Last night's pizza/wine/Bill

Such a nice evening. We opened a 2003 Renatto Ratti Barolo and enjoyed this lovely pizza.

Not a great picture, but it was super fresh and tasty. And Bill Maher did not disappoint. Who knew Christina Romer was such a hoot? As is Anthony Bourdain- he can and does say any/everything but isn't off-putting in the least.

I realized that EVOO might be one of those foodie shorthands so wanted to say that it's Extra Virgin Olive Oil. My apologies if ever I seemed cryptic.

At present, Jack is writing a Police Words Book, A - Z. A is arrest, B is baton, C is cars...He writes the letter, word and a descriptive sentence. It's awesome. Love the sounding-out spelling.

Jack makes a darn good dip!

I just love it. Jack declared that he wanted to make something yummy for dinner, a white bean-avocado dip. What a delicious idea. So he got his apron, opened a can of white beans, I cubed an avocado, he ran outside, picked some mint, threw it in, ground some salt and pepper (I'm not kidding y'all, he did all this), I poured in some EVOO, we added some cumin and red pepper, he juiced a lemon and then blended everything together. At the end, he said, let's add a few grape tomatoes. I'm telling you the truth- it's good, and I'm pretty psyched about his culinary creativity and courage. What fun. He's happily eating it all right now. Check this out:

Today's farmers market

Jack turned down my offer of a farmers market date this morning but did request a muffin be brought home; Oliver however was enthusiastic about coming with me, so we headed out. Upon reaching the tomato table at one of our favorite stalls, O exclaimed, "look at those silly (pron: see-uh-lee) tomatoes, Mom." Heh. So we bought a bunch of these pretties. Also got a huge haul of peaches for more jam, some cucumbers and beets for pickling, the muffins and so forth. We walked around for a long while and then I was told that it was time to go, we must go to the other market for lemonade. Indeed. Tonight will be pizza, wine and Bill Maher night, and I'm looking forward to it all.