Top Ten Comfort Food Countdown......The Deen Bros., Y'All Come Eat!.

Christmas provided me with a new stash of cookbooks. I love cookbooks! I only collect the kind that you can "read". You know, a story behind the author on each page, or a story or anecdote about the ingredients, or the origin of the recipe.

Well, many of you know that I am a huge Paula Deen fan, and thus by association, a fan of Jamie and Bobby Deen, Paula's two grown sons. The recipe in mention is called "Bobby's Goulash". Now the word Goulash probably had a slightly different meaning to me growing up on Cleveland's ethnic westside. and would have contained the words "Paprika and Sour Cream" But this recipe is certainly right up there on my list of "Food for the Soul" or whatever you choose to call something easy to make, filling, aromatic and done in "one pan".

20 minutes of simmering onions in olive oil, (I also added chopped celery, because I had it) browned ground beef, basil, oregano, garlic, salt, pepper, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, and a large can of tomato sauce (I only had 28 oz. of tomato puree)... same difference! The addition of 3 tbl . of soy sauce (does teriyaki count?) was a surprise, but it's a TV show cookbook, what the hay! Poetic license, so there!

After simmering this stuff, you add 2 cups of "dry macaroni" directly to the mix and simmer for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, and then after that, let it sit off the heat for another 20 minutes. Prep time was insignificant, and I was watching Daniel while I was cooking so popping back into the kitchen was no biggie. Delicious! Made a ton and it was so comforting! I will be eating it for a few days at least. Great addition to a snowy Ohio evening.

I am no chef, and certainly no TV Show Star, author, or Foodie wannabe on the Food Network, but this is the kind of cooking I am "famous" for in my own right. One pan...One Meal.....Perfect!

If the truth would be known, you could find similiar recipes in any church cookbook from the ladies auxiliary, or any Amish recipe collection, or as my Kentucky born and bred Grandma Craft would have pronounced it......Slum Gullion!

Yah!

p.s. I also use Paula's House Seasoning (used in her restaurant, The Lady and Sons, in Savannah, Ga.) for cooking.: 1 cup salt, 1/4 cup garlic powder, 1/4 cup black pepper. Shake up and store in a covered container and keep it next to the stove. Good stuff!