Counting Down...

It's September 24 and I've already started the countdown to Thanksgiving. It's 62 days away, if you're wondering. Gee oh, I'm almost as bad as the malls that start putting Christmas decorations up the week before Halloween. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and I always look forward to it but I am this year especially. By that point we will have been in New Orleans for five months and I think it's going to be really exciting to be able to go back to Kentucky and see all of our friends and family.

Also, I'm already craving the food.

I say that like we're starving to death down here which believe me, is not the case at all. Quite the opposite in fact. There's so much good food to be had in this town its a little ridiculous. No matter where you are in New Orleans I can just about guarantee you're within spitting distance of at least ten incredible places to eat. So no, it's not that we can't get good food. It's just that there's nothing quite as good as a home cooked meal...especially one prepared by my mom and/or grandparents. There just isn't. And this is coming from someone who has eaten at some pretty great places in her day.

I can cook. Zack can really cook. We take turns fixing dinner and everything we make is usually really good. No complaints there. It's just not the same though, as eating a meal cooked by someone else. For the past year or so we've been in something of a food rut when it comes to dinner...though again this isn't something I'm complaining about. We've done it on purpose. A self-induced rut, if you will. We eat eggs for dinner probably three or four times a week. "Eggs??" you say. Eggs indeed my friend.

Don't worry--we supplement that with plenty of fruits and vegetables. And we change it up a lot. We do omelettes and quiches, scrambled eggs and fritattas. We make fried egg sandwiches and eggs in a basket. Sometimes we just eat bacon, eggs and toast. We started this habit about this time last year when we were both full time students and Zack was also working full time. Even then we ate dinner together every night but between our two crazy schedules, we rarely got finished with everything and home before eight or nine o'clock in the evening. And by that point in the day, who wants to cook a big meal? Plus, eggs are cheap. This was especially important since my school schedule kept me from having a job and we were trying to save for a wedding and law school and moving and everything else at the same time.

So yes, we ate a lot of eggs.

For that matter, we're still eating a lot of eggs...for many of the same reasons. They're still quick and cheap and pretty darn satisfying at the end of a long day. They still let Zack and I sit down to a meal that we've fixed at home and eat together without spending hours in the kitchen working on it. Where am I going with all this? I'm starting to ramble aren't I?

Basically, for the most part I really enjoy our simple (admittedly somewhat redundant) meals. At this point in our life together this is what works for us. That said, when you eat pretty much the same thing over and over and over you really start to crave those things you're not eating as often anymore. For me right not it's cornbread. I know, I know. It's weird. And I actually make pretty good cornbread so I could get my butt into the kitchen and make it myself if I were so inclined. But it's just not as good as Mom's. I'm also craving her chicken salad and my granddad's fried chicken and basically everything they always make for Thanksgiving dinner. Mmmmmm-mmmm! Bring on the turkey.

62 days and counting...