DC, dinner

Another shooting. 13 dead. An armed man with "a history of misconduct" (cnn) heads into the Navy Yard and opens fire. Remember all the times the NRA has yelled that if only more people had guns, we'd be so much safer? Well, the Navy does have guns; they're the military for christ sakes. And 12 of their crew are now dead. I find the whole thing depressingly familiar. A place shuts down, people mourn the loss of family members and friends, the President speaks movingly of the tragedy and waste, the media lights up with musings on mental health, possible security break-downs and "what.went.wrong." and still our country will do nothing more than a symbolic wringing of the hands. The gun-rights activists will hunker down and find an argument about we can't possibly do anything but give out more guns; those who work for stricter regulation and more stringent and regular background checks will have to put aside their sadness and disgust about watching yet another shooting spree happen and then resume their work, trying to keep hopelessness about change at bay. Shame on us. ~~~~~~ On a completely different note, we had a wonderful Meatless Monday dinner comprised of three hearty salads: fresh burrata with tomatoes, good olive oil, salt and basil; garlic-oil-rubbed kale with walnuts and cherries (yes, that one; the regular); and grilled fennel and leeks with fresh ricotta (still warm!) and a marjoram-fennel frond-almond pesto.

My friend Bevi makes a marjoram-cashew pesto that sounds out of this world, and I was keen to whip some of that up tonight only to find that I had no cashews. Ok, plan B. I decided to serve the pesto atop the other stuff I mentioned and so threw in the fennel fronds. Almonds seemed like they might pair nicely so they went in too. The marjoram's floralness started to feel out of hand so I tossed in some kale. The floral bouquet kept coming, so I went with it and grated Meyer lemon zest over the top of the finished dish. T asked if I'd accidentally spilled flowery soap into pesto. I liked it. Different strokes for different folks. And it is pretty!

Hilarious

Y'all, look what one of Tom's aunts mailed the kids. A mother of two sons now grown, she's often told me that a sense of humor is a must in raising boys. This is priceless!

If you missed the story that inspired this gift, read here!

Book read, dinner made, baseball game almost won, Real Time's back!

Y'all! I actually finished a book last night: Unorthodox can be moved to the Has Been Read shelf. Amazing! I couldn't have enjoyed it more. Feldman's writing is honest and compelling, drawing me in and leaving a lasting sense of "oh, man" when I closed the back cover: "a good one done." I reviewed some of the negative reviews today and found many of them to be vaguely considered at best. One suggested Feldman had fictionalized most of the manuscript but offered no source or way of authenticating that claim. In any case, I found it to be a brave book, an open consideration of the strengths (not as many) and weaknesses (quite a few) of the insular community in which she was raised. If you believe in Feldman's portrayal, it's also an incredibly sexist and misogynistic society. I do recommend this read! Towards the end of my writing class this afternoon (as we're all over the country, we call in twice-monthly via uberconference), Jack came down to the basement, clad in his Blue Devils team baseball uniform, to kiss my goodbye. He and Tom were headed off to Game 2 of the fall season, and my darling blond pencil looked so handsome and old-school baseball sweet. He scored a run, knocked in another and came home exuberant from his team's most serious almost-win. In the meantime, I wrapped up a wonderful "class-time" with my group, read the entire Otis series to Oliver, tucked him in and got dinner started.

My fagiole umido was just not nearly as wonderful as Ghibellina's, but I will admit that my fresh flat beans were perfectly cooked. The last of summer's cantaloupe was a second side, and excellently salt-and-pepper crusted steaks were the main. I wasn't much in the mood for la boeuf tonight but enjoyed my veggie sides and leftover blackberry-peach crisp enormously. And the cream? Bill Maher was back as of Friday. Yay! Yay!