I have a serious love of comfort food.  While I generally tend to naturally prefer healthy foods, there is nothing like good ‘ole fashioned comfort food.  When I was pregnant with Colin, I ate macaroni and cheese nearly every day (and I blamed it on cravings…but really, I just freaking love the stuff.  Cravings.  Right).  But I will tell you that I am not here posting a recipe for mac and cheese – I am a blue box spirals purist, and even I don’t make it best.  My mom makes it best because of the touch of love thrown in that can’t be recreated.

And that is the thing about comfort food. Yes, foods like Kraft mac and cheese are tasty, but is it really the taste that gives that comforting feeling, or is it the memories that are entangled with tastes and emotions that fill the soul with each bite?

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I did not grow up in a household where my parents exposed me to a vast array of international culinary cuisines.  My diet growing up was a mix of my mom’s 3 go-to recipes (I love you mom, but hive, they aren’t worth sharing…), a smattering of semi-healthy frozen foods, turkey sandwiches, mac and cheese, of course, and all sorts of Jewish traditional dishes on holidays, from matzo ball soup to kugel.  While I remember complaining a lot about food growing up, when I look back now, there are a handful of dishes from my childhood that I am building into my cooking repertoire for Little C and our family.  And one of them is yummy enough to share with all of you.

This dish was something my dad would make during the first week of consistently cold weather, and it has that stick-to-your-bones, heart-warming, flavor-overflowing goodness that makes me actually look forward to the Midwestern chill that sets in every November (if not sooner).  My dad adapted the recipe from a family friend; in their house, it was known as “Wiener Paprikash,” but as the only man in a house full of girls, my dad changed the name to something generic that would draw fewer tween girl eye rolls.  That is how “Hot dogs and Potatoes” came to our house, and now I’m happy to introduce it to yours.

Before I tell you more, I will warn you.  You will read this recipe and be skeptical.  You will think it sounds gross or just plain strange.  It isn’t.  I swear.

Hot dogs and Potatoes

1 tablespoon oil
1 yellow onion, sliced
1 package hot dogs (I used the Hebrew National, all-beef, reduced fat kind), sliced into half inch rounds
3-4 russet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 large palm full of paprika
1 small palm full of garlic powder
salt and pepper
water

1) With your skillet on medium-high heat, saute onion in oil (canola, vegetable, olive – whatever you have on hand).  Once onion is softened, add sliced hot dogs and saute with onions 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2) While the onions and hot dogs cook, dice potatoes (the smaller the cube, the faster they will cook – my dad slices them much bigger than I do, but I find that making small dices means they are great easy one-bite finger foods for the little man).  Add potatoes to the skillet and stir.  Add spices, and mix thoroughly.

3) Add about a cup and a half of water to the skillet – this amount is flexible – just add enough to have the contents of the skillet nearly submerged.  Mix again, and then reduce heat to low and put the top over the skillet.  Stir every 5-10 minutes.  Once the potatoes are soft enough to be pierced with a fork with very little effort, they’re ready.  This is a meal that will be great on day one, and even better on day two if you have any left over once your family guzzles it down.

I hope your family enjoys this as much as I did as a kid (and still do today!!).

Do you have any favorite nontraditional comfort foods?