Onigiri with salmon

Onigiri is a Japanese word that simply means rice ball, generally one stuffed with a filling of something like salted salmon or umeboshi (pickled plum) and then wrapped in nori (seaweed sheets) and eaten as a snack. You can shape the rice into more fanciful shapes than a sphere, but if you want to keep things easy, a ball or disk is the way to go. Jack and Ol are watching a movie right now, so I made pancakes of rice, placed roasted salmon (the salted salmon is still marinating) between them and wrapped the whole shebang in a half-sheet of nori. They are thrilled and eating like pigs. SO healthy and such a nice change of pace for moi!

Chaia DC taco lunch, palmiers & eclairs too

Per the usual, Ol and I went to the farmers market this morning. His plan was to hit Bonaparte in search of eclairs and/or raspberry palmiers and then, if neither were available, make our way to Pleasant Pops for a chongos popsicle. Last resort should that be a strike-out was to finish the marshmallow/gum drop creation Jack made yesterday at Spring Fest, despite the fact that it languished in the car overnight and had been held by at least four different pairs of hands before that. I felt options A, B and C were far superior, but Ol seemed thrilled by any that came about. In luck, we found both eclairs AND palmiers so, naturally, bought both. While Mr. ate his palmier, I took a bit of the eclair, walked him by EcoFriendly Foods for ham hocks and tasso (red beans & rice a'coming), then down a few stalls for baby beets and some lovely carrots (by then Ol had finished the palmier so switched to a carrot) and finally down to Chaia for a taco plate for my lunch.

We sat down in the grass to sup and then felt it was such a beautiful day that we'd best finish that eclair while relaxing. Very, very satisfying.

Grilled swordfish, last night's risotto (better!), a pie for two

This afternoon was a beautiful one, and we spent a while at the boys' school's Spring Festival. We all enjoyed seeing so many friends, and Jack even gave me a tour of "the ditch" in which he and one of his good buddies spend many a recess "excavating quartz" and generally making life miserable for all the ants they encounter. The "ditch" is really just the downward slope of the grassy edge around the playground. It's up to a few feet deep in spots and full of fabulous tree roots; I can see why they enjoy it, and our hand-in-hand tour made me smile. Once home, we caught the Kentucky Derby -is the horse not a most magnificent creature? Stunning, elegant, all muscle, grace on legs! Go California Chrome- read a book (Lost & Found by Oliver Jeffers; have you read it? It's beyond dear.) and put the very tired sweeties in bed.

When J and I were at the store earlier today, the fish department had a huge swordfish from which they were slicing fresh chunks. I picked up a pound which T cubed, marinated and made into kabobs which he then grilled. We served those alongside last night's risotto which, once rewarmed, was much improved, really to my surprise. You don't often hear of risotto that gets better with age! Of course I made a damn kale salad. Friend C recently told me I was sure to become a large head of kale one day; coming from Ms. almost-Vegan (she is one of my best friends but I think even she, as an almost-vegan) doesn't eat near the amount of kale I do), I took this as a real sign of just how public my ardor for kale is. ;)

I'd also gotten a small strawberry-rhubarb pie into the oven and it emerged just before we sat down to eat, meaning that when dessert time came, our little pie was cooled to the perfect degree of warmth and quite ready to be devoured. I bought this pie plate when I cooked for the Grands and thought wistfully of them tonight when I used it. I'll have to pay a visit very soon!