Amish Road Trip

This year  I was able to go on the "Amish Holiday Road Trip" out to see a friend who lives in Lancaster.  It really was a great way to get us gals together in one spot to drink, eat, chat, and sleepover with no worries of driving home!

Here are some quick snapshots I took that night:

My friends all have kids -- now they play together.

It's pretty fun to see the amazement in their eyes.

Of course the night was filled with wonderful food.  My dear friend Renée, who will also be guest posting about some vegan eats in the near future, came with amazing soup and bread recipes.  I made the salad -- another tip when working on a crazy doctoral degree is not to commit to making extravagant food stuff for gatherings.  Stick to simple and affordable.  

Clockwise from the top: H2O, salad with some vegan bread, soup!, and red wine.

Meet Renée -- my bread (and vegan) sensei.

The bread I helped to make.  And by "helped" I mean I rolled it out "ok," but then I braided it wrong, unbraided it, and [finally] braided it correctly.  Don't try to braid bread after a couple glasses of wine.

I think next time I travel all the way out to Lancaster I'd like to do a bit more exploring -- go see the Amish (whatever that means).  Or at least explore Lancaster and see the town.  

As for now, I'm back at home and gearing up for work again.  Sure, I don't technically start teaching until the last week in January but I have lots of prep work to do.  I've socialized this past week (or so) and now it's time to refocus once again.