I'm Back! (Again!)

It is the beginning of the school year. Our college starts earlier than most, so I have been neck-deep in school work (to explain my recent absence.)

Friday was a nice day (I define a "nice day" as "a day when I do not need to go to the campus or the clinical site".) I got a bunch of work done around the house, but I also got prepared for a special meal. We invited both set of parents over for a meal and a viewing of the vacation pictures, both Tammy and my vacation out east and Ethan's trip to China. (It was a lot more fun that than sounds. Everyone in our family tends to be grandiose storytellers, so it got to be a bit wild and crazy.)

You've already seen many of the East Coast trip photos. Ethan is a lot like me, and he took almost 800 pictures over 17 days. I will not post all 800 pictures, but I think there are four that are representative of his trip and his personality.  After I subject you to those pictures, I will tell you about the simple, delicious and healthy meal we served.  But first...

Early in the tour, they went to this pagoda, the Sixth Harmonious Pagoda.

The were able to go inside and explore.  Twelve stories up.

That is Ethan. Doing his own thing, enjoying his life to his own internal drummer.

All while sitting on the edge of a tall building.

And another view. It is a long way down.

He got to walk on the Great Wall of China. I am a bit jealous.

Yesterday was fun, and we all shared laughs and stories. And food, of course.We have a few people in the extended families that are more particular about what they eat, so that makes meal planning a little more work. But we found a meal that satisfied everyone.

This was a simple meal. The main dish was a potato-ham skillet (recipe to follow.) I served it with my from-scratch four bean salad, a wilted lettuce salad with hot bacon sweet-sour dressing, some homemade rye bread, a fruit salad (pictured above) and that light lemon souffle cheesecake (recipe to follow.)

Sometimes--most of the time, actually--the meals do not need to be fancy or elegant to be supremely enjoyable. This was another "breakfast-for-dinner" type meal, but it was easy to prepare while everyone was milling around the kitchen. (Have you noticed that no matter where you want people to go, they always gravitate to the kitchen?)

Anyway, it was a nice afternoon and evening. I hope you give one or both of these recipes a try. They were ridiculously simple.

More recipes will be following over the next few days. Now that the school year has actually started, my life will get back into the routine and blogging will be a bit easier (well, easier than the last week or so.)