Kindred jamming spirits

In late 2012, I taught a Canning 101 class on Pickling (we made pickled ginger carrots). In attendance was a woman, S, with whom I've become friends, not least because she totally grooved on the Type-A way that I rearranged the julienned ginger so they were more evenly distributed throughout the carrot sticks. S is the one who introduced me to Blue Duck Tavern and also to the highbrow Canadian mustard outfit, Kozlik's. We email regularly and often run into each other at Whole Foods and this past week, S emailed me ask if I could come over and taste some of her jams and chutneys and catch up. Yesterday worked swimmingly for us both, and I enjoyed a couple hours in her beautiful home. She sent me home with an incredible goody bag of stuff she recently schlepped back from Ontario- a Canadian cheddar and a bottle of local Riesling, a jar of Kozlik's horseradish mustard, tomato jam, pickled strawberry jam, peach chutney and zucchini salsa. I know! Right?!

The boys ate about half the jar of salsa with their picnic dinner, I immediately tasted the mustard as I am an enormous fan of horseradish (this has some serious punch!) and I opened the peach chutney to serve with the meal I made for T and me. Zucchini-feta fritters, seared chicken slathered with Penzey's barbecue rub and cooked in bacon drippings in my trusty Lodge, and Israeli couscous with lemon, parsley and skillet drippings. One bite of chicken with chutney and couscous made me awfully glad I had more of everything. Sublime!

+

+

= awesome dinner.

Thank you, S, for your friendship and generosity!

Lovely, lovely

Peeps, I've been caught up in a whirlwind since Thursday night, touching down briefly in VA yesterday and in and around home in DC today. I catered, taught, hosted, cheered, enjoyed the stupendously glorious weather and relished time with friends. DC'ers, was it not spectacularly gorgeous today? I mean really, spring at its best. T and his dad took the boys to the Nats game last night with a huge group of teammates and family members from Jack's baseball team. Naturally Jack is newly obsessed with baseball now, and his team won again today; the Blue Devils are undefeated so far this season! This is quite the shift from two seasons back when they won exactly zero games. Go growth!

I had some lady friends over for lunch today, and boy was it a pleasure to sit comfortably in the back yard, all prettied up in dresses and makeup.

People, as an aside, T is watching SNL from last night, and I swear to god, who, WHO, is funnier than Maya Rudolph? She is g-damn hilarious! Balls does that woman make me laugh.

Back to lunch. The menu was pretty darn tasty if I say so myself: Herbed Tomato Tarts; Zucchini Feta Cakes; Quinoa with Apricots, Pistachios and Lime-Mirin Vinaigrette; Watermelon and Feta Salad with Serrano Vinaigrette; Yogurt-Aleppo Pepper Chicken; Port Salut with Louisiana Pepper Jelly; Smoked Salmon Smearbread; Pink Bubbly; lemonade; Minty Tea; Strawberry Cake; Chocolate Almond Cake; aaannd, yep, Ming Tsai's Shortbread.

Second aside, how much do I miss Bill Hader? He is frickin' hilarious. Stefon anyone?

Anyway, good food. Real good. And then a fun baseball game. And I'll bet I sleep well tonight. I'll take it!

Outstanding dinner

Have I mentioned that my sister is here? She arrived Wednesday and heads back to Italy tomorrow, but it's such a treat having her as a short-term roommate. Her best friend from the age of 4 (who lives in Abu Dhabi with her hubs but is an American citizen and wanted to have her baby here; so they moved to DC for two months) had a baby girl last month and my sis wanted to spend time with her and the new parents (who are basically members of our family; we're all close; it's great) hence this pass through. This morning, we visited together which was wonderful. I cannot get enough of holding babies. How many times have y'all heard me go on about holding babies?? Seriously, it's a balm. I looooove to hold those sweet, cooing bundles of warmth. Aah! Anyway, last night, El, T and I stayed in, and I made us an outstanding feast: zucchini-feta fritters; a fennel, feta, sumac and pomegranate salad from Ottolenghi; and a roast chicken stew with preserved lemon, sumac, caramelized onions and Israeli couscous. We drank too much wine and stayed up too late, but it was great fun. Naturally, the boys chose today to wake up at 6 instead of the closer-to-7 they've been gifting us with lately, so I have now been up for 8 hours and am definitely feeling it.

It is revolting out today- freezing rain sleeting down from a gray shroud of a sky. Ugh. Glad I am inside and just enjoyed scrumptious leftovers from last night's meal.