Deep Summer

We've hit deep summer.  Those days when the playgrounds are empty because everyone is at the Cape.  Those days when you start looking at your summer to-do list, erase a couple of wishes and add a couple of wants.  So far I've crossed off at least one thing -eating a whole pint of blueberries by myself.  I did that yesterday when I took an afternoon to myself.  I rode this bike and texted the person who borrowed my bike to next time please lower the seat to original setting after usage.  I also mailed the package on the back of the bike.  Huge.

I came back from my outing feeling extra-balanced.  (That is until I saw pictures of the Duchess step out of the hospital with baby George.  Oh, Kate, you do beat all.)  Starving but balanced.  I harnessed this hunger and peace and made dinner.  Summer Garden Ratatouille.  Now I know how the French get their children to love vegetables.  It did include a splurge on olive oil and heirloom tomatoes.  I want to buy heirloom everything.  Fortunately for both of us Ratatouille doesn't photograph well.  But, I will give you unsolicited advice and tell you to add it to your summer to-do list.  

Summer Garden Ratatouille

2 onions (chopped)

4 cloves garlic (minced)

1 bay leaf 

Saute in 3 tablespoons olive oil about 5 minutes.

1 medium eggplant (chopped)

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh basil (chopped)

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary (chopped)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Add, cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until eggplant is soft, about 15-20 minutes

2 summer squash (chopped)

2 green, orange, or red sweet peppers (cut in strips)

2 cups / 500 ml tomatoes (chopped)

Add simmer until peppers and squash are tender, about 10 minutes.  Serve over pasta or polenta sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.  

*minorly adapted from Simply in Season

Speaking of Optimism

Anthropologie remembered my birthday again this year!  They are so sweet.  And, I hope they are right.  No doubt.   :)

Tonight we will step out to slurp down oysters somewhere in the city.  Maybe here or our old standby, Central Kitchen.  I hope you are well!  

Filling Up On Maine

How have you been, friends?  I have gone from one vacation to the next.  It sounds indulgent.  But when you receive an invitation to enjoy someone's house on the Maine coast, it doesn't matter when those dates fall -you go.  Even if you have to leave the day after you get back from being gone for ten days.  You would have done the same, right?

Thanks to my sister's ability to squeeze every last drop out of a good thing (and whose children are slightly older than mine) we took the scenic route there and back.  If we had stopped at every roadside farmstand, seafood truck, inlet and antique barn we would still currently be in the middle of nowhere.  It was so tempting though.  As was buying a Volkswagen Westfalia and camping out an extra couple of days so we could celebrate Bastille Day at Salt Water Farm.

When you can no longer share the good things in life with your mom -a lobster lunch, an ocean breeze, your children, it's a struggle to enjoy them yourself.  It taints everything.  I say to myself "You should be happy!"  And I retort, "But I don't want to!"  It continues on like this until I have a diaper to change or people to feed or a conversation with someone that thankfully steals me away from this inner dialogue.  But this week was a gift in its purest form.  And I could do nothing to spoil it.  We embraced the tired fog of the mornings and coupled them with buttery pastries in butterfly gardens.  We ate something from the sea every day, shared a bottle of wine every night; chasing dinners down with bowls full of ice cream   We filled up on each other.  

 

Going South for the Summer

Every summer we head to the hills of Virginia for some time in the car and some long-anticipated time with family.  I've been saying we are going to the middle-of-nowhere Virginia, but that doesn't really roll off the tongue very well.  So, I'm changing my tag-line.  From now on it will be referred to as "our pilgrimage to a cabin on a lake in the Blue Ridge Mountains".  There, that's better!  At least you might want to come with me now.  And I wish you could, because I love this part of the country.

I don't have much on my to-do list.  If we can, I'd like to eat at this restaurant, or this hole in the wall Mexican restaurant that has a salsa bar with homemade chips and which served the best margarita I ever had a sip of.  With Verity safely outside of the womb, I will be ordering my very own this year.  :)

flour, me too

I find her cookbooks very intimidating, but her food is delicious and Joanne Chang looks so darn nice that I can't stay away.  My failed attempt at her Birthday Cake will always haunt me, but today's Vegan Vanilla-Mixed Berry Muffins were meant to be mine.  I substituted chopped cherries for raspberries and they still turned out well.

I loved her chapter, In Our Pantry.  She keeps no secrets.  

Picture This

We snuck out to Walden Pond this morning before the rains came.  The sky was grey, a light grey, the air was warm and the water was still.  This place embodies tranquility.  I will do my best to take a picture next time, because I do wish I had a picture to show you.  I'm still trying to become the someone who snaps a photo of the moment she is enjoying.

In hindsight, it was best that I didn't have my camera so that I could spring into action for our Drama In Real Life.  I was the soaking wet adult in street clothes and Naomi was the soaking wet 2 year old who had gone in too deep.  With a grin on her face and a bucket in her hands, she was wading through the water to fill her pail and then returning to splash its contents onto the sandy shore.  Each time going in a tiny bit farther.  On this trip the weight of the water was too much for her to lift back up.  That is when you see me  gracefully running into the pond and grabbing her by the scruff of the neck.   She was fine -only mildly traumatized.  I tried to look calm, but inwardly I was completely shocked that I responded in real time.  There was another mom nearby who looked like she was training for an Ironman, and I know she would have bravely assisted if called upon.  All's well that ends well, so the saying goes.

Next time we will return with life-saving inner-tube and a camera.

Preoccupation

I'm developing a preoccupation with the weather.  Or rather with the rain this week has held.  On the upside, I don't have to water my garden.  On the flip side, we are short on merry sunshine.  And then this morning the rain stopped and part of me was dissapointed.  Fickle is the word that comes to mind.  Our wet and lovely walk ended up being a sunny and cranky walk, but that's okay.

Here you can see Peter Rabbit's home.

One of the many ancient Birch trees at Mt. Auburn Cemetery.

 Green.

And more green.

What have you all been preoccupied with this week?  I had a couple of run-ins with greatness; one with a former beloved professor and the other with an old friend and favorite study partner from college.  This has got me thinking about their accomplishments, and our own significance and purpose in this life.

Hope you guys have a great weekend.  :)