Family Dinner

Kenneth, Melinda, Dereck, Jon, Erica and I have been having family dinners for a little over a year. We have had a lot of great family dinners together at Reeds Road, at Apt. 404 when we ate entirely leftovers, and at one of my favorite restaurants, La Bodega. Erica and I love to cook for the boys, and I will miss their willing stomachs. They would eat anything I cooked! They were suckers for my monster cookies and that homemade spaghetti sauce that I made on New Years' Day. Erica holds her own in the kitchen too, and Jon's a fantastic griller. We like when he grills so much that we all chipped in for a grill for their wedding present.

This weekend we had some awesome family dinners in New Mexico! The boys have all spent plenty of time there and were so excited to share their favorite places with us. We also tried a few new gems, and we ate green chili more times than I can count.

Thursday, we stopped at Standard Diner in Albuquerque. Jon found it after watching Guy's show on the Food Network. The best thing any of us ordered was Jon's choice of bacon wrapped meatloaf. Seriously delicious. I also loved the flash fried tuna with wasabi guacamole and ginger tartar sauce.


Friday, we ate lunch at Riveria's which used to be called Kristina's (and still is by the boys). Green chili, but more importantly, sopapillas! They are as big as a small plate, greasy and perfect with tons of honey. We ate them before and after our meal, and took them with us! We also went back on Saturday at lunch for more sopapillas.

After great breakfast at the Nortons' cabin on Saturday morning and a short hike, we went into Pecos again for lunch. Dairy Queen or the Pecos Drive-In. Easy choice: Drive-In. I ate my first green chili cheeseburger. Awesome. We would eat them again on Sunday night at the Owl Cafe in Albuquerque, because everything is better with green chili.

Our last family dinner was Kenneth and Melinda's wedding. I cried afterwards.

The goal we set at La Bodega is simple: one family dinner a year. I love these people.