First Meal

Last Thursday heralded the triumphant return of yours truly to the kitchen to prepare a meal that delights the senses and makes use of that fabulous appliance known as the oven, which just barely beats out the Kitchen Aid for the title of "most missed cooking implement".

Tried a few new things, including using fresh tomatoes that pushed prep time to new heights thanks to the diminutive size of the fruits of the garden and peeling the skins off (oddly satisfying in its own way), getting more than a little splattered on the light blue shirt I was so intelligently wearing without any protection while simmering the sauce, and whipping up something unusual to dress the salad with.

Many things remained the same, due to the core recipe graciously shared by my mother-in-law being so dang delicious in and of itself, and the undeniable truth that homemade lasagna is, quite simply, fabulous.

Warm fuzzy feelings were had watching everything disappear quite rapidly, seeing the bliss on my husband's face, and knowing that my brother had made a special point of coming home from his college apartment just to partake of my cooking.

Best of all was the glow of certainty that I'm not so bad at this whole cooking thing and that it can actually be fun, something almost forgotten amid the frustrations of few implements and non-existent workspace in a land far, far away.