What food means home to you?

The ultimate comfort food for me is Chicken & Dumplings. The memory brings me right back to my childhood and home-cooking on the table. I admit that my efforts to duplicate Mom's Chicken & Dumplings have failed miserably. So, it's become a fond memory. I can still taste and smell the goodness, but it's not likely to be replicated. If anybody has some good advice on cooking Chicken & Dumplings I might just give it another go.

Food is all about home to me. I think that’s one of the reasons I ended up working with it in so many ways. There are all these little vignettes that come through my memory when I try to answer this question. The giant wooden salad bowl we had when I was growing up (truly giant, it sat on a tripod next to the table like a little vegetable butler) that came from the bowl mill in my grandfather’s hometown in Vermont. My mom’s bleu cheese dip (which came from her mom, and I’m pretty sure her mom before that). My dad’s bisquick pancakes with a spoonful of tahini mixed in the batter. My best friend since grade school who puts ketchup on her mashed potatoes. She moved several states away and sometimes when I miss her I’ll have a bowl myself out of nostalgia. When I moved to Seattle I missed real New York apple cider donuts so much that when a childhood friend told me he would be in town for a conference and did I want anything from the East coast I asked for them and he carried them on the plane for me! A true friend. There are so many sweet and savory moments like that. All the foods that mean home to me are attached to memories of people I’ve loved.