Spring!

Hi everyone!

Thanks so much for sticking with me while I was taking a short break!  Everything's fine with me - don't worry!  Now I'm back and better than ever.

New York has been experiencing record high temperatures lately, and the California Girl in me is just swooning with delight and heart-bursting joy.

Last night was "Girls' Night", which meant that Adam had a work thing to go to so it was just me and Bug for dinner.  Naturally, with temps in the high 70s, we decided that dinner on the rooftop deck was de rigueur.

I put together our favorites on a cutting board: smoky almonds, Manchego, salame, grapes, pears, apples, bread, and crackers.  I drank a glass of Cotes du Rhone; Bug drank ginger beer.  And as per usual, there wasn't another single person on the deck with us.  On the one hand, I can't believe that in our HUGE building there is no one - no one - who thought it would be a good idea to sit outside.  But on the other hand, I adore having the deck to ourselves.

It's been a crazy, maddening, wonderful, challenging, refreshing couple of weeks...but I'm slowly feeling like the universe is coming into balance again.  I'm not doing much in the way of menu planning or complicated cooking as of late.  But with a meal like this, who needs it?  You don't have to turn cartwheels and set things on fire to put a good meal on the table.  Bug and I sat together, sharing details about our day, debating who the murderer could be in The Westing Game, and giggling about a boy that has a crush on her in class.  That was the best part.  Gathering together to eat is just what made it possible.

Again, you have all been really supportive and wonderful - I love being here and I love sharing with you. Thanks for being a part of it.

More soon...I really do want to get back to cooking in the kitchen!

Eat, drink, and enjoy the change in season!

Thinking about the Honeysuckle Rouge...

It's that time of year. The time of year when I cease to get anything done and just start doing things for pleasure...or when I force myself to be idle for a change. My attention span is zero because there are just so many fun things to be doing and I want to do it all Now. With that in mind, here are a few of the things I've been looking at today:

- Let's start off with The One That Freaked Me Out. Apparently, my Biggest Phobia has come true. I got the link from Ananka's Diary (aka Kirsten Miller) butI can't bring myself to thank her for it. I'm terrified.

- Fuse #8 has a fantabulous review up for the new Sesame Street book, Street Gang: the Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael Davis. I'm with Betsy: that title is awesome and I can't believe they got away with it. I'm adding this title to the top of my teetering reading list...or very near the top.

- Apparently there are places in the world where it is not 28 degrees with 45 mile-per-hour winds. It's called Australia and Justine Larbalestier is bragging about all the lovely produce she's getting this time of year in her homeland. I'm not so jealous now, as I'm still enamored with butternut squash, apples, and pears. But come March...I'll be revisiting her post and turning green with envy.

- Thought my what-to-drink-with-children's-literature post was the mumblings of a functioning alcoholic? Not so fast! The New Yorker has come up with a cocktail - Honeysuckle Rouge - inspired by Winnie the Pooh. Tequila, honey, red wine reduction...oh my! See, I'm not the only one who comes up with stuff like this!

- I've been staying out of this whole debate about the Newbery award for multiple reasons. However, I have to link to this article at Slate: "Captain Underpants Doesn't Need a Newbery Medal" by Erica S. Perl. Yeah, what she said.

And that has been my morning. More to come this afternoon!

Eat, drink, and try a Honeysuckle Rouge.

YAY! The NYT Dining Section round-up on time!

God, is anyone else utterly mired in the doldrums of winter? I’ve had it. Truly. I want tomatoes, I want corn, I want cherries, I want a PEACH. I want basil that hasn’t been sitting in my freezer for three months. If I eat another apple or another bite of winter squash or parsnips, I’ll freak out. Don’t test me on this. I really will freak out.

So I felt like I had a bit of a respite when I bought the NYT yesterday. Right there on the Dining section front page was a large, bright photo of fresh milk, butter, ice cream, and yogurt. Aaaah. Thank goodness there are so many small dairies in the NY area! As it is, I already get nearly all our dairy products from Ronnybrook. Nevertheless, I hope to try some of the others listed soon.

There was a small article about medlar preserves from France – the medlar is a small fruit that only softens when it gets frostbite or when in storage. It has a pearlike flavor with a hint of cinnamon, apparently. Which sounds awfully cold-weather-esque to me right now and you all know how I’m hating on winter. Nevertheless, I might be up for trying some of this in the fall.

There has been a lot of press lately about Kim Sunée’s book, Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home, and the NYT has an interview with her this week. I actually received the ARC of this book from my marketing friend at Hachette, but I haven’t gotten more than 20 pages deep. I found Sunée to be a very detached narrator, as if she was constantly holding something back, as if she constantly had her guard up. But I’ll have to give it another try after reading the article. (Note: since I wasn’t into it, I passed the ARC on to my mother-in-law. Last I checked, she was also having trouble really connecting with the book.)

That was about it. Winter is yucky and I’m tired of my neverending cold. Blah.