Getting out the vote

My time in Philly has been fulfilling in a number of ways: politically, as an adult, as a co-citizen, and as an eater.

2 tired 2 write, but... 

1. Canvassing- lots of walking and knocking (7+ miles, nearly 200 doors), lots of boffing our lines but still earnestly getting out there to encourage voting. Cool! 

Al Franken came to the south Philly staging location today. Awesome! 

2. Philly food does.not.disappoint. Tonight? Dinner at Southwark on 4th and Bainbridge. Marvelous! 

3. I have met some wonderful people and been lucky to have some really memorable conversations. More on that later, but for now, bed! 

Apple pie, and away I go

The boys had just a half-day of school today, and after I picked them up and we lazed a bit during a rain shower, we went to the nearest early voting site to cast my ballot. I was pleasantly shocked by the number of people in line- democracy in action, peeps! I love it!

The lead up to leaving home is always so odd. I'm leaving? Going somewhere without my boys and T? 

And yet, it's exciting. I'll sleep well, in a whole bed to myself, with no cat mews or boyish knocks or husbandly snores to interrupt my slumber. I won't need to prepare meals or negotiate sibling squabbles, won't need to make sure the teeth were brushed well enough or the fish fed. I won't have to toggle back and forth, in what are sometimes 30-second increments, between conversations, to dos, phone calls, and all the rest.

I've got a 2:00 train to Philadelphia tomorrow, and I am excited. I'll see friends, canvass across South Philly, and simply adult for 48 hours. Gosh, this sounds lovely. Lucky it's me going!

In the meantime, I have some good (and pretty) food to share with you.

For the past two weeks, I have had the most intense yen for an apple pie. A towering one in my fluted pie plate. Yesterday, it happened.

While I love my apple pie recipe, I came across this one for apple almond pie on Food52 recently. I could eat almond paste on dirt, happened to have an unopened tube of it in my pantry, and so took the lead. I followed the recipe exactly except that I used my pie crust rather than the butter one suggested. 

Hot damn am I glad I did so. Observe.

And here is what's left just 24 hours later.

Oh dear. But what fun! Jack had a full third! I'm gonna have the rest for breakfast tomorrow. 

Carrot-ginger-coconut risotto with carrot-top pesto

Friends, I was positively desperate for some creative time in the kitchen last night and am glad I put my foot down to putter and cook.

I'd gone to the market earlier and picked up a gorgeous bunch of fresh carrots with an excess of feathery green tops as well as a can of coconut milk for no good reason except that it was on sale. When I got home, I came across the lone ghost pepper I'd bought last week.

Jack is fascinated by ghost peppers' second-place ranking on the Scoville heat index. You don't often see ghost peppers around here, so when I saw it, I snapped it up for fun. He circled it warily for a few days before deciding exploration, much less a straight taste, wasn't worth it. 

As I made dinner for the boys and then started on our squash-based side dish, I noodled on the carrots and coconut milk and it being Monday which I like to try and make meatless. 

Risotto!

I washed and spun the carrot tops as well as the greens from a bunch of radishes I'd bought for Oliver.

Pesto!

And then it all coalesced into a coconut-carrot-ginger risotto with a bit of heat from the ghost pepper and a cool, colorful bit of zip from a fresh carrot top pesto. 

I was thrilled. This dish is hearty but not weighty, comforting but still sunny. I loved enjoying the small bowl of leftovers today for lunch.