Have I mentioned before that I have a bag problem, issues with too many bags, more bags than I could ever use, a lovely collection of knitting bags? I think bags appeal to my “I want to be organized” nature. Or my “Oh, isn’t that beautiful? I need that.” nature. Therefore, we tend to carry a lot of different bag options for you at The Loopy Ewe, and I have personally tested and used each type. (Yeah, that’s it. I NEED to be testing all of these lines….) At the moment, I have three favorites (and I’m fickle. This will change with the wind.) I love my Offhand Designs Weekender bag. I packed this one to the gills and took it with us on Spring Break. It holds so much, and it’s in my favorite colors, Peppermint Mocha. (They call it Ruby Splash, but it’s clearly Peppermint Mocha.) We got a lot of different 
fabrics in, but I went for that one right out of the box. Another favorite is my new Atenti bag, which arrived last week. I will admit to having trouble picking out the one I wanted, because they’re all so cute. I picked Pops, but I have my eye on two others as well. This is another bag that would hold a whole weeks worth of knitting if you were to take it on vacation. (It also makes a great carry-on bag if you fly.) The fabrics are gorgeous and the workmanship is top notch. I love this new line. A lot of you are getting these in the mail this week and I know you’re going to be so happy with them. We have another order to put in with them already. My other favorite bag is my Namaste Laguna bag that I just received in the new Peacock color. 
I like how soft the animal-friendly faux leather is, I like that I can just wipe it off with a damp sponge if someone’s Latte should happen to drip, and I like how roomy it is inside. We just got a whole new shipment of all of the colors (and the new Newport Style bag) in and put them all up today. I know you’ve been waiting on them! (Several of you also have bag problems lovely knitting bag collections, and I like that about you.) Oh – and the Red Canvas Loopy Sock Bags are back in stock, too. Another bag that I like….
Remember that Little Loopy mentioned that we have Elf Cassie working here for the summer? Cassie is in college and will be getting married this summer (but we get to keep her until August). Her brother and sister have taken to calling her “Keebz”, since she’s a Loopy Elf and they liken that to the Keebler Elves. (Doesn’t that sound like a brother/sister thing to do?) They bought her a fun shower gift – a Loopy T-Shirt – and they personalized the back for her. Here she is showing the front and the back in the photo. We thought it was really cute and made her wear it around Loopy Central today. (Does that make her fiance “Mr. Keebz”? Just wondering.)
Today’s recipe is a delicious Macaroni and Cheese dish that takes comfort food to a whole new level. YUM!!
Mac and Cheese Crumble
1 pound pasta (corkscrew holds the sauce on best, but use your favorite)
4 slices day old bread
1 Tbl. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 lb. mozzarella cheese, grated (about 2 cups)
1/2 lb. cheddar cheese, grated (about 3 cups)
1/2 lb. Gruyere cheese, grated (about 3 cups)
1/2 lb. fontina or provolone cheese, grated (about 2 cups)
1/2 lb. bacon, cut into 1 ” strips
10 Tbl. butter (unsalted)
3 1/2 cups milk
1/3 cup flour
Stir fry bacon pieces in a large saute pan until done. Remove to drain on paper towels. Chop bread by hand or in a food processor until crumbly. Add 2 Tbl. bacon drippings to 3 Tbl. butter in a pan, and toss in bread crumbs. Stir until they are lightly golden and crisp. Set aside.
Cheese Sauce: Heat milk over medium heat (do not boil). Melt 6 Tbl. butter in a separate saucepan and whisk in flour until smooth. Whisk in warmed milk next and cook until it starts to thicken (stirring occasionally.) Remove from heat and add in your cheeses, stirring until melted. Add bacon and salt and pepper to taste.
Cook pasta about 8-9 minutes in a large pot of salted water. Drain and rinse with cold water. Add pasta to cheese combination and stir well. Put in 9 x 13 pan and top with bread crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until hot and bubbling.
June Blog Contest: I know you’re not supposed to view food as “comfort” – any smart dieter will tell you that. Nevertheless, there are some foods (like mac and cheese) that just DO make you feel better. 🙂 At least until you get on the scale again. Leave a comment and let us know what your favorite comfort food is – this could be something that you like to eat now, or something that you liked to eat growing up. We’ll use the random number generator to pick a winner next Friday from all of the comments. (The winners of our monthly blog contests receive a $30 gift certificate to The Loopy Ewe. Maybe you need a new bag??)
Sheri funtoseesomanyofyousigningupforthenextKAL!
Just MORE evidence that Loopy Ewe knitters are the most amazingly wonderful people EVER:
Someone from the group…. anonymously sent me the most AMAZINGLY beautiful and perfect Offhand Designs Weekender in Ebony and Ivory …as a GIFT! There was a sweet note- penned by our beloved and sworn to secrecy Sheri….(I already tried to get her to tell.. she won’t) It arrived in the middle of my oldest sons Graduation party…I am still in shock!
I do not know who sent it…. but I wanted to say: THANK YOU!
My favorite comfort food has got to be my Dad’s lobster chowder (yes, I’m east coast Canadian) For years I can remember my sister & I sitting at the counter watching him bring home the lobster, carefully taking the rubber bands off the claws & them plunging them into the boil. Once fully cooked we always got a handful or two of the steaming meat, but we allllll looked so forward to that chowder…loads of cream and real butter….Hmmmm, lots of memories.
We still flock to the house once & awhile for a good feed, he’s an amazing cook and a wonderful Father who loved to see his girls “EAT”!
Thanks,
Kimberly
My comfort food is peanut butter and raspberry jam on freshly homemade white bread followed up with just out of the oven chocolate chip cookies.
A favourite comfort food in our house is a casserole that consists of Chicken stuffing double baked with macaroni and cheese. Yummn, coma.
Comfort food…chocolate when it is in the house but for real comfort…take a chuck roast, brown it and bake it with onions, potatoes and carrots in a “sauce” of a bottle of red wine and a bit of beef broth…smells wonderful and it makes anyone feel better!
Chocolate of course is first on the list, but second is cheese. Grilled cheese with tomato soup. Mac and Cheese, or cheese and tuna melted on crackers.
My favorite comfort food is probably the mighty grilled cheese. You can’t possibly go wrong with a piping hot grilled cheese stuffed with American deli cheese, sliced tomato and a dash of oregano. I think I just drooled on myself.
I find peanut butter makes just about anything comfort food as well.
Homemade Tapioca pudding, made with skim milk, double vanilla and Minute Tapioca. It was my favorite when I was little and it’s still my favorite now. Although, I tend not to dye it crazy colors anymore. When I was little I would always get out the food coloring and turn it teal or coral but now I’m fine with plain old off white.
Hands down: grilled cheese sandwich. I’m talking Kraft american singles on white bread. No fancy business here.
Although, close second would have to be sushi (a nice rainbow roll) but that just makes me weird
Oh my goodness, that mac and cheese looks fabulous. My comfort foods are my grandma’s stew recipe, grilled cheese sandwiches, freshly baked challah, really good fried chicken, and mashed potatoes. So much yumminess.
Popcorn for dinner never fails, and neither does ice cream for breakfast.
Miracle Whip on Wonder Bread…………………………not sure why I used to eat this growing up or how I even started!
Well since mac and cheese are taken, I would have to say homemade chicken noodle vegetable soup with biscuits. I can eat it for a week (thank God for crock-pots) and it makes the winter months seem soo cozy!
Ooooh, gooey messy Mac & Cheese! Looks fabulous!
My favourite comfort food of the moment is chocolate cake, the kind with really thick fudgy frosting. It absolutely *requires* a big, cold glass of milk, too. Good times.
My favorite comfort food is my mom’s
Dump Cake
1 can (20 oz.) crushed pineapple – drained
1 can (21 oz.) cherry pie filling
1 box yellow cake mix
1 c. butter or margarine – cut up.
Combine pineapple and pie filling in ungreased 13 x 9 baking dish. Top with dry cake mix and butter. Bake uncovered at 350° for 1 hour.
Fresh homemade soup & seed bread with butter.
beef stew and biscuits.
I came over from Tracey’s blog to see the bags – they are great! How nice that someone sent her her dream bag, too.
As for my comfort food… undoubtedly, soup! Homemade soup, and if I have homemade bread to go with it, well, that’s pure heaven!
I remember my mother’s mac & cheese as fabulous-it tasted best to me cold the following day. Even tho’ she gave me her recipe(never exact ingredients-always just a little of this, a touch of that), I have yet to reproduce it well enough. But the most favorite comfort food of all time to me was a big bowl of yellow summer squash-steamed and served with butter, salt and pepper…
Mashed potatoes. Real mashed potatoes, not fake ones. They are best when red skin potatoes are used and mashed with their skins on! I’m now craving those!
There are two dishes that, when served in our house, either mean someone is in mourning or that they tried really hard at something that didn’t turn out they whey they’d hoped so they’re wearing their smile upside down:
banana pudding – made with real, home made custard, over ripe bananas and nilla wafers or
Peach cobbler with whipped cream.
There, all better now!
For me, it’s a toss-up between a couple of things:
1. grilled cheese (has to be sourdough and it has to be American cheese)
2. burnt almond cake (a san jose, ca local creation)
My favorite comfort food is plain vanilla ice cream. Basic, but I love ice cream, and a nice big bowl makes me feel better. Mmmm… ice cream. Sometimes I like to stir in some peanut butter with it too.
MMMM – corned beef hash cooked till crispy in an iron skillit.
I know, I’m late but I just got back from Oregon! My favorite comfort food is:
chicken b**by browned in garlic salt/powder and then cooked more in cambell’s cream of mushroom (lower sodium) and then mixed up with buttered rice…..delish! I am the only one in this house besides my dear doggy that likes it though. The buttered rice is the best. But ice cream also does it for me.
Mashed potatoes and gravy. Yum.
What a great collection of bags, Sheri.
My favorite comfort food is osso bucco with noodles.
Joan
i have to go with mashed potatoes, and i can see i’m not the only one. they’re the perfect food– warm, rich, scuptable…. loves em!
This is a toughie. I’d have to say for dessert nothing beats homemade brownies fresh from the oven. Otherwise, I adore biscuits. Good old baking powder biscuits and a glass of milk.
My favorite comfort food is peanut butter toast, with sliced bananas, and honey drizzled on top. After putting the bananas and honey on top of the peanut butter toast, place the toast on top of the toaster and let the peanut butter melt so the bananas and honey almost slide off the toast. Follow with a big glass of ice cold mile <:o)
I’m torn between a grilled cheese sandwich made with notoriously stringy Longhorn cheese and Mom’s homemade tapioca pudding—she whipped the egg whites and put a maraschino cherry on top!
I’ve definitely got to go with beef stew! My mom has this great recipe for the most basic, non-fancy beef stew, and it hits the spot every time.
Definitely pastina cooked in bullion cube and topped off with a large lump of sweet butter. Starch attack! Scadzillion weight watchers points though. Followed by Entemanns chocolate doughnuts. My third favorite would be chocolate ice cream, banana, pear, raspberries and hot fudge sauce.
I think that my favorite comfort food would be any kind of soup (well, not split pea) or meatloaf and mashed potatoes. The meatloaf can not have any tomato products in or on it, and the mashed potatoes have to be REAL!!!!
I think my husband would have to agree that I have somewhat of a bag problem, urrr, collection as well.
My favorite comfort food is grilled cheese and tomato soup. Especially on rainy days! I also enjoy a big mug of chai tea or hot chocolate after a rough day 🙂
I’m in the process of slowly packing so I can move…and I have a LOT of bags. Backpacks, messenger bags, little handbags, etc. I even found a shoe bag for my running shoes (umm, don’t use that one much). Shockingly, I do not have a bag only for knitting…unless you count the many ziploc bags 😉
My mom’s warm rice pudding sprinkled with nutmeg.
In college, strawberry pie. Also was the reason for my freshman 15. My current comfort food is pretty much any kind of sugar. I think cookies are currently the go to snack- pure sugar and carbohydrates.
So funny, we just had the comfort food for dinner this evening. Rice, sticky rice that is, and marinated tofu with stir fry vegetables. We spent 16 years in Japan and as the kids were growing up, so this is our quick comfort food dinner. Funny part is DDIL prefers pasta so we have to have one of those meals soon. Everyone is home for the summer.
hmmm, i think i might be more of a comfort shopper than a comfort eater. i’d rather have a new bag than food.
i just asked my husband what i eat for comfort and he said, “chocolate.” so maybe.
he does make some awesome chili, and thinking about having a bowl of that with just about any kind of bread makes me happy.
I was at my friends on the weekend and she served this cake and my first words were “This is comfort food!”
So here it is, you take 1 packet instant chocolate pudding mix, 1 packet chocolate cake mix, 1 packet dark chocolate chips and mix it up with 11/2 – 2 cups of milk and then bake for 30-40 mins in a moderate oven.
Delicious!
It’s winter here, so this is appropriate for those cold nights. Of course I think chocolate is good any time!
One of my favorite comfort foods are grilled cheese sandwiches. I also love McDonald’s breakfast, but I limit myself to about once or twice a year. =)
If I am eating the comfort food for the comfort factor, I bake cookies. Or maybe a pie.
Otherwise, it needs to have cheese. A lot of it. Au gratin potatoes, mac and cheese, garlic bread with mozzarella…
One word: POPCORN!!!
Cinnamon Toast or Poached eggs on toast smashed up together in a bowl. Yum.
I was an exchage student in High school in Japan. We went skiing in the Sinshu Mountains and on the way down we would stop in the ski lodge and have Japanese curry and rice. It was a little spicy and warmed you up from the inside out.
20+ years later on the first day of snow I always make curry and rice. I am NOT a fan of winter but it makes the first snow… not so bad. My kids have also come to love it and we make it all winter long on the really cold days.
My favorite is tomato soup and grilled cheese. Homemade macaroni and cheese is a close second, though.
Beautiful bags!
My comfort meal would have to be beef roast, mashed potatoes with gravy and corn. My grandma made this almost every Sunday noon for us, and it’s still one of my favorite meals.
Pot roast – specifically my Mom’s but now that I’m all grown up – I make it myself in the crock pot with all the yummy veggies cooked with the roast. When I need a quick pick me up – Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream – the whole pint!
Hands down my favorite comfort food is chicken Noodle soup, that they sell in the red box in the grocery store. Whenever I’m sick or sad, or just living through a rainy day the first thing I want and crave is the chicken soup.
Chicken and dumplings the way my grandmother used to make it. I also loved her meatloaf. I’ve tried to recreate them, but it just isn’t the same. We didn’t have Mac & Cheese when I was growing up, but now I LOVE the stuff – especially the baked variety. Your recipe sounds delicious!!!