Good Bye Summer . . .

For a family of teachers the Labour Day weekend has a special emotion. For most other families it means a happy return to established routines. For many frazzled parents these renewed routines bring comfort and stability. For us educators this new beginning brings new potential, challenges, but also a marked decrease in freedom.

I used to feel this most strongly when it came to traveling. The majority of the work force has the ability to travel at times of their choosing - teachers don't. I use to resent only being able to travel when most of the places I wanted to go to were overrun with other tourists or blazing hot. I never got to enjoy the crush in Napa, the poppy fields in Italy, spring flowers in the Alps . . .

The return of school also means that you have a routine imposed upon you. Sure most jobs have start times, end times, and some sort of defined breaks. In education there are bells that tell us when we have recess (thus can visit the bathroom or get a coffee), we eat lunch at a time selected by someone from the busing department.

So Labour Day is somewhat bittersweet.

Don't get me wrong - there are few careers that I can imagine are as rewarding as teaching. . . . but Labour Day is bittersweet nonetheless.

For the past few years we have had a special dinner with mom to mark the passing of the summer.

This year we started with a cheese board.

With the cheese we served cured meats from Spain, spicy cured olives, and some cheddar, bacon, and green onion scones that I made.

For the main course we had rapini sauteed with garlic, olive oil, and chili peppers.

Paul pulled together an heirloom tomato salad.

I grilled a pork rib roast on the BBQ that was both stuffed and marinated in a rosemary, sage, garlic, and olive oil mixture - MMMMMM

We also made some delicious smashed fingerling potatoes (an old favourite from the good folks at Fine Cooking Magazine)

Then for dessert we had peach crumble pie. Paul and mom had homemade ice cream with it - I had low-fat frozen vanilla yoghurt. Given the vast spread of food I don't know why I tied to cut calories THERE but I suppose that every bit counts.

Comments

[sandrac]

Looks like a scrumptious way to get over the bittersweetness of Labour Day.

[softdrink]

I only taught for a few years, but I still think in terms of summer and the school year. It's a hard habit to break.

[JDeQ]

It is funny how the bittersweet nature of it never ends - I haven't been heading back to a classroom in 12 years yet I still feel that tug . . .