Yesterday's jam, today's pizza, hubs & idioms

Peeps, I miss my husband. He has worked so late so often recently that I've not even seen him until the next morning. I didn't see him the night before I left for New Mexico, obviously didn't see him while I was away, and have only spent 50% of the nights since I've returned sharing equally tired space before tucking in. It's hard on both of us, in different ways and at different times. "Ships in the night" is such an accurate idiom, isn't it? It's like "white on rice" or "you catch more flies with honey." Though I love "to beat sixty" and "it's six and one, half-dozen the other," they really make zero sense unless your intonation and the context are spot-on suggestive. Usually, spot-on suggestive is not my problem, but you see what I'm saying.

In any case, seeing one's spouse for roughly 75 minutes per day is not conducive to feeling terribly connected. Indeed, T often gets up with the boys so that I can have a bit more sleep and time off, so really, we're probably more in the 45 minute/day range right now. No good. I see the security guards at school more than that. And while I really like Officers W, J and M, I did not marry any one of them.

Such is life I guess. "This too shall pass." That one's pretty good unless people are being overly platitudinous with it.

Blahby, blah. The recipe for yesterday's jam, Apple, Pear & Lemon Thyme, is now posted, and tonight I made a hell of a great pizza. I mean like, off-the-hook outstanding. Pizzerias should use this basic recipe.

Ready? A great crust, olive oil, Maldon, a light sprinkle of crushed red pepper, LOTS of torn basil, grilled eggplant Calabrian-style (I bought this, the crust and the fresh mozz at Vace, a favorite local store of mind), Iberico-style cured pork (like prosciutto or speck; I got this award-winning one from EcoFriendly Foods at the Dupont farmers market), grated smoked mozzarella, fresh mozzarella, more basil.

After some time on the grill, I tossed some chopped figs (fresh; actually 1 fig; from my garden; that's all I had.), some of the eggplant's oil and some pimentón- and peperoncino-infused finishing salt. Sososososo good!

Grilled cheese + tomato soup = always a winner

After snarfing breakfast (fried egg on toast) so as to get J to Tae Kwon Do on time and then snarfing lunch (avocado, peppery olive oil and chevre on olive bread) so as to get to the gym on time, I patently refused to do anything but enjoy dinner. For the boys I made grilled salmon, pasta aglio olio, broccoli and oranges, and later for us, tomato and white bean soup with olive croutons and two cheese-grilled cheeses with Iberico ham. You simply cannot go wrong with any of these items. Plus, in making the soup, I christened my new pumpkin cocotte. I am smitten with it. Completely so. And no, skeptical husbands out there, it is not difficult to clean.

The soup included a whole bunch of basil and a pinch of saffron, a fair amount of garlic and a Parmesan rind. Tomatoes, white beans, olive oil and some peperoncino rounded things out, and the garlicky olive bread croutons were a delightful topper.

Meanwhile, a grilled cheese sandwich is always made better by being served alongside a bowl of steaming tomato soup. This duo can be as basic as a white bread-American cheese griller with a cup of Campbell's or as fancy as a multi-cheeser on artisan bread dunked in a vessel of just-crafted tomato bisque. Tonight I slicked slices of seed-heavy harvest bread with good butter before sandwiching them around shavings of both extra sharp white cheddar and black pepper-Parmesan as well as a paper-thin slice of Iberico ham from the farmers market. These were off the hook.

And dessert was The Knick, one of the best episodes yet. If y'all are not watching this excellent, engrossing show, you must. I wait for it with baited breath-anticipation every week. Clive Owen is too hot to be real. Mon dieu. Meow!

Speaking of meow, look at my doll-baby laundry cat. Look at the rear paws- could you die?!