Community Pick news, static cling & other burrs in the bum

Happy to report that my Chicken with Caramelized Sumac Onions, Preserved Lemon and Israeli Couscous was chosen as a Community Pick on Food52 yesterday. Thanks so much for the lovely review and the honor!```````

People, what, pray tell, is more annoying than static cling in newly laundered clothes?

Other than paper cuts (why?!), bad coffee (no excuse in this day and age), painful flatulence (ow and yuck!), my dog barking every damn day at the mailman and package delivers (will he ever become immune to these daily, non-threatening events?), waking up for any reason in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep, sand in my crevices at the beach (bathing suit manufacturers should make suit bottoms adhere to our bums so that this doesn't happen), one of a pair of socks that goes missing (inexplicable), spammers that do not abide by remove me now unsubscribe messages (you should be sued, all you bots and ignorers), and potholes (isn't asphalt an old technology? can't potholes be largely avoided in modern times?).

But back to static cling. Folding laundry is an endless and tedious task (I swear my dryer operates like Strega Nona's pot before she says the magic word) not made quicker or more fun by T's poly-blend exercise shirts sucking into their sleeves all of my family's socks and the dryer balls whose purported result is no static cling. It is especially insulting to be shocked repeatedly by the static when trying to loose the individual items from the ensnared mess of a prison. Frankly, this is why I let T do as much laundry as possible; he seems not to mind and I can avoid some irritation.

It's the little things.

Em-i-lis 2013 in Review: Best of April

It is such a beautiful day today which is a slight balm for the achy "feels like 7" nonsense going on outside. I know, I know, it's winter, January! We should be in the thick of it. But if I wanted single digit weather, I'd have moved north of D.C. I didn't, I moved south to D.C., and so, the bundling and groaning continues. Today is better than yesterday. I will admit to that.

In any case, time for another month in review, and so I give you Best of Em-i-lis: April 2013.

Spring finally arrived (so really, I guess I see how long I still have) in fits and starts but I took advantage of all warmish weather by spending as much time as possible outside. Remember this pic, the reflection of our backyard sugar maple in my rosé? I love this still!

As the temperatures continued to rise, I celebrated my birthday (look at the cute cards the boys made me) and was thrilled to win the Your Best Leeks contest on Food52.

Nanny started her decline- a stroke, greater hearing loss, loss of mental acuity - and I started to mourn the loss of her in my life. Around this same time, I started cooking for the wonderful couple you might remember me talking about so much. I delivered dinner to them twice a week and found a wonderful sense of fulfillment in doing so. They reminded me of Nanny; caring for them was a joy. Click here to read about them and my love of this "job."

I wrote about parenthood and its challenges in ways that made me proud, and I also wrote a few bits that really made me laugh.

The Giving Table sponsored a day, Food Bloggers Against Hunger in America, on which all bloggers who signed up in support of the effort donated that day's post to the issue of hunger here at home. I was proud of this post and if you haven't, please consider watching A Place at the Table. It was excellent.

Spring was beautiful, and I made so many delicious things. Just reviewing them and drooling over the pictures gets me awfully excited for what is to come...

She would have been 93

I am thinking so much of Nanny today. It's her birthday, and she would have been 93. I'm so glad she's not suffering anymore but I sure miss her.