Caramelized fennel, leek and orange; the farro again; jury duty

Friends, I do not want to go to jury duty tomorrow. I simply don't. I love to vote, am committed to community involvement and so forth and so on, but jury duty does not float my boat. In the least. Ah well. I did a great deal of cooking today which was a lovely way to spend much of Monday: smothered okra for lunch; caramelized fennel, leek and orange; the fab farro salad again... I also seem to have the dessert-craving tapeworm again so sprung for a jelly-filled, powdered-sugar-dusted beignet at Whole Foods, the best of their bakery goods (in the context of those that are good because many are not). It was, as always, fantastic.

Nanny and Mom often made smothered okra when I was growing up. I am an enormous, enthusiastic fan of okra except in gumbo where I truly believe it has no place. #honesty

Anyway, smothered okra is one of those crazy-simple, crazy-good comforting home foods that makes me happy. I hadn't thought about it in ages, but when I took the boys to Louisiana in August, Mom had just made a huge batch with a bushel of Louisiana longhorn okra some friends had grown and given her. I swear I ate 90% of the batch and have been craving more ever since.

Today at the market, I saw some decent okra. At $6 a pound I didn't get more than would feed me, but it made such a sublime lunch. I sat in silence, on a stool at my counter, breathing in the scent of long- and slowly-cooked okra in bacon fat. I wondered why on earth I gave up bacon for so long. I marveled anew at how good something with two ingredients -three if you count salt- can be. And I thought of home.

The past two

I missed writing yesterday but just couldn't find the moment where time met inspiration. So here we are; a quiet Sunday morning. I didn't mistype- quiet it is as the kids spent last night at Camp Grandparents. Bliss. We had a holiday party last night, and in addition to needing to prepare in 85 different ways, I knew it'd be nice to a) not worry about waking them up, and b) not worry about them waking us up this morning. On Friday evening, I took Jack to Tae Kwon Do to test for his super-blue belt. Not only did he pass but also turned around in the middle of it, in the midst of ten other children and his instructors, to say, "I love you, Mom." Oh, these little moments of perfection. They help sustain me, all parents I'm sure, in the times that are decidedly less than good.

Like later that night when I was awakened on four separate occasions: by Tom coming home late for a work party; by Jack twice waking up in real tears about a too-real dream he was having about Oliver throwing his chess trophy on the floor and breaking it; and so forth. He was so immersed in the dream that I finally had to turn on all his lights and force him to look at his pristine trophies. I felt for him, but really, four times in a night did not make for an Em-i-lis that felt good yesterday. And yesterday was ugly out with cold, gray, and icy the aggressive norm. So I cooked and took a nap and then got ready and had a ball.

Not the best pics, but alas. Happy Sunday!