Holy shopping

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Oh.My.God. This will sound pretty shallow, but I just had a thrilling shopping experience. Really. It was beyond. I was being assisted by a fashionable blast of a man, Prince, and then met up with a stunning mother of three from Colombia. Have three strangers ever had more fun?! I've mentioned before, although in daily life it'd be hard for y'all to believe, that I love/adore/am smitten with beautiful clothes and shoes. It always feels so dissonant to me, this passion, because I am most of the time gardening and composting in sweatpants (stylish ones I tell myself), looking for deals (I love coupons), cooking like a maniac, mom'ing to the max and trying to figure out how to fix climate change, poverty and the lack of rights some women have.

But other times, it feels really good to do something just for you, to put on make-up and a nice dress, banish the ponytail for a day, wear heels. For me at least, it reminds me of the woman who's still in the comfort and spill-proof bedecked clothes, reminds me that age is so much more than a number, and that feeling pretty isn't anything to denigrate.

Salmon burgers, poached tuna salad dinner

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Have I mentioned that it is sometimes quite nice to have an afternoon babysitter? I picked J up from theater, went to the gym and made a batch of salmon burgers and a beautiful dinner (unfortunately prettier than it was flavorful but ah well); hell, I even showered and did my hair. What a day! First, the salmon burgers. Is this freshly ground salmon not gorgeous? And the spinach! You can just see the healthfulness oozing everywhere. I didn't have plain feta, but I did have the Mediterranean feta salsa I sometimes rave about. So why not? Into the mix it went, and I made 5 regular-sized burgers and 1 mini one.

Concurrently, I got to work on this very simple dinner salad from food52. As y'all might know, I love tuna and white bean salads so thought this would be a nice variation on the one I usually make.

You cook these little potatoes and white beans, blanch the green beans and poach the tuna in olive oil, thyme and garlic. Then you toss everything together (and I added tomatoes) and serve with some sherry vinegar. I bought a gorgeous loaf of harvest bread and that + goat cheese was a lovely accompaniment to the salad.

Ultimately, truth be told, the salad I make is more flavorful than was this one, but ah well. Always nice to try new methods and recipes, and this salad is much prettier than mine.