Thank you, for the Grands

An enormous, heartfelt thanks to all of you who so quickly have helped me clear out a good deal of space in my jam closet. I hope you enjoy your goodies; I'm off to make more! If you are still interested, I'm now out of strawberry-rhubarb-lemon, cherry plum, and peach-apricot almond but you are otherwise a go. And yes, I ship! I slogged my way through Pilates this morning, almost constantly repeating to myself the mantra, "this is good for me, this is good for me." If we'd stayed in any supine or prone position for long, I'd have been out like a light; as it was, I tried to muffle my many yawns. Mom had shipped up Louisiana irises from her garden for two of my friends, so I delivered those (I love the idea of my mom's garden reaching into others') and then headed home to cook dinner for the Grands (if you're not familiar with this, I cook dinner twice a week for the loveliest nonagenarian couple to whom I affectionately refer as the Grands): fava bean and mint puree to go alongside pan-seared filets, roasted potatoes with truffle salt, raspberry and watermelon salad. Aren't these steaks and the puree gorgeous? The meat looks lacquered! We'll be having the same meal this evening.

Upcoming Whole Foods deals, Italian!

I'm back in the student saddle, this time as an Italian studentessa! Brava! Just home from class, I'm excited for the next few months during which I hope to regain my A game. Also, two quick notes about upcoming Whole Foods deals:

• Tomorrow only, from 3:00p - 7:00p, 16 oz Crave Brothers mozzarella is buy one ($7.99), get one free.
• And on Friday, the WF One Day Deal is MSC-Green Fresh Sockeye Salmon, $11.99/pound (regularly $19.99/pound). Yummy! Healthy!

Fam dinner = delicious vat o' pasta

The boys were maniacs this afternoon after camp. Maniacs intensely focused on exposing to each other and me their private areas as.much.as.possible. I finally reached my limit with all things butt-and-penis and sent them to their rooms until dinner. Being that they eat at 4:45p this was not a huge punishment, but still. I got them fed and also started on our meal because T's mom and two of his cousins were to join us. While at the market yesterday, I spied a most gorgeous head of Savoy cabbage. I bought it and ever since have been noodling -hah, no pun intended (see rest of sentence)- on caramelizing it and then tossing that with whole wheat spaghetti. A Food 52 cook I admire posted a recipe for a "suspiciously good cabbage" a year or two ago, and I used that as my jumping-off point this evening.

I fried some bacon, poured off most of the drippings, added in some butter and then slowly cooked down a mess of shallots, the now-shredded cabbage and some garlic. Ultimately, some cream, a generous shower of salt, some pasta water, a rainfall of grated Parm, the now-crumbled bacon,  a handful of finely chopped mint and the zest of one lemon joined forces with the veggies and spaghetti and while wonderful, I felt it needed one last thing. Garlicky breadcrumbs? Yes! A perfect topping. Our fivesome devoured the entire vat of pasta, and I will surely make this again.