Despite the chilly rain, a peony

Although we've been saddled with some seriously craptastic weather, this peony (the one I'll get from this bush) emerged triumphant. Because it's supposed to keep on raining and I didn't want this beauty to be ruined, I cut it early and hope it will still bloom winningly on my sill. Gorgeous, gorgeous! A sure sign of some bit of spring.

Monday: manic, meatless, monsoon'y, muscular

This morning I chaperoned Ol's class field trip to a local recycling center. One of his very best buddies rode with us, and darn are those little boys precious. I find the recycling center totally cool, so you can imagine how most of the kiddos felt. A front loader here, a giant conveyor belt there. Rain be damned, the field trip was awesome. Hours later I hurried home to cook dinner for my sweet nonagenarians, then delivered it, picked Jack up, made 2+ dozen miniature collard green hand-pies and later scurried to the gym for a session with my trainer. It was awesome but for a full 45 minutes afterwards, I was on the verge of puke. Back home to prep and construct a magnificent MM (meatless Monday) dinner salad: dandelion greens slicked with an orange-pomegranate molasses-sherry vinegar dressing (because T thinks the dandelions are too bitter so to offset that, I made this sweet'ish dressing; dandelion greens are so good and so good for you; it worked); roast carrots; fresh chevre; candied walnuts; the fresh peas that I shelled yesterday; tomatoes; challah croutons; and some endive and chives. Bellissima! Perfetto!

There was a slight mishap while candying the walnuts. It seems I didn't beat the egg white until quite foamy enough and, as such, some of the nuts looked both candied and scrambled. Revolting. Those went into the trash; the fittest made it into the salad. Kitchen oops! No worries.

The greens of spring

I am beat. And also a touch hungover from having a bit too much fun at J's school auction last night. Oops. So, I'm off to bed but would just like to sing the praises of spring produce one last time. Freshly shelled peas -I love to shell peas; it makes me think of generations of a family's women sitting round a table shelling together, the ping of the legumes dropped in one bowl, the shuk of denuded pods tossed in another, the happy chatter of the ladies- and baby zucchini and pea vines and blossoms everywhere. It's easy to eat simply and well this time of year, and for that, I am grateful (I am not grateful that it remains so chilly here but that's a different story).