Comfort Food Galore

I had kind of a rough time of it Friday, got sucked into some pretty weird church politics at someone else's church, so the weekend started out with my wanting comfort food. Friday night, that worked out to Indian food out. For some reason, one of the foods I find myself really wanting whenever I have a bad cold or a bad day is Indian food. I am missing Ajanta India in Kettering a lot right now because we haven't found a place we really love yet here. Cafe Tandoor (at least the one in Westlake) is simply not good at all and India Garden is good, but way too hot for us and lacking in bhatura. I suspect there may be just the right place over on the east side, but for now, India Garden will do. We started with a vegetarian appetizer sampler that was decent and some rather bland pappadum. Next was really hot but quite tasty chicken tikka masala (even though we asked for a 2 level-next time, I go with a very wimpy zero!) with lots of rice and very good garlic naan to calm our tongues. Finally, we split an order of the best gulab jamun I've had yet, just perfection in a dish. If you like it very hot or if you want luscious gulab jamun, you will probably quite like India Garden because the flavor is good, the atmosphere is pleasant and the service is terrific! www.indiagardencleveland.com is the website.

Saturday we got hungry while we were out & about, so we popped into Tommy's on Coventry for the first time. The atmosphere was not very conducive to comfort or coziness and our server was downright unfriendly. However, it was really refreshing to see a menu with so many great options for vegans and vegetarians. I would go back, but probably not when the weather is cold because it is uber-drafty. I ended up eating with my coat and scarf on! I had the very yummy Colleen, which was a pita sandwich with falafel (which was pretty good, although not as good as the falafel at Aladdin's), bacon, cheese, sprouts, onions, green peppers & tahini sauce. J had a meat pie with cheese, which was also quite nice. We also had a good laugh when J didn't realize "homos" is another spelling of "hummus" and was rather shocked to see it written on the menu. "Homos??? What do they mean???" she exclaimed. You can find the menu, as well as more info, at www.tommyscoventry.com.

Saturday night, our dinner went with our K date theme, "Kid Inside Day." I fed our inner children with cheeseburger sloppy joes, tater tots and chilled canned pears. I got the sandwich idea from the Dayton Junior League cookbook and made it my own. "How can you have a cheeseburger without ketchup?" I thought, and added it.

Cheeseburger Sloppy Joes

1 lb. burger

1 onion, chopped

8 oz. colby-jack (or whatever cheese you like best), cut in 1/2" cubes

Salt & pepper to taste

A dash of chili powder

2 tbsp. pickle relish

1/4 c. mustard

1/4 c. ketchup

1/3 c. mayonnaise

12 buns (or make as many sandwiches as you need and freeze the rest of the sandwich guts for later-and trust me, it does make enough for 12!)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Brown and drain burger. Add onion and cook until softened. Add cheese and cooking, stirring, until melted. Add seasonings and allow to cool. Mix condiments together and add to cooled meat mixture. Spoon onto buns and wrap each in foil. Bake 20-25 minutes. I liked mine with extra ketchup squirted on as I ate it, so having some extra condiments on the side is a good idea.

Sunday night, J wanted to use the chicken she'd bought for chicken marsala. She'd forgotten the sauce at work & didn't want to drive all the way over there, so she scanned Paula Deen's The Lady & Sons Too cookbook and came up with the very tasty and very downhome chicken boudine. The recipe can be found at http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/chicken-boudine-recipe/index.html. I made steamed cauliflower & broccoli to go with it and J added some good olive oil bread.