30 Day Blog Challenge Day 29: My Favorite Comfort Food

It's day 29! The end is in sight! You get a whole week off after tomorrow before you hear from me again with another blog entry. Or you could say it's a whole week before you get to read another blog entry from me. It's all a matter of perspective. Today's assignment is to write about my favorite comfort food. This was an easy one and everyone in my family, at least the Stephens side, will know exactly what I'm talking about.

These aren't my mom's noodles,
but I don't have an actual pictures of
those. They're always gone before
anyone can take a picture.

Every year in the fall and sometimes other times of the year, but rarely, my mom makes her noodles. They are similar to what some people call dumplings, but not at all like what I think of as dumplings, which are softer and round. These are noodles in either chicken or, best, turkey gravy. They are quite possibly the best food known to humanity. They're so good that they are a bit like crack. I've been known to knock small children out of the way to get seconds of them.

Come fall, when we start exchanging messages on Facebook about the Stephens family Christmas reunion, one of the first questions asked every single year is, "Is Aunt Nancy bringing her noodles?" She used to run out, so she just kept making more and more to the point that she brings a great vat of them every year. And people line up to take home extras.

Why are they so good? I have no idea. I've seen her make them and the ingredients are just the basics. She has no secret thing she adds into either the noodles themselves or the gravy. And I've tried noodles made using the exact same recipe by other people that just aren't as good. I guess it's just something magical about my mom that makes them the best comfort food I've ever eaten.

By the way, the best way to eat them is poured over mashed potatoes. The perfect bite has some turkey, some mashed potatoes and some noodles. And then you sop up the gravy after you're finished with homemade hot rolls slathered in butter. If that ain't comfort, I don't know what is.

A pretty close second is cheesecake with me. It's my favorite dessert most of the year. I'll eat it plain or with practically any kind of topping. In the fall, though, pumpkin pie and the pumpkin pie Blizzard from DQ take its place.

So what's your favorite comfort food?