Seems OK for me....

If Mother's slumgullion had had a bit more body, instead of individual chunks of hamburger, tomatoes, and macaroni, it might have been better. But the description does include the word "watery", and boy this dish met that description.

It actually sounds good if the meat had some seasoning, the tomatoes were incorporated into some kind of sauce with some spices, with the macaroni added.

Argh, Google appears to be down. I can't get to Gmail, Docs, Calendar, or Reader.

Seems okay for me too. I think Google just hates you, Jess.

JK.

Back from Vegas. Tired now.

slumgullion

My family's variation includes chili powder, garlic, onions, corn, olives, and pimientos in addition to the meat, tomatoes, and noodles. We call it tallarine, and it's included in the Buffista cookbook.

Emeril is visiting Jon and Kate and they're making Chili Mac.

Just thought that had to be mentioned.

It was goulash in my household, always with elbow macaroni. My gradpa would only eat pasta if it was elbow or spaghetti because anything else was too Italian. Weirdly, I am half Italian, but raised in a with him, I naturaly cook like an Italian American.

It may have included paprika in my house, as I vaguely remember it tasting much more like a Manwhich than macaroni with meat sauce.

Also, this was mae by my grandma, who was an awful, awful Depression era + clinically depressed cook. Although my favorite comfort food is still creamed tuna on toast with mashed potatoes and peas, which my mom hates. Her favorite is "Salmon Loaf".

You guys are making me sad for food.

Though my mother was by no means a good cook. Overcooked everything. Thank god I allegedly had a fish allergy.

My comfort foods are NM green chile standards, which my mother did not really cook (dad not much of a cook; when on sabbatical without us, he subsisted on spaghetti sauce from a jar and noodles, bean burritos and salad.) I always got it from local hole in the walls, enchilada dinner fundraisers or friends' houses. Mmm, red and green pork posoles, green enchiladas... But when I'm thinking of family-familiar foods, I always come back to our camping/travelling dinners: ramen with frozen vegs (peas, corn, cubed carrots) and tuna. Maybe cheese if we hadn't eaten all the cheese with wheatstone crackers already. Smelling of bluet gas. And hot or cold orange Tang, depending on the weather. When I make the ramen with tuna, I swear I can still smell the bluet.

That's how I feel about oatmeal. It's camping food, to eaten out of a thin plastic bowl that you wrap your hands around to warm up as you eat. Eating it inside out of a china bowl never quite feels right.