Chicken with capgaregano, playhouse

We worked for nearly 5 hours today, and it felt so good. T and I are a good team and had fun. It's nice when you can have fun with someone even though you're not talking much! The playhouse is coming along swimmingly, and now has walls, a door, porch railings and the gabled parts of the roof. We'll finish it up tomorrow. Look how dear!

This hot summer has massacred our grass, but c'est la vie.

Starving now, I'm cooking a big dinner of chicken with capers, garlic and oregano (capgaregano) and lemon couscous. I also opened a bottle of rosé, the Petit Bourgeois 2011. It's reasonably priced, and we visited the vineyard when we were in the Loire back in 2005 so it brings back memories. It was a wonderful trip and the vineyard, Henri Bourgeois, was incredible. We tasted a boatload of wines, left tipsy and then came across a tiny bakery-type of place where Tom ordered a sandwich that consisted of an entire crottin de Chavignol (a perfect, mind-blowing goat cheese, made even more delicious that we were in the town of Chavignol) lightly breaded, warmed and mashed between two thick slices of scrumptious baguette. Oh.My.God. At that point, Tom agreed with me that French food and France were absolutely amazing, by and large.

It's raining worms; ricotta

In order to maximize enjoyment of the figs I poached yesterday, I am now making some ricotta. I cannot wait. People, I slept so long this morning that I didn't make it to my Pilates class. While I was sorry to miss it and my two favorite lady-pals there, it was, nonetheless, remarkable to just sleep and sleep some more. When I was finally up and at 'em, I mozied outside where T was installing the last plank in the foundation for the playhouse. My garden really needed an overhaul so I retrieved my pitchfork from the depths of the garage and went.to.town. We've got this grand sugar maple out back, and really, it is a gem. It must be at least 60 years old because it towers over our house and in the fall turns neon yellow for about a week. It is beyond glorious but raking the leaves it then drops is really a long-term commitment. In any case, I love that tree but its roots can be hard to deal with. They've grown tentacle-like all throughout the yard, popping up to the surface every now and again just to mess with you and establishing quite a web underground. The pitchfork comes in handy!

Once the gardens were turned, I headed to the compost pile. I've neglected it for a while so decided to get out the sieve and see how much black gold could be harvested. A lot! I forked and shoveled and sieved, and worms were flying everywhere. I love the worms and take great care never to injure even one. You can imagine this really elongates the amount of time any one task takes, but I don't mind. They are so industrious and helpful, so I give them a wide berth. If you have any room, consider starting a compost pit. It takes absolutely no energy to do so. Simply start throwing your fruit and veggie scraps, coffee grinds, eggshells, some leaves and yard clippings and occasionally, some newspaper shreds, and you're set. Toss with a pitchfork on occasion, if you don't get a lot of rain, water the pile sometimes. Get a sieve so you can utilize what's ready and toss back what's not. Between composting and recycling, you'll be amazed by how much less you're throwing in the regular garbage. Awesome.

I am getting a massage in an hour, friends. Wonderful foresight to have scheduled this if I say so myself! Off to strain the ricotta!

Scrumptious dinner

Farmers who don't just sit around profiting from the Farm Bill deserve a lot of credit for hard work. Tom and I worked our tails off outside for several hours today digging, leveling and perfecting the foundation for the playhouse we're building for the boys. And we are sooo tired. And we haven't even started constructing the thing. Which is a 7x9 cozy cabin. With four window-boxes. Mon dieu.

But all good and all fun. And we were rewarded with a fabulous dinner. Potatoes Anna a la Nora Ephron, and beef filets with creamed chard and red wine and shallot sauce a la Florence Fabricant. Fabulous, delicious, the longest two recipes I feel I've ever freaking made. Why do I not read through them first?! Nora asks you to dry each 1/16" round of potato with a paper towel, one at a time. Florence asks so very much too. Regardless, both made for a delicious dinner, and I feel happy to be invoking Nora tonight post-Heartburn.

I also opened for us a fabulous bottle of 2008 Hall Cabernet Franc. I love Cab Franc. It is so under-rated!