Challenge: Comfort Food

(This post is part of the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. You can find links to other writers' answers over at Long and Short Reviews. I kind of fell off last year, so we'll see how I do with it this year.)

Prompt: Favorite Comfort Food and Why (+Recipes)

Oh, this'll be an interesting topic. I'm probably not the best person to ask, since one of my qualifications for a proper comfort food is that it has to be relatively easy to prepare, but I do have some answers for this prompt. So buckle in, and let's explore the wonders of...

1. Bacon. Literally just a plate of bacon. Drink a lot of water with this one, or maybe 3/4 water + 1/4 orange juice (arguably a comfort food in its own right).  I don't believe bacon requires a lot of explanation, but:

Recipe: Buy 4-8 packets of uncooked bacon. Put tinfoil over your baking trays, then lay bacon down in strips on the trays. Push the dog out from underfoot. Set the oven to 350 or 375 F. (The higher setting is a little faster, but also a little easier to burn things.) Cook until done -- usually about 20 minutes. Shove the dog out of the way again so you can open the oven. Remove trays and use tongs to move bacon to a paper plate covered with three-deep paper towels. Put a cover of two more paper towels on top, and set well back from the edge of the counters so the dog can't get at it. Reload tray with more bacon and reinsert, then nudge the dog aside and unload the next tray. Continue process until all your uncooked bacon has been converted into nicely-cooked bacon. 

Notes: Don't try to eat all the bacon at once. Have a bit and freeze the rest; you may need access to comfort food for longer than you realize. Also, you can then use it for:

2. Mac & Cheese & Bacon. So, now you've got this nice supply of frozen bacon just waiting for you to have an emotional/gastronomical breakdown. But, well, this time you need something a little different, with more carbs. Instant Mac & Cheese is here to help, but it's better with some of that bacon in it. Plus, the dog is less likely to take an ankle-adhering interest in what you're cooking.

Recipe: Find some Mac and Cheese -- I recommend one of the Cracker Barrel Instant Mac & Cheese boxes, if you can find one; it's a better flavor for this than the regular Kraft stuff, and cooks in minutes -- and cook it. Then crumble a few strips of bacon and mix it in. Stir it around, and enjoy. 

Notes: Adjust the Mac & Cheese vs. Bacon ratio as desired.

3. Instant Ramen. It's quick, it's tasty, it can be prepared as a soup or just as some noodles, and if you want to clear your sinuses you can either buy spicy or mix some hot sauce in. Plus, once again, it can be prepared with almost no time and effort. 

Recipe: Boil water, insert noodles, poke and stir until noodles soften. For soup, add the flavor packet and possibly some hot sauce directly to the water. For noodles, drain the water and then add the sauce packet, stirring until the flavor is evenly distributed. Easy Peasy.

Notes: Dog is unlikely to find this interesting at all, which can be a blessing some days. 

4. Long John Silver's. It's fast food incarnate: deep-fried and heavily battered whitefish, with french fries. Maybe some catsup and tartar sauce. There's no deep meaning here. It's hot, it's greasy, it's good. Plus, they won't let you bring the dog inside, so that's one less thing to worry about. 

Recipe: Drive to the nearest Long John Silver's and pay for somebody else to cook your meal. 

Notes: Be sure to ask for extra crumbs. You can apologize to your circulatory system later.

So there you go. What're your favorite comfort foods? (I'm looking forward to seeing what everybody else comes up with for this one.)