Top 5: Favorite Foods My Mom Cooks

I have been a little lazy in posting lately, but I swear I have an excuse! The wireless Internet connection we were "borrowing" from some friendly, unknown neighbor seems to have bid us adieu. It happened right around the time of the election so I'm guessing that the friendly neighbor is the one who worked for the campaign that did not win the election. What is the opposite saying of "every cloud has a silver lining?"

I have at least two good meals and a bread to post, but since I am not at my home computer because of the Internet problem, I have no pictures. So for now, this will have to hold you over...

My Top 5 Favorite Foods My Mom Cooks
1. Linguini w/ clam sauce (that's one of the meals I have ready to post!)
2. Pork chops with tomato sauce sauerkraut
3. Easter bread
4. Veal stew
5. Corned beef and cabbage (why does my Italian mother make this so well? I have no idea.)

Share your Mom's best bites in the comments.

Top 5: All Time Favorite Comfort Foods

A little while back, Nic and I were talking about food, a fairly regular topic of conversation for the two of us, and we started making "Top 5 favorite foods in the whole world" lists. I think the conversation started when Nic was extolling the virtues of rice pudding. This soon branched out to "Top 5 favorite food combinations," "Top 5 places to eat in the world," Top 5 places to eat in D.C.," etc. I don't remember if I ever decided on my all-out favorites. That seems like a big commitment, but my favorite comfort foods was an easier list to put together. Just typing the list makes my very, very long day at the office seem not quite so bad.

(In no particular order.)
1. Poppop's meatball sandwiches on REAL rolls from the bakery
2. Chocolate-raspberry cake (see Final 12 Hours in D.C.)
3. Mashed potatoes w/ brown gravy
4. Perogies w/ sauteed onions and butter
5. Fried tomatoes w/ Italian bread

(I realized while typing this, I have made exactly zero of these since I started my blog. We'll have to remedy that. Maybe I can even get Poppop to do a guest post for the meatballs!)

Let me know your Top 5 in the comments--or if you can't think of the full list at the moment, one or two will do.

Top 5: Worst Kitchen Moments

Anyone who has read High Fidelity, or seen the movie, might get the reference in this post's title. In the story, these three guys who work at a record shop are constantly making Top 5 lists. There Top 5's are more like, "top 5 musical crimes perpetuated by Stevie Wonder in the '80s and '90s," but you get the idea.

They liked to talk about music, I like to talk about food.

My Top 5 Worst Kitchen Moments
(In no particular order.)
1. Watching a roommate boil ground beef.
2. Spilling an entire pan of banana bread into the oven.
3. Loosing my eyelashes and a significant chunk of the front of my hair when a ball of flaming gas exploded from my oven in Egypt.
4. Getting stuck in an elevator with a turkey brining in a (clean) trash can.
5. Catching 100 lbs. of Alaskan halibut and salmon, then having it rot when the chest freezer broke three weeks after we bought it.

Feel free to share yours in the comment section. I would like to be outdone.