Cirque du Soleil Kurios

Today I took the boys to Cirque du Soleil's Kurios show which is under a blue- and yellow-striped big top in Tyson's Corner, VA. The tickets seemed a touch pricey, but boy were they worth every penny: I really feel we got more than we paid for.

I haven't enjoyed a performance this much in some time. Frankly, I liked it much better than The Book of Mormon (on Broadway, and relative to those tickets, Cirque was a bargain), and the boys were awestruck.

Trampolines, contortionists, a juggler, incredible sets and props, Olympics-worthy athletes, hella good musicians (seriously, I almost bought the soundtrack), and the most amazing yo-yo guy I've ever seen made for a really fun two hours.

The kids got invited to walk through backstage and then over the bridge on stage before the show started, and because they needed an adult accompaniment, I got to go too!

Everyone associated with the show was a consummate professional and extremely friendly. Truly, it couldn't have been a cooler afternoon. 

Kurios, Cabinet of Curiosities, runs through September 18, and I enthusiastically suggest you get tickets and go if you can. You can even get a fetching pair of aviator goggles if you so desire. Jack and I chose the puzzle, natch.

Hours of cooking, beautiful food, misc

I tell you, spending hours picking fruit will surely keep you accountable in terms of not letting it go to waste! It's a race against time when you have fresh produce ripening in real time, and when you go slightly overboard with poundage schlepped home, well, get your cooking hands ready!

I was too slow for about a sixth of my blackberries, but the rest are safely frozen, jammed, or pied, and today I finished the raspberries. Lots of straight-up raspberry jam and also some raspberry-Grand Marnier. I'll be honest, y'all, while Grand Marnier is a heavenly substance, the plain old raspberry jam just can't be beat. I'm glad I made a majority of that.

I'm about half-through the peaches -which are scrumptious by the way- and have so far brandied seven pints and made a gorgeous pie. I'll deal with the rest tomorrow.

Also, tomatoes. Y'all know how I feel about summer's star. It's true love. This evening I made this caramelized tomato tarte tatin with slow-roasted Romas, caramelized onions, and puff pastry. It's like summer thinking of sliding into fall via cast iron pan. 

Tonight was a tough'ish night of parenting, and I was glad to have two episodes of The Americans to settle into when finally the boys' bedtime came. It is such a good show- Matthew Rhys and Keri Russel have delicious chemistry, and Frank Langella...Oh how I adore him. What an actor. 

Tomorrow I'm taking the boys to see Cirque du Soleil. Have y'all seen one of their performances? I never have and am looking forward to it!

Fruit picking 2016, Wondy?

Yesterday marked my annual outing to Larriland Farm to pick my body weight in fruit. You might recall my original case for thorns and/or my overzealous death by fruit of previous years. Both memorable and delightful; yesterday was no different.

Isn't my Jack a handsome boy?

We brought along our dear neighbor, Jane, and picked peaches, blackberries, beets and raspberries with various degrees of abandon. Last night I froze twenty cups of blackberries and made one pie and four pints of jam (just two ingredients! blackberries and sugar!). Today, I taught Jane how to can and then put up several pints of raspberry jam (just three ingredients! raspberries, sugar, and lemon juice) myself. 

picked and quickly frozen blackberries- beautiful!

Tomorrow I plan to finish dealing with the berries and pray that the peaches don't ripen until Friday. 

Tonight, as soon as Tom walked in, I retreated to the bath. Where I found this.

Is that Wonder Woman? In a rugby hat? With a mean face? What the heck? #summerstillgoing