Nourishment

After eight days and seven nights on the road, I can safely say for us, life is all about food. In that time we only went out to eat once, and that was to have dinner with dpr's mom, so we could spend some alone time with her. Except for that one meal, we ate home-cooked food every night. And here's what seems particularly interesting to us, we cooked all of those meals.
We cooked for my brother and his wife on Tuesday night, the night we arrived in Santa Cruz. We made a local Santa Cruz favorite Tempeh La La (we have the secret recipe) with Indian spiced green beans and tomatoes, over rice. We even brought our rice cooker with us to make this meal! We cooked for dpr's brother and his wife on Wednesday. We sauteed onion, garlic, red peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, tomatoes, chicken and fresh italian herbs over pasta. We cooked for the big dinner (16 people) on Friday night. dpr did most of the cooking for this. He barbecued a whole salmon. It was served with salad, baked potato and francese bread. On Saturday we made homemade pizza for my family. We buy fresh pizza dough, which dpr rolls out while I saute the veggies. We like pizza without tomato sauce, so when the dough is rolled out, I brush olive oil on it, then layer fresh tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and the veggies which have been sauteed lightly with pesto. Pop it in the oven for about 10-12 minutes, and voila, dinner! We cooked our butts off!

RA's and dpr's family gathering

So, it makes us wonder: Why, do you suppose, we do this? Could it be that hanging out in the kitchen crushing garlic and slicing vegetables is a small reminder of home? Or is it that there's some emotional grounding in being in any kitchen cooking up a favorite meal? Or is it a way to stay creative when you're away from home? Or is it just safe to be in the kitchen while everyone else is talking and socializing, a way to stay apart while pretending to be part of the party? Or are we (really I mean "am I") simply paranoid and wary of road food and restaurant cooking? Whatever the reason, we fed and nourished our families for the past few days, and we truly loved every minute of it.

When you are on the road what food do you miss most? What do you cook when you come home that says, "Ahh, I'm home."