Crabvocado towers for lunch

Not bad, not bad. I just made this recipe up and while it needs some tweaking, it's definitely got potential. I needed to use up a gorgeous pound of lump crabmeat I'd bought for father's day but not used, and I wanted a delicate base on which to showcase it. Here in the kitch I had some spring onions, fennel, avocados and a couple Yukon gold potatoes. What about a chilled stack of some blend of those items with crab salad as the pinnacle? I steamed the potatoes, then chilled and sliced them into thin rounds. I sliced the avocado in the same manner -minus the chilling- and mandolined a Gold Rush apple for a sweet crunch. I stacked those in alternating layers and then topped them with chilled crab salad; this I'd made by sauteing diced spring onions and fennel in butter, Dijon, salt and a little white wine. For the final touch, I made a mayo-Dijon-whey sauce which I drizzled over the towers and then the whole thing got dusted with fennel fronds. I say this was a pretty good lunch for a random Tuesday. And almost best of all, I had one piece of plum tart left for the finale. Aah!

A few things

Busy but extremely productive catch-up day. Kids to camp, house cleaned, errands run, photography class completed. Aah. T is heading to Germany in the morning, so dinner tomorrow night will be a solo affair, and I plan to make something yummy! In the meantime, I really must encourage you to make Amanda Hesser's plum tart. I subbed pluots as they're in season RIGHT NOW and was thrilled. Mascarpone-whipped cream makes a fabulous accompaniment.

Second, did you read either/both of these articles? One is very moving, one really disheartening about the (failed?) state of morality in American society today. The first was the Modern Love essay in the Sunday Styles section of yesterday's NYTimes. It was a lovely, dear piece by a father about his son. The second was Maureen Dowd's Op-Ed about the perilous state of our character and morals, viewed through the lens of the grotesque accusations/truths coming to light in the Sandusky case as well as those from Horace Mann and others.