Yummy lobster dinner shouts out to France

Y'all, this was a hell of a dinner. I diced some shallots and cooked them in butter with thyme and a garlic clove, deglazed with cognac and added chopped shitakes. Then I added the chopped lobster and served the finished dish in these shells. The Brussels sprouts salad was as amazing as ever, and I had to put the rest in the fridge to stop eating it. We opened a bottle of Pascal Jolivet Rosé, and I served some toasted harvest bread with fresh goat cheese and my quince-persimmon-ginger jam. Delish!!!  People, I might have overextended today. After my loony crayon sorting hour, mystery reading and so forth, I gardened for quite a while and also ran a personal 5K. Friday afternoon babysitters are the best, but I probably should have taken it a teensy bit slower today. Ah well.

No mystery

Despite the fact that I thought I'd transformed myself into a pink-bedecked Gael Greene, about half of Jack's class knew who I was immediately. Ah well, like I said, they're smart. DC-area folks, if you need any perennials, shrubs or bushes, American Plant nursery has them all 40% off starting today!

Mystery reader and mini-muffins

Don't y'all think there is something satisfying about mini-muffins? They are cute, a nice snack, perky. I like them and made these for Jack's class. Today I am the Mystery Reader which means I dress up in a costume (y'all know how I feel about costumes -I don't- so this is really a show of love) of sorts, knock three times on their classroom door and then enter. They get to try and guess who you are, and then you read to them. I love it, can't wait! I wanted to read The Amazing Bone but there is a scene with robbers who have pistols and knives and I really didn't feel that a Quaker school would groove on that (understandable). So, I continued on the Wm Steig route and chose Dr. DeSoto. My secondary book is Till The Cows Come Home, a new cowboy book of Jack's. Anyway, I really didn't know quite where to go with the costume thing (my big costume in college was Night- I dressed in black and drew a star on my face. Have you ever heard of anything so lame? My guy friends dressed as cheerleaders from Chabad House which was absolutely hysterical and really put me to shame.) so asked my sitter who's coming to watch Ol if she had a funny hat. She said she had a big, pink, floppy one so I'm going to pair that with large sunglasses and an enormous pink pashmina. I'm just wearing jeans and a denim shirt so nothing is too identifying and will try to pull off The Pink Lady with gusto.

I'm not sure anyone will be fooled. Those little 5 year olds are smart!