While I'm not a big fan of PHP in general, the fact that you feel/felt comfortable with ExpressionEngine could mean that a related PHP framework would be a good

While I'm not a big fan of PHP in general, the fact that you feel/felt comfortable with ExpressionEngine could mean that a related PHP framework would be a good choice. CodeIgniter (http://codeigniter.com http://codeigniter.com) is similar to what EE is built on, and EllisLab is going to have the next version of EE built directly on CI. It's a really slim framework that doesn't force much on you, so you would get acquainted with PHP in general as well. Along with that, I think it is a good idea to play with a number of languages and frameworks. To me, the best test is building a simple application in them, a todo list or the like. Try things like Django, Rails, Merb, CodeIgniter, Cake, and others to see what feels most natural and fun to you. Be sure to also think of what else matters to you about a language/framework. Check out communities, plugins and modules, and the documentation.