Meals that help when life gets hard

Like a lot of people who grew up in the church, I have a complicated relationship with organized religion. Still, I find myself missing certain sensory elements of the whole endeavor. I miss the smell of my childhood church: the slightly scorched scent of freshly vacuumed shag carpet, the chlorine tang of the baptistry, the papery dust of yellowing Bible pages, the varnished wood of pews, the cloud of old-lady perfume that lingered long after the final hymn. I miss the feeling of singing in a group.