There's no place like home!

Wow!  I can hardly believe that last week at this time I was in the kitchen with Grigoris helping him make Easter dinner.  It's taken several days, but I think I'm just about all caught up on my sleep!

I love to travel.  I love seeing new places and tasting new foods.  I love making new friends in foreign countries and experiencing the smells and atmosphere of a different world.  I love hearing the old stories and history associated with distant places.  And then...... I love coming home!  Sleeping in my own bed, taking a long hot bath, cooking in my own kitchen, seeing my kids and my husband.  I love how happy my dog is to see me and I even love watching my cat as he tries to punish me for being gone.  I love settling back into my old routine.  I've been home five days and I've already tried several new recipes. 

The first was a meal I made with Bacalao, a Greek salt cod, that I managed to bring back from Greece. I tried to follow a recipe described to me by Matta. The cod was torn into bite-sized pieces, dipped in batter, and fried in olive oil. I served it with two sauces: skordalia (a garlicky potato sauce, but I made mine with sweet potatoes) and a spinach oregano pesto.

The second meal I made last night.  It was an Indian spiced salmon poached in olive oil and I served it with an eggplant and spinach coconut curry with basmati rice.  The salmon was very good but I don't think I'll make it again as it was so expensive (and wasteful) to make!  The salmon was poached in olive oil, so I needed a lot of olive oil, which was then thrown out as it had acquired a fishy taste and couldn't be used for anything else.

The weather has been a bit cloudy and cool since I've been home but there have been a few nice days.  Spring is bursting out all over!  I love to see the colorful buds sprouting on the trees and I'm always disappointed that they turn green so quickly!

So here's something I've been thinking about.  I was so exhausted the first night I curled up to sleep in my own bed.  I had been up for over 24 hours and was beyond tired.  As I sank into bed, it felt soooo sweet and I realized that what made it feel so good was how tired I was.  Before sleep claimed me completely, I started thinking about other physical pleasures: how wonderful a dip in a cool body of water feels when you're melting from the heat, how sweet a glass of cold water tastes when your throat is parched with thirst, how deliciously fulfilling a good meal is when you're weak with hunger, how amazing it feels to finally be able to lay your head down when you are beyond exhausted.  And what I realized is that the more you have suffered, the more delicious the pleasure of relieving the suffering.  This thought has hit me before, so it wasn't like an epiphany or anything but I'm just wondering if you've ever noticed that before we can really enjoy something, we have to suffer a little bit first.  And it seems that enjoyment is directly proportional to the suffering that preceded it.  The more intense the suffering, the greater the feeling of pleasure when it is relieved.  Would we know how wondrously delicious a cold glass of water can be if we hadn't first known what it feels like to be parched with thirst?  Would we appreciate the sweet relief of a soft bed if we hadn't first been achy with fatigue?  I had a friend who used to say he loved hitting himself on the head with a rock because it felt so good when he quit.  I finally think I know what he meant.  When I think about it this way, I'm tempted to say, "bring on the suffering" just so I can know the sweet pleasure of relieving it!!!!!