More fun with friends and family!

What makes the Christmas holiday so special is the time to visit with friends and family you haven't seen in a while.



Last evening my aunts made one of the traditional Leppert foods, Taco Salad. I'm not sure why this has become a staple in our family, but I think it stems from some other friends of ours in Ohio. Let me retrace the Taco Salad history as I remember it. When I was growing up in Worthington, Ohio, my mom was the ultimate homemaker. Mom was always trying new recipes and with her background as a home economics educator, it was usually great food (except for the chemical macaroni and cheese we had once, that's for a later story). Some other friends of our family, the Tullers, owned a fruit farm that started as a fruit / vegetable stand and grew into a country store with homemade donuts, apple cider, jams, jellies, crafts, etc. (By the way on a side note, my first job ever was working at Tuller's Fruit Farm assembling fruit / veggie boxes and picking up the cigarette butts in the parking lot.) Doritos, the taco chip brand, was just released and there was a recipe mom found for taco salad. As the ultimate homemaker, she tried it out on us. The salad dressing it called for was not something mom particularly cared for so she tried something else she liked (big surprise, that is what happened to the chemical macaroni and cheese too!) which was the signature salad dressing made for Tuller's Fruit Farm. It was a sweet / sour dressing like nothing we have ever found since. Well, the taco salad was a gigantic hit with our family and it seemed that mom made it just about every week and for every friend that stopped by. Pretty soon we were purchasing the Tuller's salad dressing by the case, no joke! At some point a few years later, the Tuller salad dressing went out of production. Despite our pleas to Charlie and Rosalyn Tuller, there was nothing we could do but purchase as much stock that remained, and we did! It seems that the frequency we had Taco Salad dwindled as the dressing (which was becoming more valuable with each sitting) started to disappear. Back to last night, I realized as I was partaking of the delicious taco salad (minus the Tuller Salad Dressing, but with a signature mixture created by my aunts) that my children have only eaten taco salad very few times. Too bad, it is such a nice traditional and delicious family meal - I wonder if Charlie and Rosalyn Tuller could start production again on their dressing!



In addition to the great dinner, we were also blessed with the company of some dear family friends - Don and Martha Lane. Aunt Martha and Uncle Don (we called all our parent's friends by Aunt / Uncle) have been friends of my parents since their school years in Dublin, Ohio. As our parents had us kids, I grew up playing with Aunt Martha's children - Linda, Rick, David and Laura. Lots of great memories digging around in their Dublin back yard. Well, Uncle Don and Aunt Martha have a winter home in Sun City, Florida and we get to visit with them on occasion when they are wintering here in the south. It is always a blessing for all of us, but even more for mom as she truly cherishes these special times with her lifelong pals. Well, after stuffing ourselves with Taco Salad, we played David's new game Apples to Apples with the whole group (except David who was at Ocala Civic Theatre teaching for a rehearsal of "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change." Thanks for letting us use your game, it was a blast!



Well, after food, fun, and games - the younger Lepperts called it an evening as Jonathan and Rebekah were anxious to see the movie "Transformers" at home. It was a great time all around, we can't wait till next time!