Delicious!

I love food. I love talking about food, reading about food, watching food shows, planning food for parties and eating food.

B and I have food traditions aplenty. And there are unwritten rules about who makes what -- B always makes chili, rolls out pizza dough and makes peanut butter cookies. I always make B's favorite pasta dish, juevos rancheros (tacos with eggs, sort of), salads, and pies. Lots of times we help each other out, other times we try to replicate what the other one has done with our own tweaks.

Our kitchen is a fun place. I love food traditions -- like niece Nora's pancake Thursdays. We don't have anything so scheduled yet, but we do have some favorite routines:

• Saturday Afternoon Soup -- a hodgepodge mix of beans, leftover meat, a can of tomatoes, veggies, chicken stock and chips. Usually this ends up as a tortilla soup, but it varies.
• Brunch -- a total B specialty. B will whip up eggs, french toast, cheese grits or whatever strikes him on a weekend morning. He also makes himself oatmeal pretty frequently during the week. What a way to start the day!
• Lunch-packing -- I've been awesome at carrying a meal along with me everywhere I go this semester. I always have some raw carrots, along with some cheese, crackers/pita/bread, and a random other item (clementines, yogurt, cookies, craisens, whatever). It's no tradition, I guess, but it's a nice thing regardless.
• Pizza nights -- B makes dough with half-whole wheat flour, then we top the pie with pizza sauce, cheese and prosciutto (thin-sliced Italian ham-bacon-goodness). Often we eat our pizza with salad greens on top, like they serve at a restaurant we like called Frasca.
  
• Criner traditions -- When we visit my parents we eat well. My mom will put together a terrific dinner with an entree (chicken cordon bleu casserole, Hawaiian chicken, pork chops, etc...), veggies, fruit, rolls, etc... There's something special about mom-cooked food -- especially my mom's! Last weekend we had a breakfast of dad-made scrambled eggs, toast, grape juice, coffee, sausage and orange slices. Divine!