Love of studentship, rockin' dinner

As I sat at a long wooden table today, my notebook, pen, text and water bottle before me, handouts being passed, rain pouring outside, I felt utterly cozy and thrilled. Plain and simple, I love being a student. The thought of homework thrills me (95% of the time), and I delight in my myriad shorthand notes, highlighted sentences, margin stars and checks that stain my books and notepads come end of class. If this smacks of nerdom, know that I wave my nerd banner high and with pride! Class was really well organized, and the next three Mondays will absolutely fly by. The teacher is wonderful, and small world story, she and I know someone in common in Florence, Italy, and no, that person is not my sister. Isn't that weird and cool!?

As I left Politics & Prose, armed with my tote bag, rain gear and new Ottolenghi cookbook (it is UNREAL; I salivated over it for at least 30 minutes after class), I felt a skip in my step, and, as Monday is my one afternoon a week off, I took myself to get a much-needed pedicure. Truly, my feet were individual horrors of blister and gnarl. Things are better now, I'm sure you're relieved to know. Anyway, while sitting in the chair, I flagged the hell out of Ottolenghi and tonight made dinner channeling the inspiration I'd gleaned.

Cauliflower fritters became Lodge-seared florets with a wonderfully spiced "sauce" of olive oil, garlic, shallots, cardamom, cumin, coriander and cinnamon of which I'm sure Yotam and Sami would approve. A pistachio-crusted tuna took shape in the hands of Team Tom-Em as seared salmon with a pistachio-pepita-pimenton-lime crust which was amazing (despite its unfortunate resemblance in hue to goose poop; but let's call it cafe au lait) and which I will write up for you immediately. I could dredge anything in it and be thrilled!

We Coravin'd one glass each of a wonderful Pinot (this Coravin thing is really liberating) and toasted each other for a job well done.

As this Monday begins to close, I am left with an immense feeling of gratitude and good fortune. I am a lucky woman and appreciate every bit of it.

Back to it, writing class, misc

Hello from DC. It was so rejuvenating to get away, spend a weekend with good and old girlfriends, sleep!, talk in complete sentences!, and come home rested and relaxed. My boys picked me up from the airport and were just so darn cute with their effusive and loving welcome. It has been equally lovely, today, to enjoy a quiet morning inside while a terrific thunderstorm rages intermittently outside. I've cleaned up much of the weekend-without-Mom detritus scattered throughout my home, done the grocery shopping, made more granola for the sadly empty container dedicated to it, successfully arranged some fresh flowers -a first!- and mostly unpacked. I also had time to edit the food photos I snapped all weekend, so what was really delicious now also looks so. Check it out! I'm eating a quick lunch now and am soon to head off to my first Memoir Writing class. SO exciting. It's at Politics & Prose (DC-area peeps, I'm sure you're familiar) which, as a great store for many reasons, is such an asset to our community. I'm hearing Malala Yousafzai and her father speak this Friday night, and I got the announcement and tickets via Pols & Prose. Same with Yotam and Sami, whose talk I'm hearing later this month.

Leaving you now with these pretty pics of cruciferous veggies that I snapped earlier today. I love how purple cabbage is almost opalescent!

Cats win, psycho storm, GT Fish & Oyster

My gal posse and I have covered some miles today, of road and memories. We left Chicago at 10 this morning, heading north to start our day in Evanston with breakfast at Blind Faith Cafe, an old favorite of ours. It's still nestled on the same spot on Dempster that it always has been (at least since 1994). I walked past my old apartment, the one above the dry cleaner on the corner of Dempster and Elmwood. I've written about it before; it always had warm floors because it sat over the humming machines below, it was full of natural light, and it was on a great block of indy stores and neighborhood spots. Anyway, we walked through campus, bought new t-shirts, headed up to the stadium and to the tailgate and felt very nostalgic the whole time.

We had just gotten into the tailgate tent when the skies opened, and I mean cleaved wide open. A security guard grabbed a mic and told us we had to evacuate the tent and shelter in the building next to us. We decided to try to get a cab and bail and in the meantime scurried into an NU paraphernalia shop to escape the downpour. The emergency siren at the stadium started wailing and sounded eerily like a tornado alert. The streets were flooding, our cab finally came, other started hovering around it like vultures so we threw ourselves in and headed off.

Naps, showers, an almost meal-fail (Italian Village, WTF?!) a meal save (GT Fish and Oyster), a great night and the details tomorrow. I'm pooped!