I love...

I love my mom.

Mom recently came to visit and other than our important coffee breaks and much needed catching up, I am most grateful for her new experiences in "my" country. She may not have caught the travel bug, but I found that she responds to unexpected adventures the same way I do. After she left for home, an email arrived in my inbox; Mom was stuck in Japan due to the FedEx crash. When she finally got home, after 36+ hours of travel, she informed me that she had a fun time with her new friend Lucy from New York, stayed in a swanky hotel, and ate some great Japanese food. I'm happy to have inherited her "go-with-the-flow, adventure awaits!" gene.

I love these brownies and the friends who appreciated the method of their delivery (carefully placed in ziplock bags and then in recycled granola bar boxes so as not to get squashed on the bike ride to the party).
I love Thai soup (and winning the cooking game with myself.)

I tried something new today and it (sort of) worked out. I have a weird tendency to ignore ingredients and instructions in recipes and usually end up eating something that is more purple, crunchy, or _______(insert descriptive food word here) than it is supposed to be. But today...fish sauce, prawns, and lime juice were not as important as one might think! My first attempt at Tom Yum Goong, minus the goong, turned out to be quite tasty. Yay for me!

I love this soup because: 1. It tastes like nothing else. It's SOOO good that while in Thailand, I ate it at least once a day 2. The broth is made from lemongrass, garamond, and prawn heads and shells, which you have to pick out meticulously before eating. My ritual was to pick out all the pieces of crap before I could eat the soup (this was also to save my tongue, as they serve it scorching hot).

I love her.

Rosa always finds a way to love me during the day, usually while I'm on the computer. I've tried to capture her snuggling because I'm really the only one that ever sees it and today she finally let me take her picture. She nestles her head on my shoulder and purrs, just enough to let me know she's happy. It doesn't matter that she's a cat; love is love and everyone needs it.