Mom decided to cook several Greek dishes and invited us to share in the feast with a couple from her neighborhood, Nicky and Tom. Nicky is Greek, and both she and my mom are married to men named Tom.

As usual, my photography doesn't do the food justice...

Mom made my favorite soup, Chicken Avgolemeno. It's a mixture of chicken, rice, lemon and egg whites, that are beaten carefully and added to the soup without the eggs solidifying. Her soup has made me feel better through numerous sicknesses over the years. It was nice to have it while feeling well for a change!

Mom's Greek Salad is made with feta, cucumber, onion, tomato (and yellow tomato from her garden), oil, vinegar and herbs. It looked so pretty, but I didn't eat any due to the cucumber. (Next time I need to remind mom to set some aside without the cucumber for me. Too bad I can't just pick it out; the cucumber flavor gets all over everything.)

This is an extreme closeup of a Greek dish mom served called Moussaka which is made with eggplant and other stuff. I have no clue how she makes this one since this is only the second time I tasted it. She's made it for my dad in the past, but the idea of eggplant was never appealing to me when I was younger. Now I wish I'd paid attention. Hopefully she'll make it again and teach me.

Pastitsio is a dish mom made a lot while I was growing up. I think of it as the Greek version of lasagna. It has ground beef, noodles, Parmesan cheese and egg in it. It's very filling, so I had just a small sliver. (This is an extreme closeup of that sliver.)

For dessert mom served Strawberry Shortcake with Bryer's Cherry Vanilla ice cream. John (that's my brother), if you're reading this... Neener, neener, neener; you didn't get any! (My brother lives in California and Strawberry Shortcake is his favorite.)