final decisions

after much rumination, the super bowl menu for 2013 goes like this:

*homemade whitecastle-style burgers

*sweet potato fries & curried fry sauce

*apple walnut slaw

*chips & guacamole

*root beer floats

*salty chocolate chunk cookies


not that i care AT ALL about the super bowl, but it's an excuse for a party & some kitchen time.

anyone else cooking tomorrow?

i always miss emily this time of year.  one time she made the most delicious whoopie pies ever for the super bowl.  i can't recreate them.

silent family dinner

sunday dinner at bam's is the best.  matt always sports an untied bow tie.

tonight we sat at the wednesday family dinner table, eating silently, listening to radiohead, each of us lamenting a kind of hard and boring day.

bammy's chicken marbella & fab hair.

but we did it anyway.  we sat and supped.  i made dinner, got everyone together, and ate. and we talked.  a little.

the view from bam's deck.

some nights are so happy and loud, some nights stressful, some nights surprising or funny.  you never know.  & you'll never find out if you don't do it.

here's my little plug for sitting down with your family every night you can.  & a plug for making that happen as often as you can.  it's a small but significant anchor in the day, and it puts everything in it's place.

sunday dinner in fall.

i know julie eats frequently in the living room of her amazing  city.  i eat in my suburban kitchen.  either way, it's the sitting, the talking, and the being together that counts.

i love to know what people eat for dinner, what they talk about, what time they eat, what they listen too, any details, small and large about this quotidian event.  i want a giant list of dinner details.  dinner for one, dinner for two, dinner for ten.

so share if you have anything.  anything at all.

go ahead & make my day a little less boring!

a moment of calm

lantern night at bryn mawr.  they're singing a song to athena and  the frosh are getting their official welcome to the school.

 today i had brunch and a visit with one of my favorite people in the entire world.  i scored a huge zucchini, some tomatoes, and some green tomatoes on my way home from her house.  tomorrow i'm making a chocolate zucchini cake and fried green tomatoes for our jack o' lantern carving night.

the lanterns.

tonight julie's hunkering down in nyc getting ready for sandy, and i really, really hope the storm on the east coast turns out to be all hype.  right now, ingrid's participating in a stormy  bryn mawr lantern night, which sounds pretty magical.  one of the major regrets of my life that i didn't go to a magical women's college on the east coast.  i don't think i really even knew such a thing existed when i was in high school.

c.'s watching the end of the world series.

a full moon just rose over our beautiful, beautiful mountains.

cecily is telling moses a bedtime story.

we had dinner at bam's, which is our sunday night ritual during the six months of the year she's in the u.s.  the kids adore bam and their cousins, and usually grace us with the performance of an original play.  other traditions include a game of oh heck!, a a game of charades, and an episode of the simpson's.  it feels good to be back in our routine.  it kind of reminds me of those british novels when people go to london for "the season" in fall and winter.  with the arrival of bam, our season has begun.

love and good wishes going out to the east coast tonight.

xxoo