Welcome Home Lauren

Lauren... 'our baby'.... arrived in Kentucky this afternoon from LA..... it's always nice to have her home for a visit.  She is on break between school terms.... when she heads back to LA next weekend, she begins her final term of fashion school.... WOO HOO!!!!

So of course I HAD to make a spectacular dinner for her first night home, especially since all she has heard me talk about since her last visit in June has been about Julia and all her recipes I have been preparing.  Joe's buddy from Michigan also happened to be in town this afternoon and he came to dine with us as well.

The original menu started out being salmon on the grill, my frissee salad, veggies and the queen of sheba cake.  However, it started raining at 7:00am.... rained all day, so I went into comfy "Sunday Dinner" mode and decided to make Julia's chicken fricassee w/mushrooms and petite onions instead of the salmon, and kept the rest of the menu the same, which was, fennel frissee salad, french green beans, and roasted potatoes.  All was amazing... Julia never fails me!

Today's dinner only took me 3 hours to cook.... big improvement over the Julia dinner that took 12 hours to cook.  I love hearing the yumming, umming, and the scraping of eating utensils in constant movement, as well as seeing empty plates clean enough to just put away in the cupboard.  As Joe said this evening.... "you know the food was good when everyone at the table used their bread to slop up the sauce on the plate after eating every morsel".  And that is exactly what we all did.

So nice having baby Lauren home.  She looks great, she looks happy and that makes Momma's heart sing.  All the girls (and Winston) were here this evening to be with Lauren on her first night home.  We are all ready for a crazy week trying to fit everything in during this short visit, that we all know will fly by.  She is like an appetizer this week.... knowing she will be home for good in Dec.

Bon Appetite and Au Voir