Hoppy Easter, and all that jazz

T and I just stuffed the kids' mercifully tiny Easter baskets. As we really are agnostics, it is completely beyond me why we celebrate Easter; must be one of those, "but we've always done it this way" kinda things. A few weeks back, playing on the boys' good and generous souls, I suggested we ask the Easter Bunny not to come this year. "You know, boys, we really don't believe in or celebrate Easter, so it seems to me that your baskets are really just pointless opportunities to get a few presents. What if we tell the Bunny to just make sure and visit others this year?"

"No, Mom, no. It's OK. We really do want the Easter Bunny to come." "Hey Jack, should we write the Easter Bunny a letter and give her some ideas?"

The redeeming element in the door that slammed shut on my idea is that Oliver assumes -rightfully, for the love- that the E.B. is female.

Also, I remembered that I'd ordered three stuffed Minions from freaking Hong Kong so decided to go with the kids' Easter verve and try again next year. Easter really is totally weird when you think about it. I mean, a dead man exits a cave, rises and in celebration eons later, a large hind-leg-walking Bunny brings candy-stuffed eggs and random treats to children in their homes. I dunno. Makes perfect sense to me that for two consecutive years my cousin's daughter said, in no uncertain terms, that the E.B. was to leave her basket outside on the front porch; he was not allowed to enter her home.

But long story short, T and I made the flipping baskets, and my primary hope is that the third Minion does not become the central focus of some horrid battle but, rather, can be shared lovingly.

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This morning, I took the boys to Tae Kwon Do, and Ol and I proudly watched as J received his red belt. He is extremely proud and satisfied and seemed not to notice how wildly more advanced the rest of the kids in his class are. J's obliviousness to such things has long been a trait I consider him lucky to have, bless his heart. Afterwards, I passed the kids off to T who took them to his parents' house. I cannot tell you how much I loved my hours alone. Lawd a'mercy did I need some quiet. I did a little shopping (the TJ Maxx home section can be fun!), tidied the house and yard, went on a search mission for Percy the escapee pug...you know, the regular.

Dinner was a kale salad and some really delicious grilled shrimp. The marinade was preposterously simple: olive oil, salt, garlic, fresh orange juice, crushed red pepper...and T grilled those little crustaceans perfectly. Meanwhile, we were the lucky witnesses of a magnificent sunset. It looked like a giant, multi-hued Easter egg cascading down the horizon.

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Have a good one!

Union Market = fabulous day 2 of birthday

A few weeks ago, a dear friend somewhat cryptically asked me what my birthday plans were. She asked if I'd save her a day because she had somewhere to take me. I do love surprises and such advance planning and readily agreed that today would be her day. M picked me up this morning and ferried me down to Union Market, a year-round indoor market in Northeast. What a perfect idea! Rows of food and drink stalls line three main aisles: meat; fish; bread; cheese; wine; pressed juice; Korean; Mediterranean; the still-ubiquitous cupcakes... We decided to eat our way and commenced with a stop at the juice bar, Goshen (I had a fabulous carrot-ginger-lemon concoction), before detouring through a fun housewares store, Salt & Sundry, where I bought the best item: a travel tin of Maldon finishing salt. After I waxed rhapsodic about Maldon, M bought one too. Isn't this charming?!

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Then it was on to Rappahannock Oysters Co, yes! the same as that at the farmers market where I bought the clams last Sunday, where we chowed. Raw oysters, red snapper tartare with sorrel juice, crispy chives and some fabulous citrusy business, and a beautiful white gazpacho with cucumber, grapes and Marcona almonds. It was absolutely delicious, and the plating was top-notch. Doesn't this all look incredible? It was.

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We also did an olive oil tasting at All Things Olive; there I bought a bottle of Frantoia oil from California. It's got an intense peppery aftertaste that made me cough in such a delightful fashion. I used it atop some mozzarella di bufala tonight for a super-caprese: perfetto! Fresh bread was bought at Lyon Bakery (and seriously enjoyed tonight), Turkish Delight and ful medames at DC Mediterranean and finally we ambled towards M's car.

Can you believe the two days of cool experiences I've just had? Thank you to my wonderful friends.

With today's goodies, I made and we just devoured this magnificent salad plus the ful.

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Happy Birthday to moi

I have felt awash in friends and love today; boy am I lucky. After my little ones wished me a lovingly loud Happy Birthday as I ascended the basement stairs and I dropped them at school, I had coffee with a friend and his precious baby daughter (got a nice baby holding fix there!), worked out, received a call from another friend who sang to me, came home and opened some cards, heard from my parents and sister + more friends, was taken to Dumbarton Oaks for a private tour with two pals, then to lunch at Blue Duck with said marvelous pals, picked up the kiddos, made whipped cream-mascarpone frosting for the strawberry cake and cupcakes I made yesterday and am now in repose with a glass of pink champagne. Thank you so much, to everyone, for the happy wishes! I appreciate your thoughtfulness more than you know. Photographic evidence of today's beautiful (though cold) bounty (on principle, I refused to wear socks and was vaguely sorry to have done so):

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Blue Duck was without the Brussels sprouts but I'll let it go because they still had the grits on menu. Our food overall had some misses -lemon ice box cake, deconstructed? sometimes you just want a hunk of cake, you know? when we ordered it, we were unaware of the deconstructed element- but also some serious highs; wow on the cracked spelt salad with roasted grapes and Meyer lemon, and the three of us felt positively giddy to be "ladies who were lunching", hair brushed and all!

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