Toll House Cookies

Comfort food is about mom. I mean, everyone needs, deserves, gets, and puts up with a mom of some sort or other at some point in life. Even in this age of male cooks, male foodies, inventive guys showing up with their favorite version of macaroni and cheese, a hearty stew, or some kind of apple pie: I would argue that comfort food still means and requires Mom, capital M.

Well, I would have, that is, until the other night.

Evan and Kelsey would be home for a day or so here this past weekend. I figured, Chinese New Year and all, we’d go out for Chinese for dinner. I might do breakfast on Saturday if I don’t have to go in to the hospital. Then again, we could just head down to Greg and Lou’s and sit at the counter and watch the cooks dance and the wait-staff fly while we feast on pancakes and omelets.

All this I’m thinking after cleaning up the dinner dishes and standing by the kitchen counter finishing off the last two chocolate chip cookies. Now that wasn’t too thoughtful. Staring at the empty cookie jar I had no choice but to spring into action.

In less than 2 hours, the kitchen was back in order and I was heading off to bed, satisfied I'd done my motherly duty. They wouldn't be minutes fresh out of the oven when they walked in the door the next day, but they’d be as good as any mom ever made. Straight off the back of the Nestlé’s Toll House Morsels package. No fancy foot work required.

Comfort food is about traditional foods made by following traditional recipes and using only traditional ingredients and…….well wait a minute. I guess at the end of the day, the only one ingredient that's really got to be there-- mom or no mom-- is the love……..although the salt, sugar, and fat don't hurt.