Comfort foods all have one special thing in common: they make us feel good.

The warmth of soul-satisfying foods evokes memories of childhood favorites -- of mom's kitchen and delicious family dinners. That spells comfort today, and Johanna Burkhard's recipes are simple and reliable yet incredibly comforting and delicious. Many of them can be made ahead of time and frozen for later use.

Some of these inviting recipes are:

• Cheese-smothered onion soup
• Harvest vegetable barley soup
• One-hour roast chicken with sage and garlic
• Zesty barbecued spareribs
• Best-ever meat loaf
• Amazing chili
• Mama's Italian cheeseburgers
• Spaghetti with creamy tomato clam sauce
• Wild mushroom risotto
• Chocolate marshmallow fudge
• Oven French toast
• Cheese cornbread
• Sour cream fudge layer cake with frosting
• Creamy rice pudding

With recipe shortcuts and serving suggestions throughout, these are 500 dishes that will inspire new comfort food traditions.

Johanna Burkhard, a food consultant, recipe developer and spokesperson, is a food writer for magazines and often appears on radio and television.

Johanna Burkhard's profile page

This would be the all around useful book that I give to my daughter as she lives without a dorm meal plan. All of the books have a little bit of everything, but this one isn't specializing in only muffins, or a crockpot. This book has all the comfort foods that we love. The recipe for Sunday Bison Roast with Wine Gravy came from this book and was very delicious. This book has such a wide range of recipes, all the favorites -- there are dips, breakfast foods, macaroni and cheese, a section using ground meats such as ground beef, turkey, chicken and veal. I'm looking forward to trying out the cheddar biscuits. I like that Johanna knows how to add that little extra flavor and doesn't look for shortcuts, but isn't making the meal unattainable or difficult. These are comfort foods at their best. I've got a bison brisket waiting to try out the beef brisket with carmelized onions. Of the three, this book is probably my favorite -- but it will go to my daughter who is just starting out on her own.

Cookerati.com

500 Best Comfort Food Recipes contains all your favorite comfort food recipes -- plus many more new ones! With the great variety offered, this cookbook is sure to be the one home cooks turn to the most when preparing everyday meals, special get-togethers, and holiday celebrations. This is an absolutely delightful cookbook. I really love this book and was thinking that it would make a great gift for many people or occasions.

Parenting Tips 365

When you use the word best in the title of a book, you're basically asking me to challenge it without even cracking the spine. However, when you preface that word with 500 you've just bought yourself some leniency. Author Johanna Burkhard has packed her book with page after page of classic comfort food, perfect for winter weary-souls looking for a hot bowl of oh-thank-god-I-can-feel-my-extremities-again. Foodies, this cookbook's winning me over on pure concept alone (and I fully admit to it).What are you getting? Better to ask, what you won't be getting. You won't be getting any fancy haute cuisine take on poutine made with Kobe beef gravy, or French onion soup topped with truffle shavings. You'll get 500+ pages of crock-pot suppers, easy pasta dishes, the kind of cookies and squares you grew up eating, and some brunch and appetizer ideas thrown in for good measure.The book excels where I expect (and hope) it would: soups and stews. The ones that I'll definitely give a go at include Chicken and Sweet Potato Stew, Cajun Cassoulet, Easy Curried Fish Stew, and Mediterranean Seafood Soup. There is even a section called, A Pound of Ground, which I think is very clever and family-friendly. Recipes in this section include different takes on meatloaf, shepherd's pie, chili, meatballs, and burgers.

FoodNetwork.ca

If your copies of Burkhard's three earlier comfort-food books have been enjoyed, her new, improved collection should please with, as she puts it, "easy, dependable and reassuringly familiar" recipes. The former Gazette columnist, now a Toronto publicist, has added 100 new recipes to her latest book, updated others, and emphasized such new food fashions as Middle Eastern, Thai and Indian cuisines, the liking for quinoa and the sweet potato, ground poultry, grilled sandwiches, the popular salmon (planked without the plank!), and even sticky toffee pudding and pannacotta. A well-tested collection. Add some quinoa, grain of the year, to your gift.

Montreal Gazette