Word to your mother

Me: [Singing the "It's Logistics" song from that UPS commercial]
Chris: Don't do that.
Me: Hey, you can't talk to me like that. It's Mother's Day. It's my day.
Chris: Why does your day have to involve ruining my day?

Anywho, we actually had a lovely Mother's Day. It involved seafood enchiladas, Berger cookies and wine. An ideal combination for this mother. Hope you all treated the mamas in our life with some respect and allowed them to sing whatever obnoxious commercial jingles they want to their heart's content.

Friday bliss: Smoked blue cheese

I guess I'm on a smoked cheese kick, since I also recently fell for smoked mozzarella. This is Smokey Blue from Rogue Creamery and it's destined to top salads, along with pear, pecans and a balsamic vinaigrette. I actually prefer the overtly smokiness of Moody Blue, but this will certainly do.

And I'm just going to shut up about cell phone pics. I'm clearly not going to stop posting them. And I blame Instagram.

Prison de bébé

I was standing in line at Paul, a new bakery in Penn Quarter,  the other day and while admiring the racks upon racks of fresh crusty bread and the displays of delicate French pastries,  this adorable (yet somewhat medieval) high chair caught my eye:

It is like the mullet of booster seats: business up top, party down below. Or prison down below. It's a banker's chair with a baby leg cage. The bakery has gone to great lengths to recreate a rustic French atmosphere, which makes me wonder if this is what all children's furniture looks like in France. Cribs with padded headboards and canopies? Mahogany swings upholstered in the finest chintz? Le Gaurde-meuble meets Graco.

By the way - the bread (particularly the olive bread used to make the tomato and mozzarella sandwich) is great, though the line and the service suck terribly.

Asiago and Basil Risotto

This sound fancy but was actually created in a moment of desperation. Since we'd been away for the weekend, our pantry was looking pretty sorry, save some arborio rice. Fate would have it that the last speck of cheese in the house was a perfect amount of asiago and my tiny (but mighty) little basil plant was thriving in a warm windowsill. I'd say that circumstance brought them all together for a delicious meal worth repeating.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 c. onion, finely chopped
• 1 tbs. butter (sorry, MK!)
• 1 cup Arborio rice
• 3/4 c. dry white wine
• 2 1/2 c. chicken broth
• 1/2 c. fresh basil, finely chopped
• 1/2 c. shredded asiago cheese
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Melt butter in pan over medium heat. Add onion and saute until soft. 
2. Add rice and continue to saute and stir until it becomes a little bit translucent. 
3. Pour in white wine and cook, stirring frequently, until it has all been absorbed by the rice. 
4. While wine cooks off, heat broth for a minute or two in a large mug in the microwave. Until it gets a little bit steamy.
5. Add 1 c. broth. Like the wine, stir frequently and allow it to be absorbed by the rice. Do the same rest of the broth, in 1/2 c. batches.
6. When the rice is just cooked through and has absorbed all of the liquid, stir in basil and cheese.

Teaser

I haven't written up tonight's recipe yet, but here is a sneak peak of the star ingredient:



Welcome,summer. Now, get crackin' on some fresh tomatoes, would ya?

Accessories make the man

Just playing with some actions and templates. And faaaabulous accessories.

Beach bums

As you could probably surmise from Friday's post, we were away this weekend for our first beach trip of the year. Thanks for not robbing us, Internet strangers!

The Peanut loved the beach just as much as he did last year. He has lost his taste for eating sand, but not for running headlong in to the surf. Why are toddlers so obnoxiously suicidal? Friday was our only real day at the beach, Saturday and Sunday were a bit too chilly, but it was positively gorgeous. And there was hardly anyone there. Probably because it was still, um, April. Rock on, Global Warming.


Doing his best George Burns impression.



A sad little turtle Chris found.



Enjoying the kite festival on the boardwalk.