Home cooking

My mom relegated Jeanne and me to make dinner at the house tonight, since she and my dad were off to a pre-weddding wedding banquet. She laid everything out for us and gave us directions on what to throw into the wok when. It was just going to be six of us for dinner but she left us with enough food to feed all the flood victims twice over.

Jeanne and I were doing a miracle dance in the kitchen, twirling around one another with adept skill, balancing plates and colanders of chopped vegetables, and looking stylish in our new shoes while doing so (me in heels nonetheless--a veritable feat all in itself).

We had steamed fish in soy sauce; chicken and shitake mushrooms; xigua squash stirfry; scallops, shrimps, and snowpeas cooked to tender perfection in an oyster sauce; pumpkin leaves and flowers (I think that's what they were); Korean barbeque sytles ribs; and sea turtle soup. It tasted just like Mom made. And, best yet, the vegetables came from our backyard garden. There really is no place like home.