From the Kitchen of Mom

I am currently in the middle of chopping vegetables for dinner tonight.  I am making Potato Soup.  As I was pulling out pots and chopping vegetables, I quickly grabbed my recipe book and then stopped.  At the top of the page it said, "from the kitchen of Mom".This is the third week that we have had Family Meal Night, where I cook and we go have dinner with my Dad and brothers.  It has been awesome to have a scheduled night of the week that we know we will be all together and that I know I will be able to help them out by cooking.  Although what I didn't realize until today is how comforting it is to eat some of the same meals that mom always cooked.  I am so thankful that I had almost 6 married years of random phone calls to my mom with questions like, "How long do you cook your roast?", "What all goes in your beef and noodles?", or "Do you still have that recipe that you cooked for my birthday?"  There is so much that we have lost with her being gone, but there are a few things that will never be missing.  And that is her cherry pie at Christmas and always at Dad's birthday, her Roast on a Sunday afternoon, my brother's favorite sausage and rice casserole after a long day at school, and her warm Potato Soup tonight as we sit around the table.  I am so grateful...for her taking the time to answer the same questions from me over and over, and for the years that I had with her when I actually cared how to cook.  Whenever I feel the gaping hole left with her being gone, I can make some of her comfort food and a part of her will be there with me.If you don't know how to make one of your favorite recipes of your mom's, call her tonight and ask.  Or better yet, go cook it with her.