“The way to a person’s heart is through their stomach.” How many times have we repeated this phrase to describe cooking our way into the heart of loved ones? I would venture a guess that every household has a dish they prepare as an outward sign of their love for one another. Whenever it’s in a time of sickness, of celebration, or for a family gathering. Comfort food reminds us of a time or place when we felt safe, secure, and loved. A home-cooked meal is a love-in-action gesture, and we tend to carry those memories into adulthood. Take a moment and think about your favorite dishes. I’m sure each one will conjure up a specific memory, complete with a familiar sight, smell, taste, and affection for someone who made a lasting impression on your life. Today, I feel honored to share three of my favorite family recipes with you. Soup for difficult times, biscuits for comfort, and pie for celebration.
Creamy Potato Soup:
For some dealing with illness, it may be hot broth, chicken noodle soup, or even jello. My family is no different, and the cure-all dish that makes everyone at least attempt to feel better when under the weather is homestyle cream of potato soup. Now, there are many variations to this soup. The French and British add leeks to their recipe. New Englanders add seafood and create chowder. Southerners add two of their favorite ingredients: bacon and cheese. No matter where you claim home, I’m sure you’ve had a bowl of this deliciousness at some point. The feelings this soup brings to mind when I enjoy it are strengthening, filling, nurturing, and comforting. And what more do you need when you’re attempting to recover from an illness? While the dish may not cure instantly, it will both soothe and comfort the patient while their health improves.
Ingredients:
4 Tbsp Salted Butter
1/2 Onion, minced
1 lb Potatoes
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 lb Velveeta Cheese, cubed
1 soup can Half-and-Half
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Peel, then cube potatoes. Place in a 6qt soup pot or Dutch oven. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp Salt over the potatoes, then barely cover with cold water.
In a separate pan, sauté the butter and onions—season with 1 tsp Black Pepper and 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder.
Combine the onions with the potatoes. Bring the pot to a rolling boil. Cook the potatoes until they are extremely soft.
Stir in a can of Creamy Chicken Soup. Then add the cubed cheese, stirring until completely melted. Finally, pour in one soup can of Half-and Half and mix well.
Correct seasonings if necessary.
Allow soup to simmer over low heat for thirty minutes.
Serve piping hot with a garnish of shredded cheese, diced crispy bacon, or chopped green onions.
Classic Buttermilk Biscuits
If you have spent any amount of time in the Southeastern United States, you have undoubtedly encountered this prized pastry in the region. I’m talking about the Classic Buttermilk Biscuit. Maybe your mother’s or grandmother’s recipe is the one that comes to mind when you picture the perfect biscuit. Perhaps your family didn’t bake, and you enjoyed biscuits in your local school’s cafeteria or at the annual church potluck. You’ve had buttermilk biscuits, drop biscuits, and cheddar biscuits and each is delicious.
But what you may not be aware of is that they are derived from the British Isle’s well-known scone recipe. However, local cooks prefer to flavor the dough with shortening or butter as opposed to adding fruit. In the South, soft wheat flour is primarily used when preparing biscuits, making them light, flaky, and fluffy. While most Southern cooks prefer White Lily flour, you will also find Martha White, Gold, and King Arthur available in your local grocery store.
Buttermilk biscuits are one of life’s culinary joys, which you can find accompanying any meal of the day. At breakfast time, sausage gravy or sawmill gravy elevates the simple biscuit to another level. But it doesn’t stop there. In most home kitchens and local restaurants, you can find biscuits served in sandwich form (sausage, ham, bacon, egg/cheese) or alongside a hearty dish such as country fried steak with gravy. And let’s not forget the satisfying snack of a biscuit topped with butter and jam, simple yet delicious. However you choose to enjoy this Southern staple, I’m certain it will feed your stomach and soul.
Ingredients
2 cups Self-Rising Flour, sifted
1/4 cup Shortening
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 cup Buttermilk
2 Tbsp Melted Butter
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 450°F.
In a large bowl, cut the shortening into the flour until the particles are as fine as ground meal.
Add baking soda to the buttermilk and quickly stir into the flour mixture.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board.
With a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough until it is 1/2 inch thick.
Cut the biscuit dough with a round pastry cutter or glass and place it on a greased cast iron or baking sheet.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden on top.
Brush biscuits with melted butter.
Serve piping hot from the oven with your favorite soup or breakfast dish.
Blueberry Crunch Pie
Pie baking is an art form that we generally tend to employ around the holidays. For example, pumpkin, apple, pecan, and rhubarb top the list of commonly served desserts at any given American celebration. We’ve even coined the phrase “As American as Apple Pie.” But pie’s origins are surprisingly found half a world away, with the first references documented in Egypt in the Valley of the Kings. That’s right, serving food inside of pastry is as ancient as the pyramids. Move ahead to Europe, and we find references to meat pies in first-century Rome. From there, via the Roman roads, every European country adapted the pie to their particular customs and available food sources.
Fruit pies specifically, were first documented in a cookbook from the 16th Century Tudor England. Queen Elizabeth Ⅰ was served the first cherry pie, and so began the development of fruit pasties and tarts. The most interesting pies were described as animated, concealing live animals and sometimes people within the pastry. Are you familiar with the rhyme “Sing a Song of Sixpence…four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie..when the pie was opened, the birds began to sing?” An accurate portrayal of these magnificent pies was served to the royal households for entertainment purposes. They were the most popular attraction during the large banquets held at this time.
So how did pie-baking come to the colonies? Via the first settlers, of course. The English re-created their favorite dishes, using the new and unusual ingredients found in their local areas. Meat and fish pies were common, as were cottage and shepherd’s pies. But with fruit trees and berry patches growing rampant along the Eastern seaboard, especially in the Southern colonies, the natural progression towards sweet, fruit-filled desserts developed quite naturally. And for that, we are all eternally grateful.
Whenever the need arises for a pie, I will always choose a blueberry crunch flavor which is light and delicious and makes me think of sunshine and brighter days. It’s perfect for a dessert or to serve as an afternoon snack, though I highly recommend topping your slice with either whipped cream or ice cream. It takes the flavors to the next level. Enjoy this recipe and savor each bite.
1-9in Unbaked Deep Dish Pie Shell
Filling Ingredients:
8 oz Sour Cream
3/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1 Egg
2 Tbsp AP Flour
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 tsp Salt
2 1/4 cups Fresh Blueberries
Crunch Topping Ingredients:
3 Tbsp AP Flour
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
3 Tbsp Chilled Butter, cut into small cubes
1/4 cup Chopped Pecans
Directions:
Preheat your oven o 400°F/200°C
Beat together sour cream, sugar, egg, flour, vanilla, and salt on Low speed until smooth. Then, gently fold the blueberries into the batter.
Spoon the filling into the unbaked pie crust.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.
Then, remove the pie from the oven and sprinkle the crunch topping over the top.
Return the pie to the oven and bake for an additional 25 minutes.
Serve warm or chilled with a dollop of whipped cream or ice cream.
May your kitchens be filled with comforting, delicious dishes for every season of life!
