My Comfort Foods

 RHYS BOWEN: Recently when I was interviewed the woman said, “You must love to cook. There is so much food in your books.”

No, actually I love to eat good food. I’d love someone else to cook it for me. I get messages all the time asking me when I’m going to put out a cookbook with all the foods in my books. I may do that when I ever find the time to breathe… still two and a half books a year, you know!

 Now I’ve started my own Facebook group (TEA WITH RHYS—come on over and join) I just chose this title because it sounded like me, and warm and welcoming. But I’ve found that my members actually like to talk about tea, and scones, and share pictures of luxurious tea settings and cozy tea pots. It’s something that binds us together.

 And I’ll share a secret: I have found a way to enjoy all my favorite foods without putting on a pound. I write about them! I realize, as I go through the Royal Spyness books, that the menus I include are ones I’d like to be savoring right now. I confess they include a lot of the dishes that Queenie makes—not at all haute cuisine, but my own childhood foods, fondly remembered. Shepherd’s Pie. Toad in the Hole, even spotted dick (which sounds awful but was filling and comforting to a child in a cold house. Of course served with warm custard).

 I do like more adventurous foods: Italian, French, Chinese, Indian etc. I enjoy them all. I’ve plenty of French foods in my books, and now very fancy French cuisine with the introduction of Pierre the chef. So my characters have had boeuf bourguignone, coq au vin, floating islands, crème brulee… all the dishes I love. I can drool as I describe them and not gain an ounce. I’ve a great idea: I’ll charge a small fee to mail out a daily description of a meal. Readers can salivate and not have to worry about all those calories. Brilliant, eh?

 But seriously, I most enjoy writing about my comfort foods. There are certain foods from childhood that I need when I am stressed, or not feeling well. When I was pregnant with my first child I had horrible morning sickness that lasted all day and all I craved was my mum’s lamb stew. And we could not find lamb at any shops near us.

 When my stomach is a bit upset all I want is marmite on toast (I know you have to have British genes before you can eat Marmite, but I love it, spread thinly).   If I go out to a fancy seafood restaurant I often end up ordering fish and chips. When I am in England and we go to my SIL’s manor house in Cornwall the first things I want are scones with clotted cream and jam, bangers and mash and Cornish pasties. All items that are laden with fat and everything bad for you, so I’m glad I’m only there a couple of weeks. But I can keep writing about them all year, can’t I?

So, dear Reds, what are your favorite comfort foods? Do they come from your childhood?

HALLIE EPHRON: Like you, Rhys, I love to eat good food. But I also love to cook. But I confess my comfort foods are out of a bag. Barbecue potato chips. Roasted salted cashews or almonds. Shrimp cocktail with loads of Heinz Chili Sauce. Haagen-Dazs Rum raisin ice cream. 

My mother rarely set foot in the kitchen (we had a live -in cook, Evelyn Hall, who has SO gifted and talented…)  But the one thing my mother would make for herself were roasted almonds. She’d boil almonds untl you could pop them out of their skins.Then roll them in butter and salt and roast them in the oven. A lot like what you can buy today as “Marcona almonds” but better. To me that’s still the quintessential “comfort food.” 

RHYS: My mother also worked all her life so food was anything that could be cooked quickly with no fuss: 

LUCY BURDETTE: Oh how I love to eat and read and talk about food and eating! But Rhys, your technique of writing about food so you don’t eat it all does not work for me. I get hungrier and hungrier as I write!

My mother was a little like Hallie’s–she did not love to cook. With four kids, she had to do it, but it was 50’s-60’s style convenience foods and roasts and so on. She would also eat liver and onions and pigs’ feet–as Hallie would say, ICK! My comfort foods are hearty homemade things like spaghetti Bolonese and chicken pot pie and lots of piping hot biscuits loaded with butter. I will help Hallie with the BBQ potato chips, and I admit that we both share an addiction to Bishop’s Orchards caramel corn. Yesterday I found some cheese wafers at Trader Joe’s that were extremely dangerous…to my waistline.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: First I will say contrarily that –like the term bucket list–I am not a fan of the term “comfort food.” That said…:-) If I could eat anything and doing so would make me happy and I wouldn't worry about carbs and whatever, I would DEFINITELY  have Popcorner chips. AND spinach artichoke dip. Tacos, with sour cream on top. Baked potato with sour cream and broccoli.  Truffle fries. 

Did they come from my childhood? Definitely not. (Mine mirrored Halllie’s, we had Viola Brown, thank goodness, although my mother DID cook, in a kind of a 1950’s way..)  ALTHOUGH I am a massive peanut butter and jelly fan. Which did come from childhood. 

In fact, toast with peanut butter is one of the best things in the world. AND bagels with cream cheese and tomatoes and capers and smoked salmon. Stopping now.

JENN McKINLAY: My mother is a fabulous cook and baker. Usually, people are one or the other but she is both. I am a baker - I love, love, love it and when the Hooligans were at home I baked breads, pies, cakes, and cookies all of the time. Now that it’s just Hub and me and we’re not supposed to have all that baking goodness, I don’t bake unless it’s a holiday or birthday. Very sad but our cholesterol thanks us. 

Hub does most of the cooking now (I officially quit during the pandemic when I was the only one working and then declared no give backsies when life resumed), although I make the salad because he won’t. He swears no one likes salad but I do, I really do! Anyway, comfort food for me is my mom’s lasagna or her coconut custard pie. If I’m cooking for myself it’s my signature mac and cheese. If I’m sick then it’s a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup – the ultimate comfort food.

RHYS: Oh yes. Totally agree to that, Jenn. When I've been on book tour and had to eat fancy hotel food for a week or so, all i want is grilled cheese!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: My mom was a good cook, but she never made most of those traditional American comfort foods–I don't remember her ever making mac and cheese!--so I had to think a lot about what was comforting and I kept coming back to toast. This is what I want when I am under the weather, when nothing else sounds good. Especially cheese toast, with good bread and good sharp cheddar, sometimes with a slice of tomato sprinkled with oregano, sometimes with some British pickle (like chutney–Rhys will know Branston's pickle) and sometimes just plain, maybe with some apple slices.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: My comfort foods as a kid were Kraft Mac ‘n Cheese with - wait for it - fried Spam slices. My mother would make that for us when she was going out for the evening and we had a sitter. And then, of course, when we were sick, it was Lipton Chicken Noodle Cup of Soup. You can tell those of us who grew up in the 60s and 70s because it’s impossible to describe your favorite foods without using trademarked brand names!

As an adult, I will always go for a soup and sandwich when I need to be braced. I make excellent chowders, bean soups and butternut squash bisques, and with a nice grilled cheese on the side, I’m in my happy place. Now, please excuse me, all this food talk has me famished, and I’m off to make myself something good to eat!

RHYS: I think the concensus among the Reds is that grilled cheese wins! I lived on it in college when I was studying for exams, and then as a single working girl who had no time to eat properly.

So Reddies: how about you? What are your comfort foods and do you think that the Reds should publish a cookbook together? Great idea, huh?