Mon voisin, ma mère, mon ami....

Mon voisin, ma mère, mon ami  ...loosely translated means "my neighbor, my mother, my friend."

My mother and I always joked and made references to one of our favorite movies "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." In the movie, the parents buy a house for their daughter and new husband that is right next door to theirs. We've laughed and dreamed..and said "wouldn't it be fun if..."  Well, it did one day happen!  Last summer, my husband and I moved right next door to my mother and grandmother.  It seemed to be the perfect little starter home for us and living next door to relatives was a plus! And still is!  My mother and I have a special relationship and are the best of friends. We have that sort of Lucy/Ethel thing going on where she comes over to chat and have tea and I'll go over her house to return a dish and have dessert!  We have a perfect picket fence that divides our backyards where we often meet to trade back tupperware, borrow eggs, or send plates over  to taste test new recipes we've tried.

Just the other evening we went to the market together. She wanted to make beef soup and I wanted to make a French ham and cheese sandwich recipe that I'd been admiring on Pinterest.  We came back home, made our dishes, and traded over the fence.  We found a fresh olive tapenade at the market and I paired it with leftover Gruyère cheese and some feta over French bread.  (The bechamel sauce for the croque monsieur took me a bit longer to make!) ..then she traded me some of her beef soup. I looooove her beef soup. It is made with simple ingredients but so good that I can eat three bowls of it!  French bread goes along nicely with it too!  In her soup she uses stewed tomatoes, broth from short ribs, potatoes, celery, vermicelli noodles (boil seperatly, then add to finished soup), and carrots.

I look forward to our summer together trying out recipes!