Dinner al fresco, outstanding tacos, clams, spring, bliss

I went nuts at the mango madness sale on Friday and bought nearly 30; a bit excessive but hey, when a gal's excited about mangoes and they're $.67/each, what's she to do. So yesterday, I made 9 jars of citrusy mango butter, have encouraged the kids to eat as many as possible and incorporated this luscious fruit into last night's dinner.

When T and I finally sat down, it was 8:30 and getting dark out but our porch light and a starry sky drew us outdoors anyway. Our first al fresco dinner of 2014. Amen! It was fabulous: soft music; cold drinks; no bugs; and  a heck of a meal. I made coconut-cardamom rice which I tossed with chopped mango, fruit salad, grilled asparagus and yogurt-crème fraîche-cardamom marinated chicken which T then grilled. I am telling y'all what: you simply must mix Greek yogurt with crème fraîche, add salt and cardamom if you like, marinate chicken and then cook it how you like. It was so easy and so good. The crème fraîche adds the greatest tang!

Today is another spectacular one, and as a fam -Jack dressed as Luke Skywalker and Ol as Darth Vader- we went to the farmers market and ate our way through it. First stop: Pleasant Pops. Oliver was in the midst of a serious yen for a Chongos (Mexican cream-n-cinnamon; insanely awesome) yet sadly it was not on today's menu. Instead, he invited T to mosey over to Bonaparte in search of a chocolate éclair, while Jack decided to try a grapefruit-rosemary popsicle which was quite good. I've been circling Chaia DC for two weeks now because their tacos look absolutely scrumptious but I hadn't had breakfast yet so first bought two muffins at Atwater's: Coffee Cake Pecan (Jack's request) & Bran Apricot. Both were fairly disappointing, so after a few bites, we retired them to a crumbled paper bag.

Meanwhile, Darth and T had bought an éclair and a coconut macaroon; in typical Ol fashion, that éclair was gone by the time he rounded the first corner after Bonaparte. We wandered around a bit more, and I then decided I simply must try the tacos. Back to Chaia where the team was pressing balls of masa between a tortilla press, grilling the rounds until lightly charred and fragrant and dishing up three different options: mushrooms with feta and red sauce; kale and potato with poblano sauce; and winter squash with chevre. I ordered one each of the first two and waited with eager, lip-smacking anticipation while Darth and Luke battled on a nearby grassy knoll.

These were totally worth waiting for, and my only regret is not attempting to take a better photograph. I just couldn't wait to dig in, so snapped a quicky and got to town. My favorite was the mushroom-feta taco though the kale-potato one was no slouch. They were so layered and tasty and wonderful that I briefly considered asking if I could be a no-salary intern in the Chaia kitchen for a while, just to pick up and tip or two about how I can even start to make anything like these at home. Seriously tasty and well executed. There are multiple Chaia locations, so keep an eye out and get ya' some!

FM haul, and we met Alice, as in Waters

Ol and I eagerly braved sub-30s temps this morning to head down to Dupont for the farmers market. He was lured by the promise of eclairs at Bonaparte -"Ol, I really think this constitutes 'cold enough for eclair stability'"- while I wanted beets, apples and Brussels sprouts for Thanksgiving dishes. First stop: Bonaparte.

"Do you have eclairs today?" "Mais, oui!"

Ol beamed and I ordered two because he doesn't like to share even a bite of his, and really, I can't blame him.

Then to Eco Friendly where I was chagrined to find them out of ground turkey BUT did pick up a small container of freshly rendered schmaltz. Bellissimo! And then to Twin Springs Fruit Farm for a huge variety of crisp apples, and finally to our favorite spot, New Morning Farm (an organic vegetable farm from PA), to see Grace and the crew and get all the rest of our goodies. I bought two stalks of these Brussels sprouts and while exclaiming over them was surprised when Ol asked, "that's how they come? You don't make them?" I was baffled and reminded him that all veggies grow rather than are made. He responded, "but then do you make them?" Huh? We were just not understanding each other so I moved on to the basket of beets.

On our way back to the car, we made a wildly enthusiastic detour to the farm whose name I can never remember but really like because I SPIED SUNCHOKES. Oh, praise the sunchoke season. I am giddy.

And then Ol was really cold and wanting his eclair so I said, "now we're really going to go to the car," but then y'all, we passed a book signing and I was curious and sweet jesus, it was Alice Waters herself. She was bundled to about 4x her actual size and was being such a good sport despite the truly frigid morning. In all honesty, I have never been off my head about Chez Panisse or the Waters dynasty, but I do admire all Alice does on behalf of food policy, activism, her Edible Schoolyard projects, local and clean eating, so we ambled over, and I just had to buy her lovely book. Because Ol is the greatest sous chef, I asked her to inscribe it to him too. He smiled radiantly at her, and she told him she was going to put a heart by his name for good measure. At this point he was aglow, and I swear that momentarily, the eclair disappeared from his mind. Is this darling?!

A frigid morning at the farmers market

This morning was one of those visits to the farmers market in which the idea of a leisurely stroll through the myriad stalls disappears immediately upon opening your car door and realizing just how darn cold it really is. Jack and I were on a date and we'd bundled up but wow on the wind: it was a sharp knife on wings. We scurried to our favorite stops, a raspberry palmier for Jack here, sunchokes for me there. All in all it was a fun, productive visit but as Oliver would say, "I'm brrr."

We returned home to find Oliver in prime dude form, thrilled to have just walked with T to Crate & Barrel for a new bathroom cup. I assume orange was not available as he picked neon "lellow" instead.

I had big plans to make the salad highlighted in today's NYT Magazine (house salad from Canlis in Seattle) for dinner but as T left for CA, I had class, my babysitter and I had a miscommunication about her coming today, Percy continues to pee on our couch and I can't find his dog-diaper, I decided to go with a tried-and-true house salad a la Em-i-lis (the compost salad), enjoy a single Applejack Rabbit and hit the sack with today's paper. See you all on the other side. Of the day, peeps, the day.

Oh, and I did indulge in this insanely delicious chocolate eclair from the Bonaparte stall. Perfection! DC-area folks, I highly suggest you find your way to Bonaparte (bricks-and-mortar or at the Dupont FM) and treat yourself to one or many of these.