Good 'Ole Southern Comfort Food
I guess I have been influenced by a site that I stumbled on to last week. It's so hard not to. I just love the things that I read and I feel this person's pain... because I too am a displaced Homesick Texan. The funny thing about all of this is, I tried all my life to run away from there and now I can't wait to go back. It's funny how our youth makes us come to some really life altering decisions that we have to re-visit as adults. I don't regret moving around all my life. I have met some really great people and have eaten regional cuisines that I have grown to love. I think that being a person and a chef, I had to leave myself open to new textures, new tastes and new experiences. I know people who have never left their own home state. They have never eaten anything besides their own local foods. I think it's sad in a way. Never experiencing what the world has to offer is just not right. I don't think that I could appreciate what my roots were until I moved around and tasted what the rest of the world had to offer.

While I love Japanese, Chinese, Italian, and German food but, I still gravitate to what I know and love the most; the taste of home. I was lucky enough to grow up with women who loved to cook and were not pretentious about anything they did in their lives. Mind you these were not rich folks by any stretch of the imagination, but they had a richness in their lives that you can't put a price on. I think my maternial grandmother had the biggest influence on my style of cooking here at home. She did pretty plain and basic food. I loved her food. So when I am feeling stressed or missing home, I think of how her food made me feel. It was warm and comforting. So with the changing seasons and reading Homesick Texan, I had to make a homesick meal.

Hubby grilled the chicken thighs and I made macaroni and cheese with over cooked green beans with two strips of bacon and one diced onion. While this is not a glamous meal, it hit the spot. Sometimes, as chefs, I think we over do the layering and making food more complicated that it needs to be to "one-up" someone else. I would be real interested in knowing what someone's best "home cooked" comfort is.

So here is a new Meme. What is your best home cooked comfort food and who inspired it? If you do this "Home Cooked Comfort Food" Meme, please put a link to my site when you do it! Thanks and I look forward to reading what everyone does!