A Week Without

I love and will always love my Neal's Yard Dairy tote.  But I'm confident I will find new ways to remember my trips to old London town, rather than carrying this bag with its stains and thread-bare straps.  This week I upgraded to a new used Dooney and Bourke.  The brand doesn't mean much to me, but it's well made and appears to be a classic of sorts.  I can fit and find my keys, my Rosebud Salve and a diaper all in two shakes of a lamb's tail.  It didn't cost terribly much, but it was definitely a discretionary expense and one that I wanted to disappear.  And so I decided I would eat it for lunch.  There is this great scene in Crossing Delancy, (one of our favorite movies) where Izzy walks into the bookstore where she works with a large shopping bag in her arms and someone asks her, "What's in the bag?", and she answers, "My lunch for the next month."  Really, there is a dress she can't afford in the bag.  And so it went for me.  Starting with beans then lentils, back to beans then lentils, finishing with homemade pizza.    

Monday:  Depression Stew from My Berlin Kitchen.  This has become a mainstay in our home.  I love it and I double it.  It's made with flageolet beans and carrots and potatoes in a tomato base.  

Tuesday:  I tried this recipe from Food52 for red lentil dal.  It was fine and would have been much better had I not elminated the last and perhaps the most interesting part of the recipe.  

Wednesday:  Black Bean and Rice Skillet from Simply in Season.  Another simple favorite and one where I get to use my cast iron skillet from start to finish.  

Thursday:  Lentil Soup which got bumped back from Monday night.  My own version, fairly simply and fairly heavy on the cumin and tumeric.  

Friday:  Pizza.  Smitten Kitchen's crust.  The rest of it was unremarkable, but none of us really cared.  Especially me.  

After a week like that one, I can't wait to read through my new Bon Appetit, paying careful attention to the Chicken and Dumplings on the cover.

The weekend!  

Artifact Uprising

Today I received a pretty major tip-off.  Artifact Uprising.  This company is giving me hope that maybe, just maybe I will have proof of these present days in hard copy photos.  Maybe I won't have to reminisce in the years to come by passing my old phone around from one family member to the next.  That would be so great.  

A Birthday Crown and a Toile Tent

  This past Saturday Naomi turned three!  She feels so grown up all of the sudden.  But I can still see a little baby chub in her cheeks and when she starts to babble I know that she is still little.  "I don't know if she can come, but I don't know if she can come, because I don't know if she can come."  We built a tent made out of fabric poles and some old toile (originally intended for her nursery room curtains), and blew up balloons for her to wake up to.  We took a bus ride and went out to lunch and she picked out a book at the toy store with some of her birthday five dollars sent to her by a loving great-aunt.  After a birthday nap we had a few families over and ate macaroni and cheese and chocolate cupcakes.  And shock beyond shock -she wore the birthday crown I made for her.  She must have known.  :)

Homecoming

We're home.  We are home after many long hours in the car and many good hours with family: mine, his, ours.  Our first night back Eric broke our pact and unpacked his suitcase (the nerve!) while I was on the phone which led to a small feud, which led to me unpacking my suitcase and then led us both to a pour of his new Christmas bourbon.  And, now we are mostly unpacked.  Look at that!  

It's hard growing accustomed again to the rhythm of everyday life.  I can't purge all that needs to be purged in one day.  We came home with arms full of stuff.  But we also came home with this great, totally-seventies afghan Eric's great-grandmother made, and a new cast-iron skillet.  And waiting for me on the porch was this cookbook to walk me through the rest of winter -thanks to my brother who asked me what I wanted for Christmas on Christmas morning.  :)  I meal-planned the heck out of it last night (more on that later), and I have my eye on her cardamom and orange scones for this afternoon.