Comfort Foods

Typically my children provide me with an endless resource of things to write about. Evan goes to school wearing mismatched shoes or tells me a story about squirrels. Andrew tries to explain the trials and tribulations of Minecraft or completely confounds me with his math homework (math is NOT my department). My two boys are inspiration plain and simple, even when I’m just writing about their latest ridiculous arguement.

But the little boys are soaking up the sun and the love with Grammy for a few days, and undoubtedly playing insane amounts of video games with my little brother. Also they baked cookies this morning (I know that because whenever my high-school-age little brother experiments with Sugar Dish Me recipes he calls me over and over with crazy questions like, “What do I do if the cookies sort of start to melt together… like now I have just one big cookie?” P.S. In case you weren’t aware, the answer to that is EAT IT).

They’ve left me here with no muse.

And then… this afternoon… this happened:

Now listen, I love a good thunderstorm. I love to watch the rain beat against the windows, I love to see the tree branches sway, I love it when the sky rumbles and lightning streaks across the sky. But let’s be real, ya’ll. I live in a trailer. So storms can go from awesome to worrisome pretty quickly.

We had a few storms the other night that COMPLETELY freaked me out. The first was early in the evening. As soon as massive tree limbs began flying past my kitchen window like a stick you throw for the dog we were OUT. The next one happened at about 2:30 am. The wind was screaming so loud outside that I swear I thought a train was going to drive through our bedroom. I seriously lost my voice for a minute and resorted to grabbing Chad’s arm and pinching super hard to wake him up.

I’m sure he appreciated it.

This afternoon’s storm started like any other. Darkening sky, strengthening wind, low growly thunder. When the rain started I got a text message from Chad (surely he was remembering my immobilizing fear from the other night) asking if I was okay? “Of course I’m okay!,” was my reply. I was busy in my kitchen with a re-run of Bones keeping me company. Totally content.

But all hell broke loose and then I wasn’t really okay anymore. I’m sort of a chicken when there are no babies to play it cool for. The gust of wind that knocked our tree over into the road sounded to ME like it was gonna take the house with it. My next text message went like this: “I am scared.”

Then I explained how the tree is blocking the whole road AND there is no access to our driveway. I stood at the kitchen window clutching my cell phone, and frrrEEEaking out on the inside until Chad got home from work. I watched him march around in the rain and lighting with our neighbor, tie this big ‘ol tree to a truck, and help haul it out of the road.

After that I was so so SO glad for things like sharp cheddar cheese, bacon, oatmeal bread, and avacadoes. Comfort foods at their best.
I used THIS RECIPE for Whole Wheat Oatmeal Sandwich Bread. I am in love with this bread. I’ve been making it at least twice a week for little boy sandwiches. This bread is best friends with peanut butter, but it was very happy to be buttered with melty cheddar cheese, too. It’s easy like that.
I smeared avacado all over one half of the bread and then layered thick slices of bacon and perfectly ripe tomatoes over it. Reduced fat extra sharp cheddar cheese covered the other slice of bread. Butter on the griddle and this was an excellent plan in action.

MMMMMmmm, Mmmmmmm, melty cheese and bacon good.

The avacado and tomatoes weren’t too shabby either.

Loaded Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

slices of your favorite grainy sandwich bread (we used THIS from How Sweet It Is)

sharp cheddar cheese (I went with reduced fat… did you know that Cabot makes a 75% reduced fat cheddar with 1% milk? It is completely delicious)

smashed avacado

thick cut slices of bacon

fresh sliced tomatoes

To Make

One one slice of bread smear the avacado. Top it with bacon slices and then tomatoes. Layer another slice of bread with cheese. Heat a skillet or griddle or flat cook-top (medium to medium high is good). Melt butter across the cooking surface. Put the two prepared slices in the hot butter, bread side down. When the cheese gets sort of warm and is tacky enough to stick to the bread, press the two sides of the sandwich together. Continue cooking until your bread is a nice golden color with a bit of buttery crunch.