It’s finally starting to feel like fall around here after some weeks of weather that made you feel like you were stuck sweating in SoCal. But now, the air is beginning to smell of damp leaves, and it’s nippy enough outside to layer on the mohair sweaters. It’s the kind of weather that practically commands you to flop around in your old pajamas all day while wrapped up in a blanket. It’s also the kind of weather that makes you want some of those classic comfort foods that will help you pack on the layers of blubber in preparation for winter. Here are the Clog’s recommendations for what to eat the next time you stay in on a cold morning, with accompanying recipes.
Mac and cheese
The best is when it comes in a skillet with a panko crust and you mix it all around so that the ooey gooeyness of the cheese is perfectly combined with the crisp texture of the crust. Also, when you mix it, it makes a sound eerily similar to the sounds a very “affectionate” couple make. You know, the ones that sit in the back at movie theaters.
Ina Garten’s Grown Up Mac and Cheese
Buttermilk biscuits
We always think of good Southern cooking when we bite into fluffy pieces of biscuits. Hopefully, you remember to get some gravy to pour over these.
Mashed potatoes
Butter, butter and more butter. Sorry, we’re beginning to sound like Paula Deen, but we can’t go without paying homage to the ingredient that makes mashed potatoes so delightful. Beware: This one might make you a little anxious for Thanksgiving.
Home fries
Did we mention potatoes are our favorite vegetable? Yes, we do consider potatoes a vegetable. Don’t worry about the state of our health. We’ll go on a juice cleanse after the holidays and be fine. Isn’t that what Gwyneth Paltrow does?
Grilled cheese
Grilled cheese provokes religious experiences when you take a bite of a particularly good one. Really, people get serious about this stuff. Just think about that fact that it’s only bread, cheese and butter.
Chili
Make sure you have a couple of thick slices of cornbread when you hunker down to eat heaping spoonfuls of this stuff. This is also the meal that you can feel the least guilty about.
Pasta
This is probably the easiest meal out of the bunch. Just boil some noodles and put some warmed-up ragu over the top. Chef Boyardee is always there eagerly waiting to be picked up in a supermarket nearby if you are feeling particularly sluggish.
Pancakes
Follow your bites of maple-drenched pancakes with big gulps of coffee at a diner near you for the quintessential breakfast experience. Diners populated by hefty truck drivers — or even better, lumberjacks — are the best ones.
Cinnamon rolls
Occasionally, we look at people’s Instagrams and see what they got at Cinnaholic. We then realize we need to stop going on Instagram because there is just too much food in the world that we do not get to eat.
Apple pie
Cinnamon and apples are two things that should always go together like peanut butter and jelly, Zooey Deschanel and bangs and Frappuccinos and white girls. There is no place where apples and cinnamon are found that is better than pie form It’s apple-picking season, so we recommend you drive up to orchards up by Sebastopol, California, to pick your own and make your own pie — how provincial. Or you can just pick up a premade one from Bakesale Betty in Oakland if that’s too much work. It is for us.
Image Sources: Sylvia…sometimes, Kelly Garbato, Winston Wong, shastamacnasty, Mark H. Anbinder, Luca Nebuloni, Tim Hamilton, Nathan Yergler, Tamara Evans, Pookie & Schnookie, Lucas Richarz via Creative Commons
Contact Nora Harhen at [email protected].
