid, I thought it was nasty, but now it sounds pretty good, along with all those other Slovak dishes I thought were cabbagey disasters way back when.

I love stuffed peppers, but my DH hates peppers, so I rarely make them. On the other hand, he'd love creamed salmon and peas, but I'm not a salmon fan, so that doesn't appear on the table, either.

My DH makes a mean curry chicken. Good stuff.

I make chicken pie with biscuits. When the family comes to visit, they always demand that.

I do love franks, beans and brown bread. When we lived in CA for a few years you couldn't get brown bread in the store and it was so disappointing. Back then I didn't bake bread much. Now I do it usually once a week. Anadama bread is a good one for winter.

Indian pudding is another cold weather classic you don't see much outside of Maine.

Finnan haddie!

Oh, and speaking of cretons, another place to get it is at Maurice Bonneau's Sausage Kitchen in Lisbon Falls. He's in the process of moving his store from Route 9 to a really nice place on Main Street in Lisbon Falls. I go to his place whenever I'm nearby. He makes a wide variety of sausages, along with cretons and smoking his own bacon and hams. Just wonderful stuff. Fantastic kielbasa, chorizo, bratwurst and about a dozen other sausage varieties.

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by Maineah

What is a grit???

A white tasteless starchy glob of starch. If you soak corn kernels and extract the white center, then cook them. Hopefully in butter, they will taste like butter.

Military chow halls serve them every breakfast.

[elston]

Grits are somewhere between cream of wheat and corn meal mush but they have a form and place that is uniquely their own....they should be smooth but have substance and have a delicate flavor of their own that compliments and blends with many other foods....they are great with a puddle of melted butter, cheese, eggs, sausage and gravy, sweetened with cream. Grits can take the place of biscuits, home fries, toast, or pattie shells. They can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner.....some of the 5 star resturants in Charleston use grits to complement their entrees. There is a reason so many people can't imagine not having grits as an essential part of their diet.

[starwalker]

Originally Posted by elston

Grits are somewhere between cream of wheat and corn meal mush but they have a form and place that is uniquely their own....they should be smooth but have substance and have a delicate flavor of their own that compliments and blends with many other foods....they are great with cheese, eggs, sausage and gravy, sweetened with cream. Grits can take the place of biscuits, home fries, toast, or pattie shells. They can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner.....some of the 5 star resturants in Charleston use grits to complement their entrees. There is a reason so many people can't imagine not having grits as an essential part of their diet.

K, who hails from VA, says the reason that folks don't like grits is because they have not had them served "right"... hot, with a pat of butter on top and garnished with salt and pepper.

I am not a grits fan, though I have had shrimp grits that I would eat again, and the grits that the serve at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center (Harkers Island, NC) Waterfowl Weekend after-church breakfast (coming up this coming weekend!) are something I look forward to every year. I believe they are seasoned somehow with sausage... a bit spicy and always warm and very nice after sitting in a chilly tent in the EARLY morning damp, for the service.

I have asked several times about the recipe and everyone is vague... not 'cause they want to hide it, I am sure, but likely because it is such second nature to make them that way that they don't think they have a recipe! I will try again this year...

[chaosX5]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

A white tasteless starchy glob of starch. If you soak corn kernels and extract the white center, then cook them. Hopefully in butter, they will taste like butter.

Military chow halls serve them every breakfast.

Awwww come on, they're not THAT bad! Put tons of grape jelly in them and they're pretty tasty (southerners everywhere are now screaming in horror)

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by elston

... There is a reason so many people can't imagine not having grits as an essential part of their diet.

Yes there is a reason why somefolks see grits as an essential part of their diet. However we want to be friendly and not be insulting

In the spirit peace and love, we should not be picking on Southerners.

So we really should not point out the reason why some folks like grits.

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by chaosX5

Awwww come on, they're not THAT bad! Put tons of grape jelly in them and they're pretty tasty (southerners everywhere are now screaming in horror)

I have eaten grits many times.

I have mixed in, butter, jelly, syrup, salt + pepper, Tabasco, soy sauce, mustard, horseradish and garlic.

[Usually garlic makes everything better]

Did I mention that I served 14 years on subs? Living underwater, looking at that chow line everyday, the crew will have tried everything after a month. Then as the months go by we experiment. After a few months we get to surface. But wait it gets better, a few months later we do it again.

Ask my Dw, at home I have even loaded my sea bag with condiments to take with me. So that once I was underwater, I could have more to experiment with.

Most crewmen were reduced to the simple fact that tabasco is the universal 'fixer' to fix all foods that can not be salvaged by any other method.

[chaosX5]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

I have eaten grits many times.

I have mixed in, butter, jelly, syrup, salt + pepper, Tabasco, soy sauce, mustard, horseradish and garlic.

[Usually garlic makes everything better]

Did I mention that I served 14 years on subs? Living underwater, looking at that chow line everyday, the crew will have tried everything after a month. Then as the months go by we experiment. After a few months we get to surface. But wait it gets better, a few months later we do it again.

Ask my Dw, at home I have even loaded my sea bag with condiments to take with me. So that once I was underwater, I could have more to experiment with.

Most crewmen were reduced to the simple fact that tobacco is the universal 'fixer' to fix all foods that can not be salvaged by any other method.

You are officially excused from any contact with a "grit". You've paid your dues

Besides, it sounds like there is some great food in Maine, who would want grits anyway?




This is a great thread Elcarim!

[dmyankee]

Originally Posted by elston

creamed salt cod and hard boiled eggs with boiled potato was an old fashion comfort food....Grammy called it "Cape Cod Turkey"; (I don't think it has made the transition into this generation.)

Along with 'chinese pie" another real comfort food.....is "American chop suey"......about as Chinese as the pie.

Yummo!

Salt cod over mashed potatos were a staple in my house growing up.

[corgis]

I am so not into grits in any form whatsoever.