Cooking

Kitchen Comfort:

Cooking inspired by the Greatest Generation

As soon as the coronavirus pandemic had us sheltering at home, I began thinking how people in our country have endured terrible difficulties before — and survived the hardships imposed. Throughout the last century, our parents and grandparents (and their parents) survived world wars, the Great Depression, rationing, and the polio epidemic. Times were scary and tough then; it’s up to us to learn from their survivor spirit now.

Pondering that, I began plowing through my grandmothers’ tattered cookbooks, as well as numerous recipe boxes, packed with yellowed, fraying clippings and handwritten note cards. What a treasury of simple recipes that sustained them and their families during those hard years. And while I revel in the wealth of comfort to be mined there, I realize that the recipes need tweaks to suit today’s palates. They made do with what they had; cooks of their times used few spices and even fewer dried herbs then, but we have so much more available to us now. Making easy adjustments, I shared this with my friend and editor, Erin Booke, at The Dallas Morning News, and began writing my Kitchen Comfort series for the DMN food section in April.

The point: Those who weathered those difficult times long ago inspire us now. Their reassuring food gives us hope. Breaking bread with those you love is powerful, and I believe that as we cook and eat together with more awareness, we can find we’ll make it to the other side of our challenges, too. Here’s where this kind of cooking has led….

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

Because there’s only so much virtuous eating we can tolerate, a splurge dessert needs to be at the ready for those cheat days — right? Writing

READ MORE >>

VEGGIE FRITTATA

Sunday wasn’t my favorite day for many years. The end of the weekend gave me the blues from childhood onward, in general — until brunch

READ MORE >>

BEEF BOURGUIGNON

Sometimes a deeply soothing dish is one we deem perfect for a special occasion. There’s nothing fancy about chicken and dumplings or pot roast, but

READ MORE >>

Mushroom Risotto

For a little pre-Christmas gift, Yeti (my nickname for my large, formidable husband) bought himself a mushroom kit. In 10 days, this science experiment went

READ MORE >>

PUMPKIN BUTTER

Researching a story on pumpkin everything, I was reminded about good, old-fashioned pumpkin butter. It’s delicious on hot biscuits and pecan waffles, and I realize

READ MORE >>

Stuffed Pumpkin

I fell in love with my husband a little bit at a time, starting with a kitchen interlude exactly 10 years ago this month. He’d

READ MORE >>

PUMPKIN GINGERBREAD

Chatting with a chef friend yesterday, I nodded in complete agreement at his opinion on pumpkin everything: “I love a good pumpkin pie, but all

READ MORE >>

Coca-Cola Cake

Arrive at Smoke-A-Holics BBQ in Fort Worth’s Morningside Heights neighborhood armed with patience. That line is only getting longer, the more everyone hears how good

READ MORE >>

FRUIT COMPOTE

Like a lot of people, we eat fairly healthy meals during the week and spoil ourselves somewhat on the weekend. Specifically, Sunday brunch is a

READ MORE >>

CHICKEN IN RED WINE

Another installment in my Kitchen Comfort series, this easy Sunday supper dish was inspired by another trip through my mom’s battered copy of A Taste

READ MORE >>

Vichyssoise with Herbs

To celebrate what would have been Julia Child’s 108th birthday over the weekend, I whipped out her timeless recipe for vichyssoise. It’s an unbelievably easy

READ MORE >>

Herbed Gazpacho

One of the first dishes I made in my first apartment after graduating from college was gazpacho — it was cheap and easy and impressed

READ MORE >>

Nutty-Spiced Granola

I’m forever stumbling upon handmade goodies in my travels, making it impossible to enjoy the store-bought version of whatever it is afterward. On a story

READ MORE >>

Tomato Pie

In a twist on James Beard’s famous tomato pie, which his friend and renowned food writer Ruth Reichl has touted for decades, I used my

READ MORE >>