Rishia Zimmern sent me this picture today of Noah, titled, Takes After His Dad. Indeed! I laughed out loud, it's so damn cute. Andrew doesn't wear diapers though... Especially while he's away in Spain and Morocco filming the first segment of his new Travel Channel series, Bizarre Foods. You may have caught the pilot, shot in Asia, which has been running on the Travel Channel for more than a year now. He just took off last week, not sure of his return date, but he's sending update emails logging the various "tasties" he consumes. I put tasties in quotes because his last entry he signed off in search of bull's balls. Ack. He's sampling plenty of more appetizing foods as well, in fact, it all sounds pretty incredible. I'll keep you posted when he sends his next...

I had the loveliest salad for lunch - chopped endive, chicory, arugula, spinach, scallion, basil, tossed with a little olive oil, red wine vinegar, sea salt, and pepper. And topped with an over-easy egg, of course. Damn, it was good. I'm making the salad again tonight, but with warm bacon balsamic dressing. To go with roasted chicken drummies (John and I had a misunderstanding this weekend about what drumsticks are - he thought I meant the winglet/drummies, so I made a whole batch of the real deal sorta for nothing, oh well). And a crispy baguette (which I have to admit I stole a bit of to make a few yummy croutons for my lunch salad) that I think I'll brush with oil, sprinkle with coarse salt, and throw on the grill. Perhaps I'll give that strawberry shortcake another try as well (after our disastrous Memorial Day). It sure is a strawberry shortcake kind of day - warm, dry, sunny, fragrant. Boooootiful. We'll try eating, instead of fighting, on the deck tonight...

And Happy 48th Anniversary to my fabulous in-laws, John and Dot (pictured here, a few years ago, in EH)!!

Memorial Day. Does one say Happy Memorial Day? It sounds wrong, on a day meant for reflection and honoring those who've passed before us. Today I'll think about my Grandma and Grandpa Meyer (that's my grandma, holding baby me), who meant the world to me. I miss them very, very much. And Andrew Cohen, John's dear friend. And John's beloved Nanny. And the babies I lost in two miscarriages. None of their graves are near us, to visit or put flowers upon. But I'll look at pictures, and tell stories (which is easy for me, since I do these things all the time anyhow), and think about them all and how much I miss them.

Today we're staying home, just John, Nathan, A, and me, which is how we spent the day yesterday, too. We don't get that many days of the four of us here together, so it's been nice. I absolutely crashed last night, sleeping soundly well before 10 p.m. John and Nathan hung out together watching basketball and Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young concert DVDs (that's what they love to do together). I don't even know what time they came to bed! It's blistering hot again, and very humid, so we're absolutely swimming all day. Burgers (again, for me, but that's OK, I can eat a burger two days in a row...), and leftover grilled chicken and pasta with pesto. Strawberries. Hmmm...perhaps I'll make a little shortcake to go with them. That sounds lovely. Summer food. Hot, humid day food. Family food. Just how it's supposed to be.

Oh. Boy. Well, none of those pretty plans panned out, ha. Nathan had a burger, but he's the only one. I didn't get very far in burger cooking as John and I had the argument of the century. Big. Loud. Inside. Ouside. Yuck. Sigh. So it goes, in blended families. Often good, sometimes, highly stressful and not so great at all, in fact, downright crappy. I turned the burger into meat sauce for dinner tonight - the anti-barbecue, as it were. I was suddenly WAY over the burger idea. Well, hopefully you had a better Memorial Day, better barbecue, and better family interactions! It couldn't have been a better day, weather-wise. And we did put in some lovely time in the pool - turns out the pool is a good way to cool down in more ways than one. Hmmm...something to ponder... Well, they can't all be good days. Shiiiiit.

Burger and beer for lunch, yeah baby! Now I'm headin' out to the pool, to cool off on this hot, hot, hot day, whew. Now THIS is how Memorial Day weekend is supposed to be - woo hoo!

Wow, lots of sun today, hopefully not too much. The sun and I haven't been so friendly in the last decade or more. I get a nasty, itchy sunrash if I'm even a titch over-exposed. I swam - alot, I figured this was the most pleasant way I could imagine to get some exercise - and then sat in the shade to try to avoid frying. But it is 97 degrees out there, my friends, 97 degrees, with not a cloud in the sky. It's 6:30 p.m. now, the worst of the UV threat has passed, but whew, it's smokin' out there, and I have yet to fire up the grill. Again. As I said, I grilled a burger for lunch. With potatoes that I grilled in foil packets - delicious and so easy, so I posted the recipe (in comments, below). I've marinated chicken legs and wings in a mustard-tarragon-garlic-honey marinade all day, with the goal of tossing them on the grill for din. Here's the problem - I'm not sure anyone's really very hungry! Including me. I may save it for tomorrow, grill it with the rest of the hamburger (no one had a burger but me - they chose hot dogs, and you know, I can see it. A grilled hot dog, on a 97-degree day, by the pool, does not suck.) So! We may make our way, dinner-less, to an early bedtime. Sometimes that happens on a hot day. Hope you enjoyed yours...

Surprise! A bit of hunger appeared around 8 p.m., so I did grill the chicken and make pasta with pesto (bought the pesto, quite tasty). Lots leftover for tomorrow...

Glorious day! I had my first official swim in the pool and it was...lovely. So lovely. Two diapers had their first swims too, on the bottoms of babies Cooper and Noah. The 'rents - Stacey, Bowen, and Rishia - all had their official first swims too! No diapers on them though... Cooper loved the water, so did Noah, it was baby heaven out there. A and two girlfriends floated and chatted and giggled for a few hours. Then a newly shorn Nathan came home and jumped in too. Eventually the girls left, and then Stace, and Bowen, and Rishia and Noah, and in the end it was John, Nathan, and me eating grilled steaks, grilled bread, sauteed mushrooms and onions, and Byerly's potato salad, on the deck, ahhh. Nothing fancy, just good summer food. We had a big salad for lunch, with chicken, avocado, corn, onions, tomatoes, cheddar, and crushed tortilla chips, tossed with a citrus vinaigrette. Delish, definitely hit the spot, and powered us through our afternoon of swimming. All in all, a moderate epicurean's perfect day. I am wiped, heading for bed, and ready to start it all over again tomorrow...

We will not be huddling outside, freezing our Minnesota asses off, this Memorial Day weekend, no sir. It's gonna be a hot one, smokin' hot, and sultry too (my hair HATES humidity, oh well). I'm running over to the store without a specific plan, to pick up steaks, chicken, burgers, buns, chips, fruit, salads, beer. Then we can wing it and grill whatever the heck we're in the mood for - yes! The kids will swim, I'm going to read and read, John's coming home early today. Should be a really nice weekend. Hope you have plans for a relaxing weekend as well.

That's a Pilsner Urquell in my hand, but it turns out it's more of a Killian's Red kind of night. I have had so much fun today - I received yet another load of oldies but goodies to sort through. More darling baby clothes, yes, but also a goldmine box of memorabilia from high school. Red River High School, Grand Forks, ND, go Rough Riders, woo hoo! Class of 1985, ahhhh, good times. Seriously. Really, really good times. I'm having the most fun going through the Schroeder Jr. High stuff, actually. Schroeder Raiders (rhymes, btw). Because my 'rents were divorced, I spent my summers in Lakefield, MN, with my dad and stepmom Susanna. Lots of way-pre-email-IM letter writing from my friends Stephanie and Kim, and they are priceless letters. My stepdaughter was reading through them tonight, and through what people wrote in my yearbooks, and totally cracking up. John's vote for best pic is of my Schroeder Jr. High cheerleading pic, I'm at the base of a pyramid (second from right), with my legs up and butt showing. I was horrified - in that OMG, I want to die kind of way - by that picture, I couldn't believe the photog didn't point out that my 15-year old butt was hanging out, what a jerk. Hilarious now, though, you know, 24 years later. Ack... My fav is this picture of me, Kim, and Stephanie, at Kim's confirmation. Spring of 9th grade. Steph and I were 15, Kim only 14, oh, we were babies. We've been friends for a looooong time, girls. I'm so lucky. It's fabulous.

Indulge my nostalgia with one last pic, Cami and me, drunk at some godawful Gamma Phi Beta party in Madtown, fall of 1986, the year I became a blonde. I was a bottle-blonde for, let's see, I guess only two years of my life. Is that it? Sheesh, it certainly seemed longer, I thought it sort of defined my whole Madison experience, but no. Lurved my blonde hair. Looks like h-e-double-hockey-sticks when I look at it now, what on Earth was I thinking? My Kelly McGillis-Top Gun look, hahahaha. Nice shoulder pads. Again, ack. Ah, youth. I'm much less dramatic with my fake hair color these days... I drink alot less too, and you know, hang, with alot less guys, in fact, just one... It's nice. I'd rather be 39 than 19 any damn day. Except the skin doesn't look as good, courtesy of tanning beds (no!), miss that. Oh well...

Generous Grandpa Little League Sponsors

Laukka & Rempfer, woo hoo!

In uniform, woo hoo again! The grandpas of Tommy and TJ, two cuties on the team, got together to sponsor our team this year. The gramps are long-time friends and winter together in Florida, therefore our team name, the Laukka & Rempfer Floridians. Hilarious. Good game last night! We got rained on - of course - and the game ended in a tie after we had led for several innings. But Nathan had a couple of great hits, and good plays at first, and was on cloud nine at the end of the game. Very fun.

Stacey Pooh and Cooper Doo too, coming on over this afternoon! Yay! I gotta fly over to Byerly's to grab a few things, make a little lunch. Then Stace and I are going to look through seven (!) bags of Nathan baby clothes that Nathan's dad brought over from his house for Cooper last week. Seven bags! I don't remember him having so many clothes, but there they are. Should be REALLY fun to look through them, just peeking into the bags brings back so many memories. Sigh. My little Natie. My little 5'2" 10-year old Natie. Ha.

Oh, so fun going through those clothes! Awww. There are Baby David clothes in there too, my 25-year old half-brother! And they're in great shape. Adorable little outfits. I'm only disappointed that my very favorite Baby Nathan ladybug outfit wasn't in any of the bags! One bootie that went with it was...sort of taunting us. Darn. Cooper was all baby-scented wiggles and coos today - he handily rolls over at age almost-three months. Yeah. He has a six-pack stomach. He is going to be his mommy and daddy's son - all cuteness, all muscle, all action, all the time. It should be pretty hilarious and exhausting when he's oh, about 18 months old. Coop!

So for dinner tonight...I was planning on morels (Donna!) but they didn't arrive! I ordered them online, hmmm... I also bought a steak, for John, because he's just not a mushroom guy. But I only bought one. So, I may be having pasta again, or a salad, with perhaps a couple of bites of John's steak. Darn. I had my heart set on morels... Guess it'll be tomorrow, and that's OK. Friday. Morels. Good combo. I'll let you know...

(Here's a classic Cooper look, the furrowed brow, all business. He's looking at his mommy while she straps him into his car seat, like, no way are you restraining me in this damn thing again. Coop!)

OMG, this has nothing to do with food but is so goddamn funny that I have to put a link to it. John and I first saw it on a Saturday Night Live episode that featured animated TV Funhouse shorts by the hilarious and more than slightly twisted Robert Smigel. This one was my fav, The Smurfette Show. Premise: the Smurfs have gotten older and the smurfiest yet is Smurfette... It's raunchy and kinda sick, so please don't watch it if you're bound to be offended by an uber-white-trash Smurfette in a Hustler t-shirt. If you're not easily offended, are familiar with what The Smurfs show originally was, and want to hear one of the funniest voices ever (Smurfette's voice, I am now walking around purr-whining, I want pizza, cracking myself and John up), check it out.

In that white trash sort of vein, we are having hot dogs for dinner tonight. Not that hot dogs are white trash, I truly LOVE a good hot dog (oh, that sounds kinda naughty, well, I really do like hot dogs, as in the the food kind, ha). Hebrew National, all beef, all good. 'Kraut and spicy mustard for me. Or a chili dog with pickle relish and raw onions, oh my, that sounds damn good too. If I'm motivated, a toasted bun. With nothin' but potato chips, if anything at all. A beer would be nice, but we have a baseball game tonight, so perhaps a soda (I only like soda with a couple of things - a hot dog would be one of them). Perfect hot-day, in-a-hurry, baseball food. Yeah!

Whoa. I am toast. From...jumping rope! I've accepted a truth about myself - I hate gyms, exercise classes (except yoga classes), running, and competitive sports. I do, however, like to move around (walking, hiking, biking, dancing), just not for hours and hours per week, I get bored really fast. Enter Russian kettlebells, which I've written about before. Brief, intense, fun workout, in my own home. Love that. And I just added a jump rope to the mix. We'll see if it's actually fun - if not, I'll lose interest. But today it was fun. Because it was a major challenge - it turns out I have no clue how to effectively jump rope. When done correctly, you don't double-jump or let the jump rope hit the floor. Yeah. I'm not there yet. And I'm only jumping for a total of three minutes - yep, that's it, three minutes, but I feel OK about that, because 10 minutes of jumping rope is the same exertion as 30 minutes of jogging. I don't know that my goal is to jump rope for 10 minutes - that sounds pretty damn boring. I think the goal is to use it with KBs to keep things interesting, switch things up. And, I can toss it in a suitcase (that doesn't mean I will, but hey, it sounds good).

Here's a funny thing - the shrimp scampi is absolutely delicious today. Go figure, I like it much better cold than hot. In fact, now that I think of it, I do generally like cold shrimp more than hot, unless it's fried shrimp, of course. (Fried shrimp, ahhhhhh...) Weird! So perhaps I will post the recipe after all. I had topped them with toasted bread crumbs (not a typical scampi) and even that effect is quite yummy cold, what with the garlicky shrimpy pan juice thang. (So! Recipe posted in comments, below, after all.)

Tonight, as I had mentioned yesterday, Nathan has baseball practice, so I'm making a quick pasta - probably angel hair tossed with leftover tomato sauce. I may add some bacon and hot red pepper flakes to the sauce for a pasta all'Amatriciana. Or not, I'll see what Nathan's in the mood for... (Sort of. If I left dinner completely up to Nathan, it would be pizza. Every. Single. Night.)

Kept it as simple as can be, at the request of Nathan and Vivian (who came over after school for a quick swim before Nathan's baseball practice). They wanted their pasta with butter and parmesan, so that's how I made it. Added a bit of the pasta cooking liquid and a pinch of coarse sea salt as well as the Hope Creamery butter (oh, oh, oh, how I love my Hope Creamery butter) and what was actually grated pecorino romano. Delicious. I also added a spoonful of tomato sauce to mine - NICE. I so enjoy the excuse of being a bit rushed to just prepare a basic pasta meal, no frills, no salad, no messing around. Pasta, couple of ingredients, toss, and serve. Mmmm...

John, Stu, and Rudy are lunching together today, at I Nonni, damn I wish I could have joined them. But...no. Instead I'm here waiting for, I kid you not, the Maytag repairman. BRU-TAL! Sigh. Hopefully John will achieve bringing home a few tasties, as well as the wine he'll surely be buying (as I said, he's at I Nonni with Stu and Rudy, now there's a wine-happy combination if ever there was one). Hope you're having lots of fun, boys! (I, only sort of pouting, whipped up a quick bowl of chilaquiles for my lunch, mmm...)

So because I Nonni treats could perhaps make their way here by dinnertime, I'll not plan anything overly involved for tonight. Plus, the fridge holds leftovers of various interesting flavors just waiting to be finished off. There's a nice amount of rice with vegetables, as well as the tomato sauce that accompanied the meatloaf dish I made last week. Oh, and a package of lovely mushrooms I forgot to incorporate into the pan sauce on Friday night. I have frozen shrimp as well, hmmm, interesting possibilities. Perhaps a garlicky scampi with rice sort of thing, use the tomato sauce tomorrow night for a quick pasta before baseball practice. Well. Some good options. We'll see how it plays out...

Here's how it played out: ho hum yawnsville. I don't know, the prosciutto sandwich John brought back did absolutely nothing for me. Neither did the chicken parmesan (with more prosciutto on it - enough already with the prosciutto, and the chicken, believe it or not). Nor did I really like the shrimp I prepared (too pooh salty and blandy). Nor the rice (very leftover tasting and I'm tired of asparagus). Okaaaay! Who is the picky bitch? Apparently, it's me! Who knew? And you know what? It doesn't much matter because I got some serious time on the deck before dinner, with a book, and glass of wine...spectacular day. Perhaps no eats could compare to a good read paired with that perfumey, balmy air and warmy sun...

Cool, crisp salad topped with a warm poached or over-easy egg. Prrr... If you haven't converted, you MUST, it is truly one of the best dishes on the planet. The greens tossed with a tart vinaigrette cut the richness of the yolk, a bit of minced basil adds a hint of sweetness, crumbled bacon and sauteed croutons add salt and chewiness, minced scallion and a grind of black pepper bring it all home. I've talked about it several times already, I know, in several variations (topping toast with an over-easy egg and chopped arugula, for instance, which Donna kindly acknowledged was pretty darn tasty; or the recent frisee, poached egg, lardons salad that I enjoyed at Cafe Lurcat), but I think I haven't posted an actual recipe, so I will today. For the exact salad I just made and savored for lunch, it was sublime. I took advantage of a stale baguette to make killer croutons, but you could certainly start with fresh bread. (Recipe posted in comments, below.)

I'm fully recovered today. I was toast yesterday, a lazy combination of hungover-exhausted-content. Had a great day of doing almost truly, absolutely nothing. Saw United 93, on my dad and Susanna's recommendation, and it was riveting and incredibly sad. Not just worth seeing, but in fact, important to see, that's how I felt afterward. Very well done, neither frivolous nor abusively melodramatic with the raw and powerful truth of the story. I admit, I've sort of tucked 9/11 away, in my disgust with how it has been, in my opinion, tragically and mistakenly translated into a war in Iraq. But this film brought the event back to where it belongs, worthy of conscious consideration on an on-going basis, even if one doesn't agree with the decisons that have been made in its wake.

And then. We were home, back to the mundane pleasures of the daily grind. Darling John washed all the glassware from Friday night's winefest. And he took Nathan for a game of frisbee golf, and out running errands, and I did very productive things like watch Sex and the City on HBO on Demand. I was in a New York state of mind, I guess. The shots of the Twin Towers in older episodes are so lovely and sad. The shots of Carrie and the girls in their fabulous clothes are so happy and decadent. The shot of me lazing in my bed watching TV is relatively pathetic, ha. But ohhhhhh, it felt goooood.

Have a nice Sunday. NICE!

Such fun tonight, oh my. We're tired, yes, but in a good way, the way you are after hours of laughing and talking with good friends and sipping lots of wineage. The tumble into bed, fall asleep happily kind of tired. I'll confess, I've had LOTS of wine tonight, eek - Falanghina, Barbera, and Port, oh my. On the patio, on the deck, in the house, at the table. With gougere. Chicken. Cheese. Lemon tart. Mmm... Now, I MUST go to bed, must, must, must.

But only after a quick peek at my kickass J Crew espadrille lace-ups! LURVE sexy J Crew shoes. Even if I get to wear them, oh, about three times the whole summer. Woo hoo for J Crew! Because they sell not just kickass shoes, but 35"-inseam pants. Yes, us 5'11" grrrls love those 35"-inseam pants! Go Johanna!

Must, must, must go to bed. I'm blurry-bleary. 'Nighty night night night. Night. Night. Yeah, I'm not having anymore wine. 'Night.

Stu and Debbie and Rudy and Ana, here at the hacienda, for dinner tonight. You know what that means! LOTS of fun and food and wine, woo hoo! I have officially, for my first time, set the table with two wine glasses at each place, with more ready for action in the kitchen. I feel compelled to serve the Barbera that I unknowingly stole out from under Stu a couple of months ago by buying up the last of it, mere hours before he also showed up, at I Nonni (I only knew about the wine because of Stu!). And we'll see what else pops onto the table... Can't wait!

I've kept the menu pretty simple so I can actually see and talk with everyone - if we're lucky, we'll be able to spend some time outside, and I don't want to be stuck in the kitchen by myself. In the winter, last-minute prep is fine, because everyone is in there with me, talking, drinking wine, eating things as I prepare them. But in the almost-summer, the strategy shifts, and meals have to be more do-ahead. Here's the menu (a couple of recipes are previously posted; those that aren't I'll get around to tomorrow, after I wash all that glassware, ha...):

blanched asparagus with saffron aioli
almonds
cheddar gougere

chicken with crispy prosciutto and sage with pan sauce
rice with vegetables
tomato gratin

cheese, grapes

lemon tart with almond crust

Well, seeing that written there, I had best 1) fit in a quick kettlebells workout, and 2) get my ass cooking! Yeah, baby!

(Update: recipes for lemon tart and gougere are now posted in comments, below.)

Despite paint-generated effluveum effervescing throughout the house (touch-up work on the deck), it's still all good. Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy, even when I can't really be out in it due to almost-ever-present males of the working-on-our-house variety. There's the pool, sparkling sapphire blue, beckoning... But unless I want to swim/sunbathe with an audience - even though they're super-busy, and totally cool, and we're grateful to finally finish up several house projects, I most surely do not - I pretty much behold its beauty from the indoors. Or if I'm out there, I'm damn sure in my clothes.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. Just driving around on a day like today is lovely - windows down, tune-age cranked. Stephanie Sanford, where are you with the little red pick-up??? This is our kind of day, girlfriend!!! Wait, we would not waste this day driving around. We would slather on oil and toast ourselves in the sun, then drive around at night, showing off our tans. After beef burritos at La Campana. Or O'Grady's and beer at someone-with-out-of-town-parents' house... For some reason I still have my blue & white striped string bikini from junior high school. That's a 25-year old bikini, my friends, I got it when I was 14, yikes! And despite having been washed many times, of course (!), it STILL smells like a combination of Coppertone 4 and coconut tanning oil. Potent stuff. And I'm glad. Smells like sunshine and summer and sweet, sinless, silly sensuality...

*Snap!* Oh well. I have lots to do today anyhow. Sigh. Bikini stays in the drawer. I wear lots (!) of sunblock. I HATE being sunburned. I drink beer in my own house. I do dishes and laundry and go to the grocery store on sunny days. BUT with my windows down and tune-age cranked! I still (sort of) RAWK! Woo hoo!?!

And hey, Happy Birthday Coreman!!! Have a great day!!! I promise, I'm not hanging out at your house today (but I can't promise about tomorrow)...

Whoa! Weather 180! I just froze my ass off at baseball, in the rain, brrrrr! I'm just coming back to life after a steaming hot bowl of navy bean/ham soup - I found the last of it, leftover from this winter, hiding in the freezer. Love those bonus freezer finds, YES. Oh, to come into the warm house, shed the wet clothes, put on layers of toasty fleece, and tuck into a bowl of homemade soup. Ahhhh, now all I need is a bath. Jammies. And my warm softy bed.

Glory be sunshine, mmmm hmmmm. I am in a good mood today, windows thrown open, fresh air swirling around my house and my skirt, no lie. (It's windy!) La, la, laaaa! Love spring, when it's, you know, springy.

And what says spring like...meatloaf? Yes, meatloaf. I had some ground beef, I had leftover walnut ricotta pesto, I put the two together, with an egg and fresh breadcrumbs, and popped it into the oven. We'll see... I'm thinking I'll serve it with rice and perhaps a simple and light tomato-mushroom sauce. Not too heavy, right? Should make a damn nice sandwich tomorrow as well, which is good, because we have a baseball game, and that means mealtime is optional at best. And I won't even care, if the weather is like this. La, la, laaaa!

Well, the pesto does makes a delicious meatloaf (I'll post the recipe in comments, below). With a simple tomato sauce. NICE! Oh, what surprising temptations emerge from the innocent pairing of heretofore unbeknownst to each other ingredients, the alchemy of which is made possible and indeed almost obvious by the unlikely and yet not uncharming happinstance of being set, in fact placed, next to each other in of all things, a refrigerator... (I'm reading Hardy...sorry...)

Rainbow! How glorious, last night, right at the end of the baseball game. Definitely one (and perhaps the only) perk of this quirky weather - sun, rain, sun, rain, warm, cold, warm, cold. Tiresome. But the rainbow, wow. This pic is from my phone so of course doesn't at all capture the rare beauty of a fully-formed, full-on rainbow, which this one was. Huge. Vibrant. Glorious.

And today, the sun! Yay! Feels sooooo good, prrrrr...

Didn't even make dinner last night - it's too tough to time it when we have a 6 pm game - so tonight I'm making the walnut-ricotta pesto. If it rocks, I'll post the recipe.

Ahhh, out on the deck posting to my blog while Nathan and Vivian swim. Doesn't get much nicer than this. They're having a blast. I picked them up from video club at school and they jumped in the car and said, can we swim? Pleeeeaaasse? A hint of sun, that's what did it, it's been so cloudy and gloomy for so many weeks, they're chomping at the bit to get outside and do something summery. They paused for a quick poolside plate of pasta - with the walnut-ricotta pesto, I gave them a taste-test first to make sure they'd like it. It turns out rather alfredo like, quite delicious, I'll definitely post the recipe (in comments, below).

After dark, I'm hoping to sneak in a walk around the 'hood, my favorite dessert, mmm...

A lovely Mother's Day indeed! I did...almost nothing, which is just what I wanted. Watched Nathan swim, made crustless leek quiche with creme fraiche for lunch/brunch, took a l..o..n..g luxurious nap, followed by a l..o..n..g luxurious shower, then ran over to Suz's for Feminine Hijinx. Our usual cackle fest. Here's to Motherhood After Dark with two of the best mommy's I know - Kim and Susie!

No breast implants, just fake highlights today. Cut, color, blowout. Love my visits with Nisa, who also does my aunt Mary's and my friend Kathie's hair. Props to Nisa, woo hoo!

Dinner tonight? Hmmm...baseball is more like it. IF it doesn't rain and that's a big if these last few weeks. Last two games have been rainouts and the sun does not shineth today, either. Boooooooo.... Perhaps a quick pasta something when we get home. I've had my eye on a walnut-ricotta "pesto" recipe for quite awhile. If I work Byerly's into my day (didn't happen yesterday), I think that's what we'll go with tonight. Stay tuned...

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!! We had a lovely Mother's Day-graduation-birthday celebration at Fuji-Ya last night, Stace, Bowen, Coop, Dad, Susanna, John, Nathan, and me. Cooper was a Trooper - ceiling lights and fans turned out to be quite entertaining, he had his back arched all night to take in the show. He was showing off his new poundage - at more than 11 lbs., he has more than doubled his size in exactly two months. Way to grow, Coop! We non-Coopers feasted on miso, sushi, edamame, soft-shell crabs, tempura, udon noodles... Finally rolled out of there around 10:30 p.m., and into bed, as stuffed as hand rolls, whew. Or as stuffed as Bowen in his new fly-fishing waders. Or as stuffed as Cooper in his Baby Bjorn, like a cozy little sausage! Happy, happy, snuggled up to Mommy Stacey on Mother's Day eve.

For me, a day at home, that's what I chose for Mother's Day. A day at home with my boys (A is with her mom today, of course). And an evening at Suz's with my girls - Feminine Hijinx! I'll probably actually run over to Byerly's and grab whatever I feel like making for dinner. I am officially restauranted out (although it's been a fun ride for the last three nights)! And in the mood to cook. As long as someone else does the dishes - now that's a Mother's Day! Enjoy yours!

Do you dream about cooking? Apparently I do, I had a dream close enough to waking this morning to remember it... I was scrambling eggs for John's family, cooking them in a big ol' cast-iron skillet, on a bed (loaded with Freudian implications, I'm sure). They were nasty-looking until I served them in tortillas (which I never do) which somehow transformed them to fabulous. There's probably a whole fertility rave, what with cooking an egg on a bed and then rolling it in a tortilla - my goodness, perhaps I'd better leave that dream alone. It seemed just silly and benign until I started writing about it, yikes!

No cooking last night - John and I ate out for the second night in a row! We haven't done that in ages. We had another date night, so decadent, loved it. First we saw The Notorious Bettie Page at the Edina theater. Fantastic. Gretchen Mol has the best boobs I've ever seen (they're bared quite a bit in the movie). I'm sorry, I had to say it, you gotta give a girl a compliment when she's due one. Hers make breast-implant boobs look horrific (which they often do, ack). I'm not against breast implants per se - who am I to judge? I have fake highlights and wear lipstick - just the ones that turn women's breasts into round-on-top, hard-as-rock, shiny things stuck onto their chests. Like cantaloupe halves stuffed under the skin. Blech (at right - ouch!). I mean, if you're going to fake it, and there are often good reasons to do so, choose a natural shape, that's all I'm saying. In fact, you could walk into your doctor's office and say, I want Gretchen Mol's boobs. There. My input on breast implants.

Anyhow, back to eating out for the second night in a row - we dined at Tejas. Hmmm, Tejas, it's been pretty ho-hum for the last several years, so I'm not usually super-psyched to eat there. But there it is, across the street from the theater, so we bopped in. And had a lovely dinner, I must say. Things were hoppin' in there. We split a pork tamale made, I think, with a fresh-corn type of masa, and it was delicious. Then I had a fennel, radish, and bitter greens tostada, basically a fresh salad atop a small, crispy tortilla, showered with shavings of a salty Pecorino-type cheese. Light and tasty. We came home and watched another movie, The Dying Gaul, cool start but with a truly weirdass ending. Still fun.

So, a baseball game planned for today, but I don't know - this weather. Another cold, rainy, dreary treck. Good movie weather. Not another movie tonight, however, instead...a THIRD night eating out! Woo hoo! Fuji-Ya on the menu tonight, to celebrate Stacey's birthday and Bowen's graduation. That means a Cooper fix! Yay! And some damn good sushi too, very happy about that. It's all good...

Opened this blustery, freezing Friday with an anti-oxidant/anti-inflammatory loaded blueberry pecan pancake, topped with a smidge of real maple syrup. So easy, when you use a little pancake mix (I'm not a big mix person, but the just-add-water Aunt Jemima version is mighty tasty; and I love how you can make just enough for one person, since no one else in this house likes pancakes. Pancakes! What the hell is not to like about pancakes? Sigh...), scatter berries and chopped pecans over the batter in the pan, perhaps some ground flaxseeds if you have them (if you're going for the Omega-3s wherever you can get them), flip when it's browned to finish cooking ('til you can hear the berries popping, mmm...), and voila, in less than 10 minutes you've got a hot, nutritious, almost-homemade pancake. On a cold, wet, gloomy day like today, it sure beats a bowl o'cold cereal. Dig in!

Finally, our electricity is back on! UGH, drives me nuts when it's out, which it was for a few hours last night and then again for all of this morning. Must be the wind, sheesh, it's nasty out there. Brrr... Too cold for a walk, too windy for a bike ride (can you imagine? I have a vision of pedaling and going absolutely nowhere...), so it was me and my Russian kettlebells this morning. My pulled muscle is better, thank goodness, so I very carefully tossed one around until I knew I could handle it. There is no excuse not to do a KB workout (other than a pulled muscle). There they sit, in your own house, ready to kick your ass anytime you're motivated enough to get your ass next to one. They're fabulous.

Oooh, looking for reasons to enjoy a glass of wine with your dinner tonight? Check out this article touting the many and surprising benefits of daily wine with your daily bread. Ah, how I love finding out that the things I most enjoy are actually good for me. Hey, I'm all about the occasional guilty pleasure - but the non-guilty ones, they're damn nice too. I mean, damn NICE!

Feminine HijUnx, unfortunately. Our first remote recording of FH was a bust - too much background noise. Oh well! We sure had fun! We'll just have to quite appropriately re-do our Motherhood After Dark-podcast on Sunday night, Mother's Day. Yeah, we sure suffer for our art...

Oh! I DID pull off the pommes frites last night, and they were many good things - hot, crispy, salty, delicious. But, despite all that, not worth the effort. They're not difficult, just time-consuming, and it's hot, sweaty work. Whew. Now, fried shrimp and onion rings? Totally worth the effort, because tasty versions are hard to come by just anywhere. And they don't require double-frying (!) so are much easier to prepare. But fabulous fries can be had at so many places (hello, McDonald's? When they're absolutely fresh and smokin' hot? Hard to beat, no snobbery there...), I think I'll stick to indulging myself when I'm out and about. So. There's the end to the fry chapter...for now...

Or not! Just remembered, John and I are headed to Cafe Lurcat for dinner tonight, just the two of us. Date night! Woo hoo! Wouldn't you know, I made pommes frites on the eve of heading over to one of this city's best spots for pommes frites? D..a..m..n, I might have to indulge two nights in a row. Moderation in portions, that's the key - yeah, remind me of that around 7:15 p.m. tonight...

Ohhhh, yeahhh, fucking fabulous dinner at Lurcat, mmmm... John says I have to be quick about this, so here I go. Opened with yes, the pommes frites. With Bearnaise, prrrr... Crispy. Salty. Kill. Kill. Kill! So good, we sent them away when we were half done so we didn't completely do ourselves in on just fries (how moderate, huh? Yeah!) Then I had two raw oysters, again, prrr... I'm sorry, oysters are sooo sexy, I lurve them, I do. Then the naughtiest salad, frisee with lardons and a poached egg. And then, then, get this, a rack of lamb (for me, John had salmon), absolutely perfectly cooked, crackling crusty exterior, pinky-pink interior, I only had two of them and saved the rest for lunch tomorrow. Glass of Muscat and cheese for dessert (for me, John did chocolate and I'm sure it was good, but I was all about the cheese...), I brought plenty of that home as well. A gorgeous dinner, a drive home around Lake of the Isles, and now I gotta fly... 'Night!

Welcome home Peter, Kristen, Erin, and Emily!!

My cousin Peter and his wife Kristen had twin baby girls - Erin and Emily - quite a bit before their due date. It has been a wild, emotional, exhausting, terrifying, exhilarating roller coaster ride for the last five months, through three hospitals, through hours and hours of training, through thousands of prayers and well wishes. And now, they are home, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, with many challenges still ahead, of course, but they are home. Here's to Erin and Emily, you tough little adorable girlie cuties! And here's to Peter and Kristen, wow, talk about tough. Tough as steel and full of love. We love you guys! (Check out their blog for the full story.)

Ah-choo! Full-on allergy season, yikes. I can't sneeze like John - no one can, it's the most unbelievably loud sneeze you or I or anyone has ever heard, EVAR, it's like a roar, but only on the choo part, there's barely an ah, so there's no warning, the roaring choo startles the hell out of anyone around him and makes people on airplanes cringe and lean away because there is no way that a politely covered mouth is going to contain that baby. Sorry, honey, you're an almost-perfect husband, except for the sneeze. (And maybe a few other things. But I'll save those for future entries. How moderate, eh? Remember, you love me!)

I think I'm going to attempt pommes frites tonight. Did the shrimp/onion ring thing on Sunday, and at that time promised A I'd give potatoes a try next, since fries are what she really loves. Tonight is as good a time as any, if I don't run out of time. Nathan has baseball practice at six, that makes things pretty tricky. Like we'll have to eat at 5:20. Hmmm... And, I have to be ready to dash out the door myself to hook up with Kim and Suz at McCoy's for our first remote recording of Feminine Hijinx! It all started at McCoy's, the three of us chatting for something like six straight hours. I remember Cory asked Suz, did you even pee? Ha! (Answer: of course, we're girls! We always have to pee!) We'll see if I can pull it all off, ooh, some drama!