the color wheel

Hello!  How have you guys been?  Me?  I'm on to my next color in lentils.  I went from red, to green, and now I'm at black.  The lentil color wheel.  I mixed one cup of them with some roasted sweet potatoes and added cilantro,  cumin, and lime juice to make a lunch salad this past weekend.  I got a "this is good!" from a dutiful husband and a "this is different" and "I've never seen anything like this before" from a dutiful mother-in-law.  

And last night I used the remainder of them to make Mark Bittman's lentil soup, the spicy version, which I highly recommend.  How To Cook Everything, pg. 65.  Really fun recipe and you get to add fresh ginger which is an opportunity I always take.  

I don't have too much else to show for this week.  Unless you want to hear about my most successful shopping trip in months, years perhaps.  And it was not at a grocery store.  I was begrudgingly walking to the G_p, hoping to find something/anything to wear for Easter, when suddenly some magnetic force pulled me into American Apparel.  I hadn't stepped foot in there since I was with my much cooler cousin in 2008.  Before then I was just confused.  I thought it was a uniform supply outlet or something.  Anyway there I was, a blank (post-partum) canvas you could say.  And with the help of one sales associate who was probably under the legal drinking age, I walked out with an entire outfit.  This all happened within like fifteen minutes.  The best kind of shopping.  ...There was a time when I thought I wanted to be a personal shopper.  Do you like to shop?  :)

a very small spring moment

Hey friends,

Shockingly, I was able to uncover my scant Easter decoration(s) before the actual holiday!  And, with family coming to visit this weekend we have a reasonably clean house, a few choice items dusted and a spring moment on our bookshelf.  When I worked at Anthropologie we would set up these painstakingly perfect "moments" as they were called in front of, and behind their backs with an eye roll.  (Stay positive!)

So, why am I showing you a picture of a half-decorated mantel?  Because isn't this bunny lady awesome?  If you aren't initially enamored, don't worry.  It took seven years for her to grow on me.  But now I can see her charm.  In the box she has a little pink egg which makes a perfect clink clink when shaken (by a 2yr old).  I'm sure it will be lost before long, but it is being enjoyed in the meantime.  

I hope you guys have a great weekend.  Sincerely.  I'll be making Barefoot Contessa's raspberry crumble bars this afternoon and I hope that will be it.  What are in-laws for if not to take you out to eat?  :)   

A couple of updates for you this week:

It snowed, again.  Maybe four to six inches on the ground?  I'm letting this one slide because it is technically still winter.  But by the end of the week, all snow must be gone.  Just yesterday I saw some purple crocuses peeping up through the ground.  I hope they survive.

I bought some bulbs this morning in honor of the snowfall and/or the commencement of spring soon to come.  Dutch windflowers.  Twelve of them.  Bulbs are the culmination of hope.

The baby food project that Verity is participating in is going over marvelously.  Wouldn't you want to eat this deliciously red bowl of pureed beets?  I'm doing this in hopes that one day she will partner with me in eating our fill of roasted beets for lunch.  They taste like the earth in the very best of ways.

  

And finally, I'm giving fiction another go this week.  My friend Rachael told me about a book that she recently inhaled and I could use a good fast read.  And Marilyn Robinson, in her eloquence, has this to say about fiction in her essay called Imagination and Community.  How can I resist?  

"I would say, for the moment, that community, at least community larger than the immediate family, consists very largely of imaginative love for people we do not know or whom we know every slightly.  This thesis may be influenced by the fact that I spent literal years of my life lovingly absorbed in the thoughts and perceptions of -who knows it better than I?- people who do not exist.  And, just as writers are engrossed in the making of them, readers are profoundly moved and also influenced by the nonexistent, that great clan whose numbers increase prodigiously with every publishing season.  I think fiction may be, whatever else, an exercise in the capacity for imaginative love, or sympathy, or identification."  

Interesting, no? 

Hope you all are well..

happy birthday friday

Lacking a source of revenue, a granola bar wrapped in tin foil with a ribbon around it is a perfectly fine gift, especially if you hide behind your toddler who is shouting, "happy birthday, Daddy, happy birthday, Daddy."  Naomi is hitting this one out of the park.  

We are headed to a fancy-shmancy French bistro this evening.  If there is liver on the menu, I will not be ordering it.  I have hit my organ meat quota for the week.  It turned out well, but I think I will be ordering my next liver from Joe Allen.  When they ask me how I would like it cooked I will say "chef's choice!" with a sigh of relief that that is not me.

What are you guys up to?

My sister wrote a beautiful post about my mom today.  You can read it here.

And following up on my baby food project, it turns out this experiment is a road well-traveled!  The Wednesday Chef has a great post about the culture clash.

and, Joe Allen's calf's liver will never disappoint. 

cranberry bean furlough

The chicken livers are still sitting in my fridge.  I'm doing research, looking for the right recipe, and absolutely stalling.  They are a bit intimidating, this mystery hiding in an opaque plastic tub.  The sell by date is 3/19.  The clock is ticking.

Meanwhile...cranberry beans.  What lovely little things they are.  Pleasantly simmering in a broth of olive oil (lots of it), sage leaves, garlic cloves (unpeeled), plum tomatoes and water.  I spooned mine over some stale rye bread.  It's a Bon Appetit recipe and of course it called for fresh beans.  But, they were in Italy and I am not.  I can't wait to look for these this summer. 

 

Thank you for this pretty picture, www.theparsleythief.com

weekend rabbit hole

Hi!  Did you guys have a good weekend?  I don't want to get all vulnerable on you but it was one of those, good, hard, high velocity weekends over here.  The good with the bad right?  I found myself on this unexpected trek through memories -one conversation, one coincidence leading me down this rabbit trail and reminding me of things I hadn't thought of in a long time.  And really, it all begins and ends with the Dekalb County Farmers Market.      



I have so many memories of this place growing up.  Flags from every country of the world hang from the ceiling.  Isles towering with any imaginable international delight.  I remember the samosas and the lemon croissants we used to eat as my mom perused the isles.  The green beans we used to snag and eat raw.  I remember the live crabs that you weren't supposed to pester and the vast and freezing seafood department.  The cow tongues, the chicken feet, and various animal innards all on proud display.  I remember a long pause in the wine and beer section and the familiar face of the man who used to talk with my mom.  (Come to find out, he was walking her through the Bordeaux region in French wines. sigh.)  On Saturday night I got to miss and reminince about this magical place with a friend who has seen and loved its wares too.  And it goes without saying that that means I was missing and reminincing about my mom too.  

So, what did I do with all this angst?  I bought a package of chicken livers.  Bell and Evans chicken livers at Whole Foods for $3.49.  It was the closest I could come to this place and her.

Everyone good luck with your Monday tomorrow.  :)


photo: Joeff Davis, www.clatl.com

Galette for a day, the entire

Hello!  So like I was saying, I really wanted to make this butternut squash galette for our dinner on Sunday night but chickened out at the last minute and went with something I had made once before and could be made in advance.  And that was all fine and good except that I had already purchased the ingredients for the galette.  This included two large Spanish onions, two whole butternut squashes, lots of Italian fontina cheese, and white wine vinegar that wasn't Market Basket brand.  So with all that on hand, no other good idea for dinner and what looked like a promising nap day, I went for it.  It was the most labor intensive project I've tackled in a long while.  Although it didn't have one of those difficulty ratings in the corner like some recipes you find online, it did imply that you would be peeling, pitting and cubing TWO butternut squashes to then roast them while you are sauteing the onions for 25 minutes.  This is after you have made the pastry dough that is chilling in your refrigerator.  It was a ton of work, especially since I seem to be developing carpal tunnel syndrome in my right wrist from holding my chef knife incorrectly.  But, there I was, in the middle of it, no turning back.  And frankly, I'm so tired from making it that I don't have any more energy to write about it.  Do you mind?  Can I just wrap up to say that it was delicious?  And, I think it was worth the effort, although I need to allow some more time to pass before I am really sure.

But, my favorite part, and this is definitely made it worth it, is that Verity loved it!  No bland rice cereal for us to start.  Not sure what my doctor would say about this practice, but Verity is going to be the subject of a little French baby food experiment.  Over there where they do everything just perfectly, they start introducing vegetables and strong flavors much sooner than we typically do.  But, it makes sense to me.  I'll keep you posted on our progress.  :)

thanks awfully

It was one of those days to be buoyed by chocolate and good tea, don't you agree?

 Last night my friend Ms. McGrath came for dinner.  She's this lovely gem of a person.  She has lived in Boston for all but ten of her 90 years.  Whenever we are in the car she always points out the horrid new construction projects crowding her beautiful city.  Once upon a time, she had this very glamorous chapter of life and I get little tidbits of it every now and again.  When on the topic of the Royals, she says things like, "The only one I've met is the Duke of Windsor."  You don't say?   She met him down in the Bahamas, where he was governor, after he abdicated the thrown and married his darling Wallis.  If you were wondering, he was "perfectly handsome" and a wonderful gentleman.  "Thanks awfully," she said he said, which I think it one of the sweetest things I've heard in a while.



Our menu: mixed green salad with white wine vinaigrette, french flageolet beans with fennel and rosemary (Garten, pg. 192), white chocolate pudding with blackberry curd (Perelman pg. 272).  If I could do it again, I would choose something else for the main course.  I need to remember that not everyone shares my love of beans.  I added meatballs at the last minute and it kind of saved the dish.  I really wanted to make this butternut squash galette, but it was too much of a gamble considering I had never made it before and don't even really know what it is.  A savory tart of sorts made with two plus sticks of butter.  But, the white chocolate pudding was a hit.  

Meet Verity

It looks like I am never going to get out that pesky birth announcement.  I knew her birth month was going to pass right on by, but then came Christmas and New Year's and no card was mailed and now she's almost 5 months.  There is time still, I know.

I get a lot of "Can you spell that?" when I tell people her name and that is fine by me.  I had to dig in my heels with this one.  My husband wasn't thrilled at first, but after I gave a quick NO to each and every name he suggested, he finally came around like I knew he would. :)  I've always loved the virtue names.  For a while it was Mercy, then I met Mercy Watson.  Then it was Amity, as in the Amityville Horror.  Then Felicity.  What does she do when she is in a bad mood?  And then I met a little girl on the playground named Verity and I was like oooh, I like that.  She's as sweet as this picture.  

It's Friday!  Talk to you soon. :)