Aah...

What a lovely day! I was up with Ol last night, from about 3:30-4:30 because he was slightly feverish and thought he might "fro up." He didn't and we had such a sweet time together (including the marvelous recollection that I had frozen cinnamon rolls in the chest freezer in our garage; after tucking him in for the last time, I went and got those rolls and let them thaw on the counter from there on out). That said, I felt lucky my men let me then sleep in the basement until 9:30 when they brought me a latte with a heart-shaped frothed milk design and a plate of those cinnamon rolls, now warm and gooey and fragrant and fabulous. www.em-i-lis.com

The recipe for these  beauties is one of the treasures I've gotten from Molly Wizenberg. In fact, when I briefly met her last night, I mentioned how much my boys loved these and how they were our "special breakfast" tradition 90% of the time. Part of her inscription to me wishes for more cinnamon rolls in my future, and as such, this morning's three (and this evening's two) were even better than usual.

After feasting, we hung out and then realized that game 1 of Jack's double header was in the fairly immediate future. To the ballpark! It was a spectacular day, and the boys played winningly. Literally, they won both games. In the meantime, the moms lined up in folding chairs on the sidelines while the dads offered us gatorade or soda and we secretly (so as not to share) passed a tub of chocolate-caramel pretzels back and forth. I left after the first game, went to the market and then Delancey and I made a beeline for my birthday chaise. Incroyable!

I bathed my filthy darlings until the water ran gray and their arms gleamed clean once again, fed Jack forty dinners and T and I tucked them in. Then it was happily to the kitch together. He made a batch of my Super-Duper steak rub and prepped the filets while I made another batch of last night's cumin carrots and fennel with ricotta. He shucked corn, I cooked it. I set the table on the deck, he poured some good Zin. As the sun set and we supped, I felt deeply happy. Hope you all had a splendid day.

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I love how olive oil pools in yogurt or, in this case, loose ricotta. Lovely isn't it.

Seared Carrots and Fennel with Cumin and Ricotta

After returning home from the book reading last night, I found that T had eaten with the boys so I set about to make dinner for myself. I found a half-bunch of carrots and a head of fennel and, as a slight aside, thought about how much I like cumin and carrots together. Surely, the similar sweetnesses of carrots and fennel meant cumin would pair well with both. I got out my trusty Lodge, heated some olive oil and tossed in a couple halved cloves of garlic. Once everything was steamy hot, I added the fennel and carrots, which I'd sliced, in a single layer. They immediately started to sear and caramelize and everything smelled heavenly. Towards the end, I added a hefty sprinkle of cumin seed, later deglazed the pan with a bit of pear Brandy, plated the whole shebang and topped it with Maldon, fennel fronds and dollops of fresh ricotta.

This.was.divine!

www.em-i-lis.com