Have I said lately how much I love living in my small town?  Maybe I haven’t said it this week but I think I said it twice week before last.  Last week I was in a city . . an entire week in a city.  A city with large grocery stores, bakeries, Italian restaurants, seafood restaurants, though I didn’t go because Elaine doesn’t like seafood but one day she’s going to eat a crawfish, even if I have to bake that rascal in a cake and put icing on top!  When I’m in a city, and we eat at yummy restaurants, I almost wish I lived in a city.

Then I come home to my sleepy, quiet little town and I remember how much I love living here.  In my town with no traffic, no interstate highways, my favorite grocery store where the checkout ladies know my name, where I call to get my oil changed and the oil change guy says “I’ll pick up your car at 9:00 tomorrow.”  And, he shows up at my house, takes my car away, brings it back a couple of hours later and I never had to leave home. And then I remember that when I complained to my state senator, he showed up at my house.  Wait, if those kinds of things are going to happen, maybe I should move to Dallas!  Nope, I’m behaving myself and staying in the small town.

While I’m in restaurants, I look at the menu items and try to get ideas for different things to fix at home.

This salad is a result of my studying the menu at a great restaurant.  Spinach, mixed greens, chopped ham that I had smoked on Monday, mandarin oranges, toasted almonds and best of all . . a homemade buttermilk dressing with lots of basil and parsley.

Now  . . if I could just figure out where to get veal here, I could make a couple more really good dishes!