Comfort zones

In the NYT today, Marc Bittman doesn't exactly rhapsodize about his childhood food experiences, but it struck a chord with me.  His mother's idea of a balanced meal was meat, potatoes (mashed) and a green vegetable (usually canned peas or beans).   She must have gone to the same cooking school as my mother.  We were usually blessed with more fresh vegetables, although I can still remember stuffing canned peas in my pockets to get rid of them.  As he points out, and I can testify, you can modify the menus you grew up with to take advantage of the abundance available today, but if you really want comfort food, you will get as close to Mom's cooking as you can.  Kale and arugula may be the watchwords today, but a wedge of iceberg with thousand island dressing instantly transports me to the 1960s.