Jumping Back to America

It's been taking me forevvvver to blog about my whole time in Vietnam, with each post ending up being more like a news article or encyclopedia entry.  So I decided to go ahead and blog about being back in America. I've been back here for almost a month now and I've accumulated a lot of pictures and stories that I want to share!  The main reason I came back to the U.S. was to be with my dad as he recovers from heart bypass surgery.  Here he is above, posing with some July 4th regalia at the garden center not far from his house.  I've been taking a bunch of pictures of "Americana" since coming back.  And tons of pictures of food!  Being a vegan with American supermarkets and farmer markets is great.  And with my Dad and step-mom Janet being on such a (heart) healthy diet, I've had lots of fun cooking and eating!  So get ready for some mouth-watering pictures, intermingled with posts about Vietnam.  :P

It's slightly ironic that today's the day I decide to blog about a day in the USA, because we ate a very international dinner tonight!  This plate was a team effort by Janet and me.  The top-left bowl of goodness is borscht!  This is typically known as a Russian soup, but Lithuanians (Janet's background) know it as Cold Beet Soup.  That's right, it's a cold soup, and it was perrrrfectly refreshing on this hot and humid day!  As a matter of fact, all of the items in tonight's dinner were cold.  Below the beet soup is the green bean and mint salad that Janet also made.  And it's an Italian recipe!  Top-right is my tabouleh, a Middle Eastern food made of cous-cous, lemon juice, olive oil, leeks, tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley and a wee bit of mint.  Below is babaganoush (also Middle Eastern), made of eggplant, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper, and I added some parsley for fun.  Those two, combined with the kalamata olives and some Melba crackers created a nice zesty mix.

 Notice the small "V" on the bottom-right corner of the box?  How nice of Trader Joe's to point out that these crackers are vegan!  No eggs or butter, just the following natural, animal-product-free ingredients:

 Apart from the crackers, olives and cous-cous, all the ingredients in those four dishes came fresh from the herb garden on the deck and yesterday's trip to Patty's Farm Market:

This great little place has pretty much every fruit and vegetable you can get from the USA.

And many of the foods are from right here in Pennsylvania, like these Chambersburg peaches:

And these cherries, both of which we bought a basket of.

 That nice big purple eggplant became tonight's dinner.

 And one of these huuuuge tomaters made its way into the tabouleh.

 Besides all the fruits and vegetables, this little store had some nice reminders that I'm back in America:

Pie...

... and Amish Blackberry Cider, neither of which are easily found in Asia.

A few trucks & tractors for decoration...

 ... as well as Mickey Mouse.

Welcome back to the USA!