celery potato soup & chocolate caramel tart

today we are eating healthily and need some comfort. so when i saw this recipe in the Times for celery potato soup with leeks and garlic i thought, that would be perfect. and it is. very easy to make, very delicious to eat.

i didn't bother with the bouquet garni, but threw in fresh thyme from our garden on the stem. i blended it with a hand immersion blender, didn't strain a thing, added some kosher salt, walnut oil and chives, also from our garden, and it was perfecto.

i bought a pre-made crust from the store and tried my hand for the first time at making caramel, which is surprisingly easy, as long as you know what you're doing a bit. this chocolate caramel tart from Saveur looks amazing. a friend once got a mini version for a dessert with sea salt on top and i could barely stop licking my fingers after eating it. the caramel in the pre-made crust is cooling overnight in the fridge. i will make the ganache in the morning, chill it again, add sea salt and serve it when friends come over tomorrow night. recipes this simple make me happy.

you do not need a candy thermometer to make caramel. it should boil for approx. 20-25 mins and turn the color of a copper penny but do not boil it so long it starts to smoke. (which mine totally did right before we whisked it off the heat.) that means it's burning and burnt caramel is no good, apparently. i tasted ours and it's fucking delicious so i'm not worried.

i'm really looking forward to tasting the completed tart and looking like a baking wizard.

that's right...WIZARD.

3 things you can do to help your life and health

1. cook!

According to Michael Pollan, the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, the number one thing you can do to change the food system in the US and to help you and your family eat better is to cook! He has a new book out called, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation.

Well, we already cook all the time. It's hard to keep getting inspired, but I think this is one of the best things the internet can be used for. I just made this dish with artichokes, peas, and orzo over the weekend and it was delicious. It was too time intensive for my current schedule with a baby, but the end result was delicious and it fed over 6 people for a picnic, along with a sundry of other items we had.

I also can't rave enough about this garlicky broccoli recipe from the Times as well. I make it at least once a week and because of it, my husband and I eat a lot more broccoli. It's super easy to make and is just incredibly yummy.

2. stop using plastic bottles for water!

they cost too much and are a huge detriment to the planet. buy a reusable bottle and fill it up at the tap. tap water also has fluoride in it which will help prevent cavities for you and your children- not true of filtered and bottled water! Eating Well magazine suggests this Takeya bottle is a good one. I also use Camelbak bottles which are light and easy to use and BPA free.

3. grow your own herbs and food.

we grow our own herbs and some food each year. depending on where you live (climate, i mean), you can grow a bunch of different stuff. you don't need a lot of room, but you do need sun. and water. we have a patio and this year i've already planted our herbs. we will scale back the food we grow because i have a young child and don't have much time to dedicate to watering, but i'm still looking forward to fresh herbs all summer long. plus, i will freeze them so we have fresh herbs until the following spring as well. this way you know there are no harmful chemicals on your food and once established, your garden will save you some money on expensive things like fresh herbs.

my favorite things to grow are low maintenance, high-yield like tomatoes, especially cherry tomatoes, herbs, hot peppers (thai), zucchini, lettuces. this year we are doing herbs and maybe one tomato plant and that's it. we also have a fig tree and two blueberry bushes that i hope will produce a lot of berries this year!

yay, spring!

sweetness

sometimes life is so perfect, for a moment or a few, that it pierces my heart. it is so dear to me- all my loved ones, the smell of just cut grass, dawn breaking on a spring day when all is quiet and peaceful, the birds chirping with promise and joy, the sun on the ocean of a lazy afternoon, the sound of crickets on a summer night, burning leaves in fall, a ripe strawberry, the memory of watching planes land with my father and brothers, my grandmother's lipstick on a teacup, holding my husbands hand as we walk through new york, catching lightning bugs as a child, the memory of my mother's hands and voice, the end of a cocktail party with my parents when we were satisfied and tired, laughing with my dearest friends...so much laughter, christmas morning with my mother, someone else's music floating in through my windows on a breeze, the caw of a crow in the distance...the mere thought of my son. my beautiful, beautiful son.

i feel its dearness and fragility and endless beauty and in the same moment i know i will say good-bye to it one day. it is both Right and heart-breaking.

i love so deeply, i am loved so well. at the end of all of it, that's all that matters. that's all of it.

just float, float with the fish.

Vivian Maier

A woman is born in NYC, grows up in France, returns to the States and works as a nanny for about 40 years. While she is working as a nanny, she also take photographs. Thousands and thousands of photographs. And never shows them to anyone.

Finding Vivian Maier

Her photos are incredible. And I love how private she was. Especially in our celebrity culture now, to have someone who was so passionate about her work, so talented and persistent, and yet avoided the public eye...it's very moving to me.

To make art for the act of making it alone - I have a lot of respect for that.

I can't wait to see the documentary.

Article on Maier.

Coffee table book of her photographs.

The Artichoke

i tend not to capitalize my typed words because a) i like the appearance of lower case letters better; and b) one of my shift keys is broken. but i will capitalize The Artichoke because it's one of my favorite foods.

so when i saw THIS in today's NY Times (again, respect), i thought, well, i'll pay homage to one of my all time favorite foods. the smell of a steaming Artichoke in my home continues to be one of the most comforting olfactory experiences in my life. the taste of the leaves and heart (it has a heart!) with melted butter, mayo, or a vinaigrette is so delicious i often have to do it in silence to bask in the joy.

my mother told me that her mother would serve artichokes when one of her children would bring home a date to see if they were sophisticated enough to know how to properly eat one. i hadn't realized, until then, that it was used as a weapon in class warfare. thanks, granny! 

now that spring is here, i see some of the tasty treats in our near future. i may even make 4 for me and my husband so i can really luxuriate in its wonder.

two great articles on parenting

i read a lot of articles on parenting written by women these days. i miss my mom and wonder what advice she would give me now in my life. i think this article by Elsa Walsh might be close to some things she would tell me.

this was a particularly useful quote for me:
"Learn how to manage conflict, because the greater the level you can tolerate, the more freedom you will retain. Making compromises is a healthy approach to living.
For a woman to say she is searching for a “good enough” life is not failure — it is maturity and self-knowledge."

i don't have a career at the moment, but i'd like one someday. and so i try to take notes from those who have already forged that path and have a family.

this is another good one on the values we have as American parents. the things we don't realize we value and therefore emphasize when parenting our children.

it basically says we, as Americans, value intelligence over other qualities and therefore try to provide intellect-growing stimulus for our kids all the time. i do find myself thinking this way sometimes, although i also really value a person's ability to interact socially with ease and grace as well, so i'm sure i'll emphasize that with my son (something the Italians value a lot which makes sense to me).

"Every society interprets its children in its own way: The Dutch, for example, liked to talk about long attention spans and “regularity,” or routine and rest. (In the Dutch mind, asking lots of questions is a negative attribute: It means the child is too dependent.) The Spanish talked about character and sociality, the Swedes about security and happiness. And the Americans talked a lot about intelligence. Intelligence is Americans’ answer. In various studies, American parents are always seen trying to make the most of every moment—to give their children a developmental boost. From deep inside the belly of American parenthood, this is so obvious it isn’t even an observation. It is only by looking at other societies that you can see just how anomalous such a focus is."

good food for thought!

best laid plans.

probably one of the most difficult parts of parenting a very little one is managing my expectations of what *should* be happening vs what is happening.

these darn babies, they have a will of their own, their own needs, desires, and ideas of what should happen at any given moment.

it's been a good, albeit frustrating, lesson on patience and ... i want to say fortitude. stay the path, take a deep breath, take twenty. don't freak out because there's cat shit on the floor for the third time today (old, aging cat = disgusting things you'd never thought you'd live with) and my son is screaming because he's hungry and had shots at the dr today and i'm also hungry and all the bottles are dirty and the washing machine is broken and i have three important phone calls that i've been trying to make during business hours for the past two weeks and he has no clean clothes and i had to dig pajamas out of the dirty hamper last night.

take a breath. take five.

after he has his bottle and burps and spits up on me and i calm him from squirming because he's impatient and TIRED of being held still and vertical in a vain attempt to minimize spit ups, he turns to me and breaks out into a huge, heart breaking smile. hello, dimple. hello new reason for living.

back to crying, squirming, cat is meowing for food, he spits up, rag falls to floor, phone is ringing...

it never stops. well, maybe for a few minutes but by that time i'm so fried i just sit in a chair and stare at the wall or tv or internet. a video of someone juggling socks? great. don't care, as long as it isn't taxing.

but the thing is i've grown really good at being like, well, shit, that didn't work. try again. or try it this way. try later. make a note. ask for help.

i have an old address on my driver's license. yes, i've lived in my apt for 2 1/2 years. i went to the DMV like a million years ago when we first moved in to update my address and they got it wrong so my new license never came and then i got pregnant and had a baby and there you go. now i want to take books out of the library and i need a current and correct license with which to do this.

fine. i go to the DMV website. find the online application to sign up for an online DMV account which is what i need to do in order to fill out the online form in order to update my address on file in order to fill out the form to update my license.
i enter all the information. i get a "this does not match our records on file" message from their website. so it looks like i will be sitting on hold with an earphone in my ear while i play with my son sometime soon.

take a breath.

i called a financial fund i have earlier today to ask a few questions. i want to transfer something, how do i do that? you fill out a form. (see a theme?) i go to the website. the form i need is not available on their website. i'll have to call back again during business hours.

sigh.

now 40 minutes of my unbelievably precious 90-120 minutes of "me" time has vanished and i still need to wash bottles, make dinner and clean and RELAX before tomorrow at 6:30 is here again.

off to make food! don't know what i'll make. i'll have to see what jumps out at me when i open the fridge.