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Yes, you read that right: a pie that is also pastaBut as yet another late winter storm blows into the Bay Area this week, here’s a new front-runner in the contest for the most cozy, comforting food in San Francisco: a slice of pasta pie. You can find the dish at Mattina, the Cal-Italian all-day cafe from chef Matt Accarrino. He says pasta pie previously has been on the menu at his higher-end restaurant SPQR. But ever since he opened Mattina just up the street, he’s been offering slices of pasta pie as a special and selling out regularly. The...

Political tensions are never far from the surface in this Canadian province, even when it comes to this beloved snack of French fries, cheese curds and gravy. "It is the unofficial official dish of Canada. In fact, if they could make it look good on a flag, the maple leaf's days might be numbered," Jamie Oliver quipped in an article about making the perfect poutine. As harmless as Oliver's comment appears, it's the perfect example of how a dish that stirs real feelings of heritage and culture in the Canadian province of Quebec may slowly be losing its regional identity....

New Year's Day is approaching, which means we need to have a little talk about Hoppin' John. A savory blend of rice and black-eyed peas, it's served alongside collard greens as the traditional New Year's Day meal in the South and, increasingly, in other parts of the country. Eating those two dishes will ensure prosperity in the new year, and the collards represent greenbacks and the black-eyed peas coins. Or so they say. For a long time, if offered a plate of collards and Hoppin' John on New Years, I would have been inclined to say, "keep the change," for...

When we came home tonight, my husband smelled cooking coming from a neighbor’s place, and said it reminded him of a childhood favorite, Tuna Noodle Casserole. He hasn’t made it in a long time, but grew up on a recipe that used the typical canned-soup approach. On the food network site, Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond has a from-scratch recipe that looks a lot better: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/tuna-noodle-casserole-3634226Another recipe from prepared items that we used to make was Corned Beef Hash, using canned corn beef and mashed potatoes. But if you are having corned beef for St. Patrick’s day, here’s a more interesting...

At this time of year - after a month of holidays, parties, and attendant gustatory overindulgence - I find myself looking for bright, fresh recipes using vegetables. Recently in my reading I came across a reference to ‘Crab Louie’, which I remembered from somewhere but had forgotten. Crab Louie (or Crab Louis) is a salad originally dating from early-1900s San Francisco, with Crab as the centerpiece; and it includes boiled eggs, tomatoes, asparagus, and a creamy dressing which can be like a Russian, Thousand Island, or sometimes Green Goddess. Here’s the Wiki on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_LouieAnd here, from Food and Wine,...

Come this time of year, it’s usually the holidays that lead to overeating. But now another event has some people packing on the pounds: the election of Donald Trump. From Massachusetts General Hospital’s Weight Center, to a pilates studio in Belmont, to a South End bakery, some Hillary Clinton supporters have taken to stress eating, bigly. “The response is similar to what you see after a divorce or a death in the family,” said Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity-medicine physician at MGH’s Weight Center. “Numb” and “fearful” patients are backsliding into comfort food, she said, adding that it’s too early...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- It's a sticky black sandwich spread that much of New Zealand adores, though detractors liken it to axle grease. And when it runs out, it's Marmageddon. The manufacturer of Marmite says its supplies of the yeast-extract product ran out this week, four months after earthquakes forced it to close the only factory that made New Zealand's version. "Don't freak. We will be back soon!" the company, Sanitarium, says on the Marmite website. But there are signs of freaking in this country of 4.4 million people, which eats its way through 640 metric tons of the savory...

Children who have a poor emotional relationship with their mother are more than twice as likely to become obese, research claims. A study found toddlers who struggle with their mothers are at higher risk of being grossly overweight by the time they are 15. Those who had the worst emotional relationship were almost two-and-half times more likely to be obese at 15 than those with a strong bond. Meanwhile, only 13 per cent who had close bonds in their formative years became obese. U.S. researchers studied nearly 1,000 toddlers and their mothers at play then rated how strong the bond...

Are you hungry? Do you need a little nosh? It doesn't matter what you say. Bubbe won't take no for an answer. “I'm a Bubbe (that's Yiddish for grandmother) and feeding people is what I do best,” the octogenarian Internet star writes in the introduction of her new cookbook, “Feed Me Bubbe: Recipes and Wisdom from America's Favorite Online Grandmother” (Running Press). The book is an extension of her popular online series of kosher cooking lessons of the same name, produced by her grandson, Avrom Honig. Bubbe's videos have received hundreds of thousands of views since Avrom made the first...

This Thanksgiving I took on the daunting task of making my mother-in-law’s cornbread dressing. This isn’t just ordinary dressing; this is my husband’s very favorite dish. This is “Mamma’s Dressing”. There are entire family stories surrounding this dressing. The outcome of holidays has been determined by this dressing. Forget the presents, forget the company; it was all about the dressing. No pressure.

This is the Americanized version. Easy, hearty and oh-so-tasty! Comfort food at it's best.

Lindsay Weiss of Overland Park is the grand prize winner of the Southern Living Cook-Off. She was awarded $100,000 for her recipe Roasted Banana Ice Cream with Warm Peanut Butter Sauce, which is now featured on Southern Living magazine’s Web site, www.southernliving.com. “My husband and I sat through the entire ceremony — two and a half hours — and when my name was called, I was in complete and utter shock,” said Weiss, who traveled to Birmingham, Ala., for the contest. “I was not expecting it at all.” The mother of two created her recipe last spring when she was...

Three out of four U.S. adults will be either overweight or obese in 2015, and 41% will be obese, a new report predicts. That's up from the 66% who are currently overweight or obese and 34% who are currently obese, note Youfa Wang, MD, PhD, and colleagues. Wang works in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Human Nutrition. Wang's team reviewed 20 studies on the growing ranks of overweight and obese kids, teens, and adults across the U.S. The review paints a portrait of America's growing girth, with no end to the trend in sight.

Sorry for the vanity but I need Freeper Help!!! Since I just arrived from Phoenix AZ to Maine last year my family wants me to bring a crockpot chili to the reunion on Sat Jun 30th. They also added the stipulation that is should be in a crockpot (to keep it warm) and mild (so everyone can eat it) I have made chili before, (long time ago) but it has never been either crockpot nor mild, and I don't think they will be willing to try anything else. Any help would be appreciated... Thanks... Lost Dutchman aka Sean O.

Oprah Winfrey may be the world's most powerful celebrity, as well as the reigning Queen of Daytime, but apparently those titles hold little sway with Hermes. The luxury goods retailer has issued a red-faced apology after refusing the talk-show host entry to one of its Paris boutiques last week. According to a statement from Hermes, Winfrey and "an entourage" tried to enter the Hermes boutique on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore at about 6:45 p.m. on June 14. Though the store's normal closing time is 6:30 p.m., many high-end retailers routinely make exceptions for celebrities and other VIPs. However, according...