Racing the Bacon

I really don't know how, after four years of high-pressure days in the kitchen, I still plan a brunch menu that just kicks me back! I make whatever I want to make, all the time! Sunday though, dazzles somehow and I get starry-eyed as I run recipes and combinations of food through my head...and completely forget that I'm alone in the kitchen!

Yesterday was the worst Sunday of all. Every part of the plate was some fussy beautiful thing that came with some kind of sauce or had to be baked or fried, served hot or covered with plastic wrap between servings to prevent a surface film...sheeesh. The puffs with carmelized lavender pear sauce turned out to be the easiest preparation of the day. The rest...ratatouille, zucchini fritters with Greek yogurt, the homemade strawberry jam that I wanted to serve warm, the bacon leek risotto with poached egg...were pure kitchen gymnastics.

Bacon takes too long to crisp if you need it done. I know this from frantic past experience, so I chopped it and started it up on the stove. The leeks, wine, broth would all follow to make the risotto. As I chopped the leeks, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, pears, garlic, strawberries, dill, feta, parsley...for Pete's-sake...the bacon just stayed limp and pale. I kept chopping and watching, and getting more panic-stricken. With an hour to go, and the circus of four different recipes going at once...the bacon started to brown. And then as I was too deep into the other pots, it started to crisp like crazy! I couldn't stop what I was doing, and I had to get the leeks and wine in so that the risotto could start. I FLEW through the chopping and stirring; sweating, gritting my teeth, willing my heart to stop throbbing. So, FIVE recipes at once, and all selfishly demanding of my complete attention!

I've always been pretty good at keeping up. My kids still do keep me on my multi-tasking toes, and now Harrison and Carter are doing the same. Carter calls me "an athletic old person," and I dropped Harrison at school last week with his Medieval castle model that took us two weeks of intense labor...when I picked him up that afternoon, he told me that he needed a monk costume and rabbit stew for 40...in the morning! Eeek. I've still got it, though! I got it done!

But, yesterday morning, racing that bacon...sure made me think of hanging it up and retiring to a rocking chair! Till next Sunday...

Happy Spring!

I love to collect fall leaves and keep them, all moist and cold, in an old cake pan on the sideboard. They slowly dry, but keep their brilliant colors and remind me, in the warm house, of the wildness just outside our dining room window. The wind strips the crabapples of their bright red leaves, and we see then, tiny ruby crabapples on the gray, bare branches. Birds fill the trees while the crabapples are still fresh and we love to see them rioting and giddy!

Today though, despite a forecast for snow on Sunday (it figures, we're going to the ballgame!), the crabapples are covered in magenta blossoms and people are dining on the patio in the sun. The air is champagne, with a gentle breeze of pine and lilac. I'm enchanted again to realize that this large city is filled with the perfume of lilac! Large bushes that are plain and green all year long, have exploded with pink and purple and white blossoms! Their secret glory will last a short time but we are blessed as they transform this valley into paradise!

Today, I slid my fall leaves into the trash and felt only the slightest pang. I LOVE the fall and winter, the potatoes and shallots, the snow and rain blowing sideways! The kids marching out the door suited up for a day of skiing and hot chocolate, rosy faces and bitter fingers, brie and salami, pears and tangerines! I would miss my leaves so much more if I had had to part with them even a month ago! Now though, I've got mountains of strawberries in the refrigerator and the promise of watermelon and corn and cherries! The tulips are blooming and wheee! Spring is here!

Jane Eyre and the Royal Wedding

As springtime is peeking out every few days from the cold, we're welcoming the change of pace. But before Mother's Day---the big signal for spring/summer---we've had a few special cafe dinners. One was an enchanting roasted Cornish hen dinner, with the roasted potatoes and dense brown bread that Jane Eyre dreams of, gruel! asparagus and mushrooms, dark English beer and berry trifle. We then set off to see "Jane Eyre" at the movie theater...it rained later that evening, nodding a final touch that I could not have arranged!

Our other special dinner, was a royal wedding dinner. Ladies wore tiaras and one woman wore the lovely lace skirt and tunic that was worn for her wedding! Gentlemen were similarly, and nattily attired.

People made reservations for their little groups, but I decided to seat everyone at a long table. I considered that some may feel weird sitting two by two with tiaras on! I placed ivy down the center of the table and tucked in the symbolic flowers that were represented on the wedding cake---thistles for Scotland, roses for England, Sweet William, and lilies of the valley for Ireland. I could hear the party laughing together, all the way into the kitchen!

I served plates of canapes to echo the tone of the wedding breakfast following William and Kate's big do at Westminster---smoked salmon and dill on toast with caper mayonnaise, sausage rolls (holysmoke, I'll make these again!), quail eggs with celery salt, strawberries with clotted cream, and shepherd's pie for the main course. We toasted with champagne, ate a big fat wedding cake decorated with peanut butter acorns, and shared our love stories! People lingered and then faded, happy, into the night. Ever so much fun!