His Eats Huffs Enjoy Comfort Food On Snowy Days vRandy Dockendorf After an 8-inch snowstorm hit Yankton in early December, many residents got out their shovels. Steve and Tracy Huff got out their crock pot and roaster. The couple spent their snowy Saturday afternoon seeking comfort — how else? — by whipping up some comfort food. For the uninitiated, comfort food is one of those things you can’t easily describe. You just know it when you see it. “It pretty much describes any food that looks and smells good and that makes you feel good,” Steve said. “For us, it’s the kind of food that the family makes for the first snowstorm. I think, with it being a snowstorm week, it just begged for comfort food. It just absolutely did.” The comfort food reflects the mood of the day, Steve said. “You can roll it out or eat it over a period of time,” he said. “After you’re done eating it, you just want to put your feet up. You may want to loosen your belt, or you can spend the day just sitting around in your (sweat pants).” A check on Facebook revealed a wide variety of Yankton residents staying indoors and posting about whatever they were cooking or baking. In many cases, people were making chili or some type of casserole. Steve described an imaginative creation: a lasagna that was half vegetable and cheese with the other half featuring sausage and buffalo. “You just have to be creative,” he said. You also need to ensure you have the ingredients before you start any culinary projects. On this particular weekend, the anticipated bad weather created a run on local supermarkets. At one store, the milk coolers were empty and the bread shelves were bare. “You should plan ahead, especially if you think you’re going to cook or bake,” Steve advised. Comfort food means different things to different individuals, Steve said. Regardless of your favorite dish, comfort food needs to be savored, he added. For some people, comfort food means hearty dishes like chili, soup or mashed potatoes. For others, it’s an all-day baking session resembling an assembly line. For the Huffs, there’s no better place to spend a snow day than in the kitchen. Unlike previous His Voice meals, this creation would end up on the Huffs’ own table and dishes. “We’re not doing this for any fundraisers or for anybody else. This is all for us,” Steve said. “We decided to do this (dish) on the spur of the moment,” Tracy added. Making It Easy On this particular afternoon, the Huffs made it easy, hearty and practical. They went for a roast, surrounded by cooked vegetables, all simmering in the natural meat juices. “I looked online for a good roast recipe. I wanted to to emphasize the vegetables,” Steve said. “This fall was a great harvest for produce, and we had the very last of our vegetables from the farmer’s market in Yankton. I had carrots and radishes, and I wanted to make sure those didn’t’ go to waste.” When it came to preparing the veggies, the Huffs decided less was more. “For this recipe, Tracy wanted it really hearty. She didn’t even peel the veggies. I peeled off a couple of spots on a couple of carrots,” Steve said. “I left the peeling on the radishes and parsnips. Basically, I took the brownish off the Brussel sprouts and kept the vegetables as plain as they could be.” The decision wasn’t meant just to avoid work, Steve said. Instead, the hands-off approach was meant to bring out the full snap of the veggies. “You want to leave the vegetables crispy. Mushy means you’ve gone too far. I want it to have crunch,” he said. “Mushy is fine for mashed vHIS EATS continued on page 15 HISVOICEvJANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019v3