Good neighbors

Rob and I were musing the other night about how we really do feel at home around here. We've lived in NJ for a year now, and little by little the relationships form and life falls into place. (not that we want to stay here forever...)

We're thankful we randomly found such a great place to live. We have great neighbors, and it's a nice little community up here. Two doors down from us live Julia and Andy. Andy and Elliot could be twins (they're born 4 days apart). I keep trying to get pictures, but haven't yet succeeded. Whenever Elliot and Julia see each other, they run over and give each other a big hug.

And across the street are Caleb and Gina and their daughters Gianna and Ciarra. Elliot loves going over to play - they have great toys. Gina works from home, too, so we email through the day when something exciting is happening outside, like they're powerwashing the houses or, say, a bear's wandering around.

Caleb and Gina also love my cooking. It's nice to be appreciated, as a certain someone around here has yet to acknowledge my efforts in the kitchen - and I'm not referring to our picky toddler. (the cherry focaccia, blueberry muffins, fruit tart, pancakes, green beans, and even the pizza - all snubbed) So it's lovely to have the outside affirmation. Last week I made them lasagna and brownies. My oh my, I must say, it was good. The lasagna is all about the sauce - it's the sweet Italian sausage that does it.

I got the recipes from allrecipes.com. The lasagna is called the World's Best Lasagna - and I do believe that it is. It's very time consuming, but so good. And the brownies are pretty spectacular. Rob rejected the lasagna once he discovered it had ricotta (after I spent 4 hours making it!!), and he asked if the brownies were lowfat because they were so bland (um, no) - although he did manage to force down five or six of them. Good thing the neighbors were around to help us polish it all off!