Homesick for Homecooking

As Christmas is fast approaching, I can’t help but to look back to four months ago. I was sitting behind my mom in the old family station wagon as my dad drove for miles through the Nebraska corn fields into the big city.

I was as nervous as could be, wondering if I would be able to handle the pressures of ‘college life’ and being on my own. Thankfully, I survived the chaos and I’ve made it to Christmas break. But truthfully it has been a good four months. I’m enjoying all of my classes and I can’t complain about the teachers either.

The only complaint I do have is that I miss the real food my mom cooked up back home. Thinking about my mom’s home cooking can make me instantly homesick. I’m now living off of a diet of pop tarts, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and whatever I can get my hands on fast. How many pop tarts and slim jims can a person eat? I mean seriously, are pop tarts even considered real food?

What I have been craving is my mom’s homemade macaroni and cheese, her delicious pot pies, her famous spicy BBQ chicken with potato salad, her meatloaf. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

My friend, Jen, told me to GoogleTraditional Food Recipes on line, and see what I could cook up on my own. But I decided to ask my mom for her wonderful meatloaf recipe, and I decided to give it a try instead. I was able to gather all the ingredients, and give it a whirl at my friends off campus apartment.

Even though it did come out quite tasty and thankfully edible, what I found out is that it’s just not the same. Maybe it’s all the love my mom puts behind her cooking that makes it taste out of this world.