The power of stuffed tomatoes

It's been a pretty busy week.  We've been running around like crazy trying to get all our paperwork in order.  Health coverage and my permanent resident card have been the two biggies and it now seems that we are incredibly close to having Audrey start "school" next week.  After a long week of running around town, the four of us spent a relaxing afternoon at Jean's family's lake house, about a 15 minute drive.  A great end to a busy week.

With all of this craziness, its been hard to dedicate time to cooking.  However, this last week I think we made more home cooked meals than in the entire month we've been here.  What's the difference?  Last weekend we acquired a massive quantity of garden vegetables from a neighbor.  I mean REALLY massive.  More than 10 pounds of tomatoes, 5 huge eggplants, a bunch of beets and a zucchini and a summer squash at least a foot long each.  Now if that's not motivation to get some food on the table I don't know what is.  I was able to make a beet salad, ratatouille and stuffed veggies while only using about half of what we were given.

On a related note, my mother-in-law (an incredible cook) stopped over unannounced late Wednesday afternoon to borrow the car.  It couldn't have worked out better that I was just about to make stuffed tomatoes and eggplants.  So, I very happily invited her to stay.  At dinner, she asked if I cooked like this EVERY night.  While I would have loved to have achieved elite daughter-in-law status, I admitted the night before I slaved over a frozen ready-prepared skillet meal.  I got a nice smile out of her.  Then while cleaning up after the meal, she said to Audrey, "You are lucky to have a mom who is such a great cook".  I pretended not to hear the comment although the grin on my face might have given it away.  French mother in law states out loud (albeit to a 2 year old) that I am a great cook...mission accomplished!  Up next, solving the European debt crisis. That'll have to start Monday - I'm taking the weekend off!