Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here, today talking about comfort food. It’s the season for it—shorter days and colder nights always tempt me to hunker down next to the wood stove with a good book, but I still have to eat and there’s something about this time of year that brings out certain cravings. Aside from the traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas goodies, a couple of “comfort foods” become very popular at chez Emerson in December.

Chocolate.

Goes without saying, right?

I have a particular weakness for Dove Promises in their cheerful red wrappers. The trick is to limit myself to one serving (four pieces). Some days, though, my chocolate craving calls for something more substantial. In this part of Maine, that translates into a Whoopie Pie.

I gather other states also claim to have invented this treat, but they can certainly be found just about everywhere desserts are sold around here. Homemade ones are great, too, and our nieces, using my late sister-in-law’s recipe, provide plenty of them for the holidays.

Unfortunately, one cannot live on chocolate alone, so let me tell you about a nourishing winter  favorite. We call it “glop,” but it’s really just a casserole made with whatever leftovers happen to be handy. The best thing about it is that it’s flexible, both in content and in how you heat it up. I like to use my large, round, yellow, two-quart Corning ware baking dish, but a large covered skillet or wok will work, too.

Start with noodles. Leftovers of any kind of pasta will work, or you can make macaroni and cheese from a box mix. Add a heaping handful of shredded cheese. We like a three-cheese blend, but as long as it will melt, any variety will do. To this mixture, I add either tomato sauce or a can of undiluted cream of mushroom soup. You can substitute other “cream of” soups or Alfredo sauce or . . . well, be as creative as you like. If you want to include vegetables, add frozen or fresh chopped onions, frozen or fresh chopped peppers, frozen corn, or frozen broccoli florets. Or whatever you have handy. Last but not least, add leftover cooked meat, chopped or crumbled. Some I’ve used are ground beef, meatloaf, pot roast, chicken,  turkey, pork roast, pork chops, ribs, sausage, and uncooked sliced hot dogs. Season to taste, mix everything together well, and sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese on top, then heat the mixture until it’s hot all the way through. I stick the casserole dish in the oven at 350 degrees for at least a half hour, but heating the ingredients on top of the stove or in the microwave will work, too. So will putting everything in a pot on top of the wood stove if the power is out.

Just FYI, my character, Liss MacCrimmon, enjoys both glop and whoopie pies as much as I do.

What are your favorite winter comfort foods?

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett has had sixty-four books traditionally published and has self published others. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. In 2023 she won the Lea Wait Award for “excellence and achievement” from the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. She is currently working on creating new editions of her backlist titles. Her website is www.KathyLynnEmerson.com.

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