So I recently discovered how traditions start. Somehow my best friend and I started a tradition which over time has become kind of a big deal for us. It started innocently enough just like any girls night...dinner, wine and reality tv, right? So we started meeting once a week to watch Reality Housewives of...fill in the blank to whatever city/state was currently being featured. And one night she made salmon and bok choy and hence a tradition was born. Her husband was away for work in Texas and so every week we had a standing date...reality tv, salmon and bok choy. Oh yes and wine of coarse. She would make the salmon in the toaster oven...yes I said toaster oven...and I know it sounds wacky but don't knock it until you try it because she can do amazing things with a toaster oven...seriously good. She also makes great rib eye steaks in the toaster oven...probably should do a blog feature on her toaster oven recipes. And she then sautees the bok choy I think in olive oil with salt and pepper...yum. My contribution to these dinners is pretty simple but extremely important...wine. We started with red wine but quickly discover that salmon and red wine kind of lends itself to a bitter after taste so we have now moved on to white wine or even on extremely warm evenings beer.

So for the last 2 years now we have continued this dinner and it has since grown into our tradition. When the boys or at work or play we look forward to our girls nights and we always discuss dinner as if we are going to maybe make something else. And then one of us will make the recommendation "how about salmon and bok choy?" It is always asked as if its the most creative and original idea known to man and the other one will act excited and celebrate the original thought. "Oh that is a great idea." And we both look forward to it for the next 7 days...emailing messages about "oh my gosh can't wait for salmon and bok choy," or "you know what I am craving...salmon and bok choy."

Guess what tonight was? I just got home from girls night and we had a great meal of salmon and bok choy. We also had Presidio Chardonnay http://www.presidiowinery.com/ which was so good with the meal. This is a great winery and if anyone is ever in Solvang they have a fun tasting room in downtown. However, I left tonight a little more nostalgic as I realized that our girls night had become a tradition something that we both look forward to, that we cherish and that we relish. It might not be a tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation but it is ours and our quality time together means the world to both of us. It is our time to laugh, talk about random things, discuss reality tv as if it was our own lives and share a meal together. It is our time to talk about news, tragedies and comedies. It is our time to wear sweats to each others houses and to truly be ourselves after long days in a profession that is often stressful, tedious and overwhelming. Thank you my friend for creating this tradition with me. And cheers to salmon and bok choy.