Pomelo-Avocado Salad

With fresh chevre and aged Balsamic = lunch! I think there is something spectacular about those pinks and greens together, by the way. Fab color combo!

Muted Monday and a hallelujah for it

There may be no way to accurately describe the utter peace and bliss and relief I feel in being alone in my home right now. The boys are healthily and happily at school, Tom the former, and hopefully the latter, at work. For the first time in nearly two weeks, I am able to just be. Even the animals are calm and needless!

I took a shower and got properly dressed. I finished my coffee and slowly ate an apple cider muffin and half of this pomelo. As an aside, doesn't pomelo rind-and-pith just seem SO overwrought and dramatic? I like its seeming superfluousness. If you've hesitated to pay $4 for a pomelo, I understand. They are quite large and seem to be in the process of deflating. And $4 for ONE?? But you get a lot of bang for you buck with one of these suckers; easily, one paired with some avocado and good balsamic could feed four as a side dish. I was hellbent on finishing this sucker but stopped midway through. The pomelo is crisp and gently tart and tangy, a surprise to those who think they're going to experience a grapefruit, and all its wonderful acidity and bitterness, in larger form. I love grapefruit, but the pomelo is decidedly gentler. Try one! At the least, you won't get scurvy.

I've managed to finish my homework for my writing class; as it starts in just two hours, I'm cutting things a little close, but really, life lately has been on the nuts end of the spectrum, so I'm just thrilled that I'll get to go.

Percy is now staring me down - I guess needlessness never does more than pause - so off we go for a walk. And then....LUNCH! Yay!

Blue Devils win, Ol on the mend, awesome pasta din

It has been such fun for me to watch J's baseball team -the cutest, mostly-scrawny, mostly-clueless-re-baseball kids- come together over the past nearly-two seasons. Last year was borderline hysterical; few of the kids knew the rules of the game. Fielding? Running when you actually hit the ball? The Blue Devils were a darling learn-as-you-go band of brothers that finished the season 0-8. This year, however, as if Coach K came aboard, they're 3-2 (I think) and everything is coalescing beautifully. I'm not a terribly skilled athlete in any way so it's never mattered a lick to me if they win or lose. But for them, after a while, it really does matter, and I'm so happy that they're experiencing victory. J had two hits and an RBI tonight, and when he and T returned home, we had a fine celebration.

Y'all, look at these mushrooms! I didn't use them tonight but plan to on Tuesday. Tomorrow night, two friends and I are going to hear Yotam (Ottolenghi) and Sami (Tamimi) speak, and I am totally grooved about it. I did, tonight, concoct a fabulous pasta dish for which I will work up a recipe to share. It was absolutely fabulous! Like, if I'd ordered it in a restaurant, I'd have been thrilled and later tried to recreate it at home.

Olive oil, eggplant, peperoncino, fennel, lots of chopped fennel fronds, lemon zest, salt-packed capers, dates, pecorino, sweet Italian sausage and pici. Mamma mia! The sweet elements in concert with the savory, the umami layered in with the salt and starches...Heaven.