Have decided to ignore cold, on tap for dinner

I am, at this point, so flipping annoyed with my snorting and other cold manifestations that I have decided to pretend it doesn't exist. To the best of my abilities. I fully intend to have a glass of cold white tonight as we will be enjoying fresh Pacific cod and a fennel/Meyer lemon/green olive/garlic dish I'm currently concocting in my head. Don't these ingredients look lovely?!

As I believe I mentioned, Jack's school called midday; he felt sick and wanted me to come. I hurried over, and within five minutes of picking him felt sure he was half-faking. He is totally pooped, this is true, and doesn't have school until next Monday, so I didn't much mind, but I must say that at this point I'm feeling a little talked out as he and Ol have NOT been meek ones this afternoon. PLEASE GO TO BED. I swear to you that if I hear any from a handful of words (all scatological in nature, really), I'm going to start spinning like the Tasmanian devil. Oh, and no they're trying to pick each other's noses. Jesus. What happened to the overabundance of knock-knock jokes? At this point, I might accept those back.

Delicious casserole dinner

I swear I never thought I would write that. The word "casserole" often makes me cringe, as do "all-you-can-eat buffet," "salve," and "melt" as that one pertains to food. Oh, and "human" when pronounced "you-man." Brr, I just don't like them; they make me shiver with some sort of generalized yuk. As it happens, I'm getting over "casserole," probably because I've made or eaten several quite good ones in the past year. Tonight's dinner was no exception. In fact, I really liked it a lot and will share the recipe with you! I had two medium heads of orange cauliflower from the farmers market, some homemade ricotta, Gruyère, and pancetta that I wanted to use so started musing on an easy dish in which I could combine them all. Aaah, casserole. I blanched the cauliflower in simmering salt water, sauteed some shallots/garlic/pancetta in a bit of butter with sage and sliced apple, soaked some old baguette in milk, tossed all that together with some ricotta and grated Gruyère, and then topped it with butter/sage/nutmeg toasted breadcrumbs. Bake. Serve. Scene. Here, a before and after.

Meatless Monday pasta yum, debates are over

I definitely think our Pres won tonight's debate, making his take a solid 2 of 3. Yay!! For dinner, we enjoyed this simple meatless pasta full of garlic, a peperoncino, parsley, marjoram, olive oil, tomatoes and, admittedly, two anchovy filets. I didn't buy them today! They don't produce methane! Is it OK? In any case, good.