Eight comfort foods for tax day

Tax Day is rapidly approaching. Have you already done your taxes? Or will you be joining the countless hordes of people who will sit down to their paperwork this weekend? Or are you perhaps a daredevil, someone who leaves their tax prep duties to the very end?

Even if you customarily get a refund, April 15th still serves as a reminder of just how much of your money gets pulled out of your wallet and poured into the gaping maw of the government. It's as good a time to indulge in comfort food as any.

1. Chicken-Fried Steak
I always thought that chicken-fried steak was some kind of complicated dish involving batter and a deep fryer and lots of prep work. But this simple recipe from the New York Times proved me wrong. Just dredge a cube steak in seasoned flour and cook it in a skillet for a few minutes on each side. You may have to supplement with packet gravy if that's your thing.

2. Macaroni and Cheese
Sure, the pre-packaged stuff in the blue box with the bright orange powder is a childhood favorite, but have you made homemade mac and cheese lately? It's a whole new ball game. Try it once and you will never want to go back to the Kraft stuff.

There are a lot of different mac and cheese recipes. Many are based on making a roux first, but my favorite comes from Nigella Lawson and is incredibly easy to assemble and bake.

Image courtesy Flickr/Manuel Alarcon

3. Mashed Potatoes
"Comfort food" is practically synonymous with "carbs." And if you ask me, pound for pound, the best carb is mashed potatoes.

My favorite way to prepare mashed potatoes is to use Yukon Gold (or red, in a pinch) potatoes. Cut them into big chunks, and leave the skin on. Simmer for about 30 minutes, along with several cloves of garlic, until you can easily stab the potatoes in the middle with a fork. Drain the water and add some butter and whatever dairy you have on hand. Milk will work fine, but sour cream or heavy cream are even better.

Mash and serve with salt and pepper. SO GOOD.

4. Meatloaf
Meatloaf is one of those foods that a lot of people are embarrassed to admit they like. Meatloaf is the butt of a lot of culinary jokes; the savory equivalent of fruit cake. But I'll tell you, a good slice of meatloaf is delicious, filling and oh so homey.

There are about a million meatloaf recipes out there. I have yet to find the "perfect" recipe. If you have a suggestion, I'm all ears!

5. Green Bean Casserole
Don't even try to count the calories in this dish. Sure it starts with green beans, but then you add cream of mushroom soup and those amazing fried onion crisps on top, and whoa.

A lot of people think of green bean casserole as strictly a holiday dish, but frankly, I think this one is good year-round. It's not like they stop selling canned green beans after December!

6. Chicken Noodle Soup
This may be the quintessential comfort food. A thousand years from now, archaeologists will look back and note that this is the dish that we chose to serve our sick. Is there any higher calling for a simple broth, fortified with egg noodles?

My favorite way to do chicken noodle soup is to use the carcass from a grocery store rotisserie chicken and cook it in the slow cooker. It's a great way to skip a few steps, and you get that roast-y flavor from the chicken carcass.

Image courtesy Flickr/Adam Kuban

7. Ice Cream
This isn't a recipe. I just wanted to say, seriously, how good is ice cream?! My personal favorite is Ben & Jerry's "Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream."

8. BLT
Unlike most comfort foods, the BLT actually contains vegetables. But also bacon, and white bread, and mayonnaise.

The perfect BLT uses bacon cooked until it is crisp (not gummy), tomato slices patted dry with a paper towel to keep the sandwich from getting too wet, iceberg lettuce, and toasted white bread. It's all about the interplay of crispy textures, and the way the saltiness of the bacon pairs with the tartness of the tomatoes.

Main image courtesy Flickr/suanie