Plethora

My favorite holiday is probably Thanksgiving--a simple communal practice of gratitude for one's abundance that has largely escaped corporate commercialization.   No expectations except eating a plethora of harvest dishes with people you feel completely comfortable with.  It's the perfect 

"forgetting one's tight place" holiday.  Or at least it has been for me, as a someone whose life from birth has been largely defined by tight places.

We even went around the table and told what we were grateful for (thanks to G visiting with her husband, G from Charles Olson's town.)

I spent Thanksgiving Eve at the Union Square green market picking out a pie to bring to our Rhode Island feast, hosted by my mother-in-law.  I wish I had had occasion to gather more items, because look at the offerings!--but everything would be cooked by the time we arrived on Thanksgiving afternoon.

The apple pie we did buy was from a vegan stand called Body and Soul.  To taste the crust you wouldn't suspect it had no butter in it.  Can an apple pie be nuanced?  This one was.  In fact, their pie was so delish I feel compelled to go back to the stand and gushingly tell them how much we all loved it.  (I believe the ingredients included lemon grass.)

Another stand-out, G's homemade pumpkin pie with the crushed pecan crust.  

I am grateful for you, GITP readers--and Lara, of course.

G's signature pumpkin pie.

G cutting the first slice. 

Work then Play: the Final Weeks of Summer

 After work, I got kid #1 to go down to the East River Park Amphitheater where Two Boots Pizza was celebrating their 25th anniversary.  Just the usual stilt walkers, giant puppets, live bands, and free pizza (albeit pizza slivers).  Again, another beautiful late afternoon was handed to us like a gift.

Afterwards, we saw another installment of In & Around C, this time a mixed jazz ensemble, that kid #1 only let me stay at for five minutes--maybe six.

I thought I'd throw this in--Stella and I having farmer's market pizza in Union Square Park after gathering a ridiculous amount of school supplies.

Also, today at work, I ran into one of my favorite writers.  More on this tomorrow.

The Stellar Day Clouded My Head

Cooking demo at the Union Square Farmer's Market

What is buckwheat honey?

For sale:  seasonal flowers, all from bulbs.  Love.

Occupy Wall Street has installed themselves in Union Square

At 8:00 am I looked from my work station out over the Hudson and the light was so crystalline, I knew it would be a beautiful day.  After work I headed to the Union Square Greenmarket.  There still isn't a lot for sale there produce wise, of course, us being all up north and all:  cellared apples (and hard cider!), onions, and kale, duck eggs and all manner of eggs.  Slaughtered lamb parts.  Broccoli rabe, which I bought today, but there were many booths with bulbed flowers, which I must remember to get for this Easter/Passover weekend.  I wandered and milled around for awhile, ate a kale-stuffed croissant at one booth and then a sampling of kale pesto at another.  

I love this time of year.  I love the shapes and colors of Easter.  April is also my sister's and my dad's birthday (Dad would have been 83 on the 13th; Shelley's is tomorrow!), and I love the rhythms of the traditional Christian Easter week ( unacknowledged in the religion I was born into).  Tomorrow night, for Maundy Thursday, some notable authors will read from Dante's Inferno at the Church of St. John the Divine.  

In fact there is so much to do, I keep forgetting things.  What I forgot today, and what must go on my list for tomorrow:

1.  Chocolate matzah at Russ and Daughters.

2.  Pay another installment of S's summer camp fee. 

3.  Send off a story.

4.  Call my mother.