Cooking and Catching up

Two good friends have stopped in our town as they see the world. Alex and Michael are two of Ryan's great friends who have gone to high school and college with him. Selah is a little scared of all of Alex's hair, but he finally won her over this afternoon while Ryan and I were preparing dinner. See the picture for that great moment when she allowed Alex the honor of holding her.Tonight I cooked chicken parmesan without the parmesan. I know I can get it here, but I didn't feel like going to the big grocery store where it probably can be purchased.
I used breadcrumbs that I made the other day from some stale bread for the breading. Though time consuming, cooking has been fun and delicious with all of the fresh, ripe ingredients. Tonight I started with some tomato paste and used only tomatoes, onions and peppers as the sauce. Of course I added some spices to make it taste even better. Ryan thinks I could leave out the tablespoon of sugar in the sauce. We'll see what he thinks next time when I leave it out. I think it tastes a lot better with the little bit of sugar.
The cucumbers were not a part of the sauce; they went in the salad. We also had cheesy garlic bread, steamed zucchini, ranch dressing and sweet tea.


One more thought for today. I know I'm long winded...but so thankful. I'm so glad God gave us Selah before we came here. It has been more complicated and my language acquisition will be slower, but she is such a joy in my life. I also have short conversations with so many people that I would not otherwise talk to because of her. Maybe God brought her when He did so that He could use her to fill in the gaps of my personality (not really being a conversation initiator with strangers).