Back for a delish dinner and a surprise plant...

We made it back: married, tan, and happy. So wonderful. Getting hitched was a blast.

But here's what's really important: when you come back from a long trip, try not to go out to eat for dinner if you arrive home in time. Cook. It is so much more warm, close, and less expensive. If you're like me, you're usually pretty overspent when returning from a satisfying vacation. Eat in.

Tonight, we stopped at the grocery store on the way home determined to pull together a large salad for dinner. We ended up with an Asian-style salad over rice noodles, topped with rotisserie chicken meat and our own homemade dressing. Simple, fresh, yum.

Here's what was in the salad: baby spinach, a bit of romaine to fill it out, fresh corn, avocado, red bell pepper, green onion, cucumber, a bit of tomato, and sunflower seeds. We tossed it in this super tasty dressing, made by my brand new hubby, whizzed up quickly with our little immersion blender:

1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 TB soy sauce
2 minced garlic cloves
2 TB honey
2 TB minced ginger
1 TSP sesame oil
2 TB water

Then we put some cooked rice noodles on our plates, topped them with the salad, and tore up half the rotisserie chicken to top it all off. A little more dressing over the entire plate and voila! I'm still salivating. Which is both gross and a testament to the tasty goodness of this salad.

In other news, we came back after three weeks to find that our sweet potatoes had begun their own little garden. A nice welcome home.