500 Favorite Foods

[Matt]

Man, when they've been out of the oven just long enough to be able to pick them up and eat them.

THIS. Oh yes indeedy do...there's simply NOTHING better than fresh cookies right out of the oven.

[Ingrid]

Let me also throw in, that from here on out most of my foods will probably be baked goods. That is all.

[Lisa]

You say that like it's a bad thing.

[Abraham Smashington]

Ranch is great on every thing including salad. The line is drawn. You know which side Amurrica stands on. You know.

haha.

[IggytheBorg]

73. Mom's Potato & Cheese pierogi. I have never been good with making dough, so I can't get the pockets anywhere near right when I try to make these myself. And although I can do a reasonable facsimile of thr mashed potato, butter fried onion, cottage cheese & salt & pepper filling, I still can't match teh awesomeness that mom & my Aunt Joan crank out by the dozens a couple times a year. Fried in butter with sour cream & salt & pepper (or Maggi seasoning, how my wife likes them), there's nothing better. Comfort food from the land of my fathers! [Strikes breast - his own - with fist].

And, because I didn't get to post yesterday,

74. Mom's Stuffed Cabbage. Ground beef mixed w/ rice, rolled into a boiled cabbage leaf, cooked in a sauce made from salt pork drippings & tomato soup. The ONLY drawback to this is it cleans your tract a little TOO efficiently sometimes. But yet more comfort food from the land of my fathers! [Strikes Breast w/ Fist]

[Lisa]

73. Mom's Potato & Cheese pierogi... mashed potato, butter fried onion, cottage cheese & salt & pepper filling... Fried in butter with sour cream & salt & pepper

YES, THIS!!!

[IggytheBorg]

75. Continuing the Polish comfort food vein: Smoked kielbasa. GOOD smoked kielbasa. Fuck Hillshire Farms; I once found a hunk of bone the size of one of my eyeteeth in a Hillshire Farms Kielbasa. Needless to say, I have beena less than ardent fan ever since. But bone fragment aside, the stuff you can get at a family owned Polish Deli (Henry's in Bayonne, NJ is a great example) or local meat packing co. that distributes locally, so most of their stuff is probably made in small batches (such as Pulaski Meats in Linden, NJ) blows mass produced crap like Hillshire away. AWAY. The spices are much more well balanced (LOTS of glorious GARLIC!), and the casings thinner and much more appetizing. The consistency of the very grind is much more palatable (read: fine) as well. Boil a ring, sliced up into nice diagonals, in some kraut, and you have one of the quintessential Polish peasant comfort dishes. The essense of the kielbasa rendered into the kraut is just sublime. And there's some really cool recipes that use kielbasa. They'll get posted some other day.

As an aside, are any of you from the Chicago area? I've been told that Chicago is to the Poles what Boston is to the Irish. I'd bet you can get authentic Polska there, right?

[IggytheBorg]

YES, THIS!!!

Like I said, I can't get the dough for the pocket right. But I made the filling as a side dish by itself a couple times (including a barbecue this summer), and it is SO good all by its lonesome.

[BillyG]

Oh good golly yes smoked kielbasa is awesome. The deli I go to and does my deer processing is run by a Polish family, and has been there for like 70 years. Every time I go there I end up getting kielbasa, then grill it up, and have it with super spicy BBQ sauce.

[Chris Miller]

Man, I love Keilbasa, but it hates me.

[Lisa]

I've been told that Chicago is to the Poles what Boston is to the Irish. I'd bet you can get authentic Polska there, right?

Yes, that's the case - Chicago has a huge Polish population, so that would be the place to go.

George's dad was Polish, and his mom was from England. One of the first things she learned to cook for his dad, which wound up being one of George's favorite dishes from childhood, is scrambled eggs with real kielbasa. She'd slice it up into coin size pieces, and just scramble it in with the eggs. George is a pretty light eater, to give him credit, but since we've been together, that's our big Christmas morning breakfast - I make that for us with toast, coffee and orange juice.

[Matt]

Man, I love Keilbasa, but it hates me.

Absolutely seconded. It's the meal that keeps on giving, if you know what I mean.

[IggytheBorg]

Yes, that's the case - Chicago has a huge Polish population, so that would be the place to go.

George's dad was Polish, and his mom was from England. One of the first things she learned to cook for his dad, which wound up being one of George's favorite dishes from childhood, is scrambled eggs with real kielbasa. She'd slice it up into coin size pieces, and just scramble it in with the eggs. George is a pretty light eater, to give him credit, but since we've been together, that's our big Christmas morning breakfast - I make that for us with toast, coffee and orange juice.

Had that at the Kiev Diner in NYC once, too. I know you remember that place, right Lisa?

[Lisa]

Oh, honey, do I miss The Kiev!

[Matt]

76. Honeycrisp Apples

These things are so fucking good.