Because even a dinner for one should be lovely

This might be the best vegetable soup I've ever made. Seriously comforting, seriously flavorful, and these broiled toasts are the bomb. I bought some Gabietou recently, a French cheese that Whole Foods was highlighting. Let me tell you, it is good and it is good when used in this way.

I also opened some rosé and am feeling like quite the French sophisticate, if by that you take it that I feel like a super-tired mom sucking wine and soup concurrently. Heh. No, I feel good. Today was nuts but the kids were great and I actually did my hair. T was in Boston, and I didn't think he'd make it back in time for dinner so assumed I'd be solo. However, when solo, you should still treat yourself right, honor all you did that day and the person you are. Hence my lovely tray and actual china and silverware. During my first bite, T did walk through the door, so now it's dinner a deux, but nonetheless, you see what I'm saying.

If you look at the Summer Ribollita recipe I have posted, the changes I made here are: white beans for garbanzos, both kale and Napa cabbage instead of just kale, no zucchini, no pistou, add toasts! It's a very flexible and forgiving recipe.

Off to my canning class

Whoo-hoo. Off to Fairfax to teach Canning 101 and put up a batch of Lightly Spiced Plum Jam! What a fun way to spend a Saturday morning. Thank you Twins Ace Hardware for hosting this event. If you're in the Fairfax area, the class starts at 9:30 and will be held in the upstairs mezzanine. Twins is a great store!

Avo-love

This past May, during the Eat, Write Retreat I attended, I met a new pal. She and I clicked pretty immediately and have been enthusiastic friends since, even though she upped and moved to Jersey, for the love. In any case, amongst other things, we share a real passion for avocados. My going-away present to her was an Avo-save (see first pic); I am the no-longer-skeptical owner of one and she admired it once. Both of us now strap our av-halves in the saver with what might seem to others an excessive glee, but we take our avocados seriously and dislike when the brown. The plastic wrap thing is wasteful and not terribly effective, and while the Avo-save isn't fool-proof, it is, nonetheless, effective enough and reusable. I enjoyed half of this avocado for lunch today, alongside some toasted multi-seed bread, fresh tomato, feta, roasted turkey and a drizzle of aged Balsamic. It was a lovely lunch, so tasty and pretty, in fact, that I ate it before snapping a picture. So moved by the simplistic beauty of this av-halve (peeps, I've been up since 4:40am with not one but BOTH boys so throw me a bone, I'm punchy!), I did photograph it.