Ombré mint chocolate cake and dinner

A day of cooking and eating, in pictures.

This is yummy! 

Roasted asparagus...

Caramelized shallot, cabbage, tasso and goat cheese tart.

Happy Earth Day

I had every intention of heading home immediately after the gym this morning to wash my grease-mess hair. Once home, however, the sun was shining just so, the breeze was blowing in just the right way and, I remembered, it's Earth Day.

To my garden I went, tout de suite!

My tulips have put on less and less of a show over the past few years, and I've been meaning to dig up the bulbs, give the ones the squirrels haven't gnawed at a serious Bulb Tone bath, and replant. I assumed I'd be twenty minutes, thirty max. Because my hair. It's truly disgusting.

Once in, well, you know what happened. I gently tilled up every leaves-only tulip I saw, all the while throwing away every grub I encountered and making small, appreciative talk with each worm. I'm certain that if anyone was listening, they thought me slightly off. I was just thanking those worms left and right. Whatever.

It occurred to me, once I had the bulbs soaking in their restorative pool, that now would be the time to add new perennials, something else I've been meaning to do.

To the nursery I went, immédiatement.

Oh, the nursery. It's my happy place until I run into the happy, corpulent jester-wannabe whose jokes I just can't learn to love. Bygones. I did not encounter said person and left with a tray of beautiful plants and a few veggies. 

Two hours later, things look better than ever. More worm-talk, more grubs in the trash, the soil so nicely aerated and happy, the tended tulips back home. 

I have decided not to spend today listening to any climate change-denying foolishness but rather to enjoy my little patch, toss my compost pile, clean and recycle old plastic bags and be grateful for all those working for the health our Earth. If you'd like to learn a bit more about Earth Day's history, activism on its behalf, why we need environmental regulation and so forth, read my Earth Day 2014 post.

On the way in, I picked some fresh mint from a pot on my deck. I've been eyeing some spring pea tortellini that I'd stashed in the freezer a couple weeks ago and thought a mint-lemon-butter sauce would make them sing.

spring pea tortellini with mint-lemon butter

Indeed. Delicious and so very pretty. 

Dinner last night was darn good too: halibut with mango salsa, roasted asparagus and homemade yeast rolls. 

yeast roll dough

buttered moons ready to bake

voila

Saturday night wishes

Friends, I would be psyched if a leprechaun laid a fire in my fireplace, lit it, gave me a foot massage and bolted out the door with nary a word. Sounds good, yes? If only leprechauns were real. Earlier, I had a somewhat lengthy meeting and then exercised before T handed the kids off to me in the gym lobby. We saw him briefly once he returned home but he's been at the office for the past five hours and is still MIA. During this serious amount of weekend quality time, the boys and I made Valentines, killed each other with Sith evil and sabers, took a walk to exchange Jack's roll of quarters for a $10 to find that bank was closed so now I have a heavy roll in my purse and Jack has my "crisp" and then, post-bath (theirs) settled into my bed to have Part 1 of The Talk which tonight was a lovely discussion about how girl and boy body parts differ. Bath-time to Sex Ed-time was actually a terrifically smooth segue being that J donned his scuba goggles in the bath to better study Ol's private area.

Jesus.

Finally, the night was mine, and despite the fact that I could have hit the sack then, I could not bear to let the beautiful filet of Chilean Sea Bass (Patagonian Toothfish, folks. Those marketers can't fool me!) that I bought yesterday go to waste. As such, I summoned the will to poach it in fresh whey and cinnamon, steam up some Carolina gold rice (also in whey) and roast some asparagus because surely T would be home soon. Alas no, and now this beautiful meal is growing cold on the table (though natch I ate while it was hot). Sad. We have been tag-teaming ships in the night lately; I haven't spent an evening with him since Wednesday and do miss him. Perhaps tomorrow night.

At the least Valentine's Day which is A) Friday, B) one of my three favorite holidays, and C) extra-amazing this year because my in-laws INVITED THE CHILDREN TO SPEND THE NIGHT THAT NIGHT!!!!!!!!! That's better than a damn leprechaun, people. So anyway, maybe I'll see T then.

Dinner was very good as, by the way, was breakfast this morning, aka 4 trillion hours ago: fresh ricotta (hence the whey on hand) plus the pear-ginger-black pepper preserves. That is a great recipe I tell you. They were a hit last night (served with Brie and toasted baguette) and I made more today.