How Rozann Woodward (Wherever She Is) Saved My Day

My motivation and energy is almost nil these days. When does the second-trimester burst of energy enter? Any day now would be LOVELY.

This afternoon I was laying down after a long morning with first-graders at the swelteringly hot park. One by one, my mind drowsily browsed through my meager ideas for dinner. Baked potatoes? I'd have to scrub them and wrap every one . . . nope. Spaghetti? Ugh . . . I don't think I can ever eat spaghetti sauce again. Then it came to me, like a burst of light from heaven:

Rozann Woodward's Taco Soup.

Rozann was my amazing roommate my sophomore year of college. She had a car she'd bought herself (a blue sports car!), she had a sassy short haircut to match her short stature, and was majoring in business. She had this great laugh that got her lots of dates and made everyone want to hang out with her. And she came from a family with eight or ten children (can't remember which . . . I had several roommates from large families and I get their family sizes mixed up!). So her mom's recipe for taco soup was easy and cheap:

2 cans creamed corn

2 cans stewed tomatoes

2 cans red beans

1 pkg. taco seasoning

1/2 lb. ground beef (thanks to Katie, I had this in the freezer cooked and ready to go)

Heat and eat with corn chips and cheese.

This afternoon, this recipe saved me. There I was poised for another evening of exhausted failure to produce dinner, and within five minutes I had dinner simmering on the stove, ready for when Isaac had to rush off to Scouts and Rich rushed in on the way to a church meeting. I even fed the neighbor kid, who said with admiration, "When did you make this?"

"Oh, about an hour ago," I said casually, like I've always got dinner ready to go on the stove before 5 pm.

They gobbled it up.

And then, later, my sweet neighbor Kris brought me a gourmet zucchini tomato casserole from her farmer's market surplus, saying, "I remember you made me something like this a while ago," [I did?!?] "and since I had so many tomatoes, I thought I'd share it with you."

In one sweet gesture she fed my still-hungry stomach with vitamin-packed fresh vegetables, and reminded me that I did once cook good stuff and enough to share (and could possibly do it again in the future). Thank you, Kris.

And Rozann, wherever you are, thanks for the taco soup that saved me and my family today. I needed that.