...and I just had to share!

I've just come back from a 10 day vacation in the Pacific Northwest, where all my favorite foods live.

For my 2 hour morning walk on the beach/in the hills in the morning I would take a hunk of fresh banana bread and butter, or a handful of figs. Breakfast proper was cereal with a dollop of creamy full-fat yoghurt and a handful of berries. (Or blackberry pie and ice cream!)

Lunch was either fresh sandwiches of just-made chicken salad, roast beef or the like. Or if we were out working or hiking, cheese and crackers, and ham or smoked salmon. And more fruit.

Dinners were home made and set before me, and of such satisfying variety you would chew your own forearm off out of sheer envy. One of the things my relatives always set on the lazy susan at the summer table is a dish of canteloupe slices -- as a side dish. (They eat it will salt and pepper, but I get mine naked and dead ripe!) And something homemade -- cookies, brownies, cobbler or pie -- for dessert.

I thought that was the wonderful way things should be on vacation, but the trend of good food cooked by someone else is continuing! 4 hours after I got home, my college buddy, her husband and son flew in, to take the son to college nearby. I made dinner that night, but the next morning when I got up, the friend that is staying with me for the next month had a fresh bagel already spread with cream cheese waiting for me.

When I came home from work that night, my friend met me at the door with my favorite beer (which he solicitously refilled all night long!) My college buddy had made grilled steaks with a wine-reduction/shallot sauce, tossed salad, good bread and real butter. And she'd bought french vanilla ice cream for the chess pie I'd made the night before.

Got up the next morning to find my friend had made me a Denver omelet, with a little cream cheese stirred into the eggs. And a bagel. Took the remains of the the fruit/cheese/dolmas/olive plate to work for lunch. Came home to a dinner of tossed salad and barbequed chicken breast (my friends made-from-scratch sauce, no less!) already on the table as I was walking in the door!

This morning, when I resolved to get back to healthy eating, my friend made a batch of mango/cardamom/spirulina smoothies. And I have 2 chicken wraps made with barbequed chicken and green grapes in my little back for lunch.

I don't recall ever eating this well for this long in my life! I love cooking, but I could really get used to this lifestyle....