Comfort Foods?

I like to "cook." I use the scare quotes because the word "cooking" usually calls to mind the application of heat to some kind of food. But I prefer the broader use of the word, which would include the assembly of any dish for consumption. So this could include non-cooked items such as sauces, dips, and simple appetizers.

My love of cooking is the one thing that offsets my natural tendency to avoid large gatherings of people. It's not that I'm a misanthrope, or overly anti-social. I'm just not that into big gatherings. Still, the cooking is fun, and it's great to share food and to see people enjoy the food that you've spent some time creating. Sharing food is a very old form of human socialization, going back to before written or oral history.


It's the holiday season, of course. And that means a gathering. Because we're at my in-laws this means a group of maybe 10-20 people who have, of course, their own food preferences. But because it's not my house I can't really commandeer the kitchen and go crazy. So I offered to make a couple of sauces to go with the ham my mother-in-law is serving. I chose a couple of standards and then decided to make a Thai Peanut sauce. It doesn't really go with the ham but I felt like trying it.

Then my wife, Lee, suggested I also make deviled eggs.

Great idea. People love deviled eggs, they're great comfort food, and they're good for large gatherings of people. I start with a basic recipe:

6 eggs, hardboiled
1/4 cup mayo
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp vinegar
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

For this group I quadrupled the recipe. One thing to note is that if you want to teach a person patience, set him to peeling 24 hardboiled eggs when the shells are sticking relentlessly to the eggs. Damn.

My only modification to the recipe is that after I mixed the other ingredients with the egg yolks, I also add some kind of dijon or country mustard to taste, as well more mayonnaise (a bit at a time) to the point where it hits the kind of creaminess that I like. I don't measure at that point—it's all to taste and sense of texture. Depending on the crowd and my own preferences I will sometimes mix in Tabasco, or perhaps some dill, or a bit of horseradish. But the egg flavor is delicate and it's easy to overwhelm it with too many flavors. So I try to keep it basic.

Anyway, the deviled eggs always go over well. Very popular. And great food for a family gathering.

The sauces I made for the ham were a creamy horseradish sauce and a mustard sauce. Unfortunately, as happens all too often, I didn't keep the recipe. So the mustard sauce, which was incredibly popular, was a one-time deal. Oh well.