Tortilla Soup

This blog is a bit late, but here it is now that I have time...
Well for those of you who don't know, I experienced making tortilla soup for the first time. My mom made it for the first time a few years ago, after she felt an urge to experiment (which is rare, because she hardly ever wants to cook at all). She had never looked at the recipe before, but thought instead that she could easily identify the ingredients from a soup-filled bowl she ordered at a Mexican restaurant. Much to our amazement, she pulled it off with her first try.
Now, here I type about my own experience in making this soup for the first time, using the very recipe she failed to write down for me. Hooray!!!
I was nervous about messing it up and completely ruining my creation, even before I started it. I boiled the chicken first, as that was always the first thing my mom did whenever she made soup. Once I thought it was mostly cooked, I added the flavoring, which consisted of ground comino, salt, and chicken bouillon. As I mentioned, my mom never bothered to write down the recipe for me, so all I had was my senses to go on. This was perfectly fine with me once I realized how easy sniffing the pot would be. Next, I opened a can of pre-spiced tomatoes and green peppers. I myself would have preferred using fresh ingredients, but as there was no recipe to follow, all I could do was listen to my mother's advice. I was glad to have used them in the end, however, when I realized that the chicken would have to suffer through more boiling and possibly over-cooking if I had done that. Overall, the soup was a fairly simple task.
I only had to focus on frying thick strips of corn tortilla for a few short minutes before taking my soup out for a test drive. Of course, I hadn't forgotten the anticipated cheese, and so I added mozzarella to my concoction. It melted perfectly, and so I felt confident, especially after adding the tortilla strips. Mackenzie was willing enough to taste it, and she agreed with me when I mentioned that it needed a little something extra. Neither of us could really put our finger on it, but overall I think it was a success!