Comfort food

I just finished getting my cook on. My friend who lost her husband is needing some TLC and food is an area that right now, she just can't handle. She can barely get some stuff down her throat so I went straight for the easy sliders and stuff her mom made us as kids. Her mom was a sensational down home type cook and the one thing I told her I wanted when I graduated from High School, was a collection of her recipes-- all my faves. And I still have them to this day. They might look a little tired, but I can still read them and that's what counts. So, out came the pots and pans and on went the oven.
I made a whole slew of her mom's famous oatmeal raisin cookies and while they baked, I made her a big old pot of tortilla soup. No, her mom didn't make us tortilla soup but when everything hits the crapper, there's just something about tortilla soup that makes sense out of the world again. And if you throw on the chopped up ripe avocado, the tortilla chips, cheese, and even a dab of sour cream you will sleep good even when a freakness is upon you. It is the cure for everything. I'd taken her some more homemade pimento cheese yesterday, and that's another thing from our childhood we loved. Her mom's was just deadly.
I knew I already had two frozen Wild Rice, Chicken, and Artichoke casseroles in the freezer that I'd made earlier so I grabbed one and followed the recipe's directions on how to cook it from frozen, and it looked fine. And when I sprinkled grated cheese on top of the toasted bread crumbs and ran it back in to melt on the top, let's just say it took a hell of a lot of will power not to stick a fork in for a "taste test". Truth be told, I'd already wolfed down three cookies. I'm sure that's a huge surprise. Hey...you can't make cookies and not eat some. It's against the law.

So, din-din has been delivered and my friend has headed to Love Field to pick up her daughter and son-in-law, who came in to be with her tonight. I'm heading out to dinner 'cause I've already cooked dinner, and I'm not doing it again. No way.