What-Day-Is-It-Wednesday?

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I can't recall all I've done today but it was productive, fun, crazy and wow. I did get my first haircut in nearly eight months and that was exciting. Market, exercise, gymnastics, carpool, dog walk, yada, yada... I then remembered that tomorrow is the annual grade-wide Mom's Cocktail Party that I and a few pals have hosted each year since Jack was in PK. Uh, Em, you better get cooking. Shite. Lemon-ricotta bars now made. Brownies done. I need to start in on the Brussels sprouts slaw but am entirely too tired to do so. And 40 kofta sliders? Hilarious. Shite again. Tomorrow will be busy, not least because I've not yet bought the beef for the sliders and am library mom.

In the meantime, my dear T has been pretty weary of late so tonight when he arrived home, I sent him to the bath with a glass of Bourbon splashed with an ice sphere. In the meantime, I made a truly scrumptious dinner; T said it was a top-5-ever meal. Creamed kale with garlicky breadcrumbs, caramelized shallots with toasted baguette, and fabulous Piedmontese filets rubbed with my super-duper steak rub and done on the stovetop in the Lodge. Amazing.

creamed kale with garlicky breadcrumbs

 

super-duper-steak-rubbed filet

 

caramelized shallots

Have you heard of the documentary opening on March 1, A Place at the Table, about hunger in America? It sounds like it's going to be extremely powerful and, hopefully, a legislative game changer.

Tabasco's McIlhenny

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R.I.P. Mr. McIlhenny (Paul Carr Polk). The McIlhenny family invented Tabasco sauce after the Civil War and ran the business from Avery Island, LA, one of the five salt dome islands in south central Louisiana, between Lafayette and the Gulf. We took a field trip there once, and before you even entered the building, the acrid, tangy smell of the fermenting pepper mash made you gasp. Involuntarily, your eyes began to weep. But there's nothing quite like it (though admittedly I only like the original red sauce; T likes the green one), and one of the items I most wanted when I got married was a filigreed silver Tabasco bottle holder for my table. I still love and use it.