Oh.My.Grapeness

WOW! I kept going with my grape/rosemary obsession and ended up with this unbelievably good compote. It is SO, so good. I'm not going to try and preserve it because I'm not confident about the acid level, but I think freezing it would work well. I'll try and let you know, if it lasts long enough in my fridge. All the while I was cooking it, I envisioned it as a star at any Thanksgiving table. Don't Concord grapes just scream New World to you? In any case, this would also be delicious with any grilled or roasted meat and also, I suspect, with polenta topped with melting taleggio. Have mercy. Recipe will be posted momentarily!

Humid! Hot! Kids love waves! I love fresh food!

This afternoon, we took family pictures on the beach as a gift to my mother-in-law. The photographer reminded me of Jeffrey Dean Morgan if he'd moved to Hawaii and adopted a real kumbaya mindset. By about 8 minutes in, Oliver was wet from the navel down, and Jack -having not napped or eaten much in the prior 5 minutes- was totally on edge, literally twitching with the need to jump in, get wet, "jump the waves. The kids LOVE the ocean. It was also about 90 degrees with 100% humidity, so by the time we rangled everyone home, everyone was fried and sweaty. I do hope we got some good pics. We all sort of plodded our ways through the next hour and a half, and when I checked 5 minutes ago, my sister-in-law was still in bed with her oldest, and Oliver had turned on all the lights, found a plastic bag with which he was playing and taken apart an ironing board. Eff, kids. Go the F to Sleep! Who's read that book? Priceless!

Anyway, all's well, and I made dinner: grilled sausages from Cibola Farms (at the dupont farmers market); roasted eggplant with garlic, lemon and reduced balsamic; summer squash and wax bean -Oliver: "I looove those lellow beans."- salad with pine nuts, garlic oil, mint and basil; and savoy cabbage with bacon and sweet onions. Yum! If only I'd churned out some dessert as well. There's always tomorrow.

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