Just beyond

A chilly weekend away in southern Maine at the end of March doesn't exactly scream "baby moon," but that's what we called it.

Over the last eight years, Peter and I have taken many, many trips - both big and small - together. Our first was to Williamsburg, Virginia about six months after we met. The town was all decked out for Christmas, and we bopped around eating and drinking and generally feeling extremely adult about the whole thing. That Sunday afternoon was drizzly and cold, but there was a promise of fireworks once it got dark enough, so Peter got a taste of how serious I am about pyrotechnics because we stayed on that town green until the bitter, celebratory end.

Then there were the weekends in New York, before we lived there. Weekends in D.C., after we lived there. Weekends in Boston, before we moved here for good. There were wedding celebrations in Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Illinois, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, North Carolina. Winter weekends skiing in the Berkshires, driving into the wilds of Canada, bopping down to Newport.

And big trips. Taking off for nearly a month to roam around Brazil, and then Hawaii. Week-long stays in Paris, and Charleston.

In the middle of our Brazil trip, which we took off on just days after getting engaged, we went to different beaches all the time, ate so much grilled meat, brought cards everywhere we went to play gin rummy because everyone around us seemed to be doing the same, and I remember one night, probably about halfway into the trip when Peter and I were out at bar where the floor was covered with a thick spread of sand underneath our feet, he said very casually, "It's so lucky that I get to spend all my days with you."

In celebration of these days together, when it is just an us, we ate fried sea food, and took a long walk by the steely grey water, perched as gracefully as possible atop bar stools, and toasted to this lovely, lucky life we have together, and to all the lovely, lucky things that await us, just beyond our line of sight.

Which Way to the Bulb Show

Last weekend we went to the annual Smith College Spring Bulb Show. We used to go most years when I was growing up, but I don't think I've been for at least 10 years! It was such a great way to spend a warm, late winter afternoon. 

The first room is stuffed to the brim with flowering trees, tulips, and daffodils, and the smell is intoxicating. 

Doesn't this all feel so happy and bright?

This is the last weekend of the show, if you're in the area and are looking for a cold weather antidote!

The dusty house will wait

I took these lovely photos last spring of the blooming tree outside our old apartment. Like everyone else, I'm so desperate for these sunny, springy skies to return. Hopefully it doesn't feel too cruel to share them while we're still suffering below freezing temps in the northeast. They are giving me hope as we turn the calendar over to March this weekend!

This weekend is packed to the brim with fun stuff, and I'm so excited. Tonight we're going to a play, tomorrow night a party, and then Sunday to dinner at a friend's! We'll also be doing some house stuff - painting the bathroom vanity upstairs, maybe experimenting with taking down some paneling off the bedroom walls (Peter doesn't know about that plan yet, though!), and shopping for new floors. Whew!

Our house is a disaster zone - the entire kitchen was gutted down to the studs this week, and the dust levels are insane (though our contractor is doing his very best to keep it all contained as much as possible!). Next week I'll try to share some pictures of the craziness! It will be good to get out and about.

I've been thinking a lot about how we should be spending these last few weeks before parenthood duties officially kick-off. We're doing so much work around the house (and spending so much money!) that it's tempting to just hunker down and focus all our attention there. But this week I've been emailing with a girlfriend who had the most darling baby a few months ago. She gives great advice (about literally everything), so I desperately asked her what I should be doing during this weird time period, thinking I might be failing to accomplish something important like pre-washing bottles and baby clothes (which I don't even own yet).

But no. She had much better - much saner - advice. Go out to dinner. Take care of yourself. Have adventures. That's been spinning around in my mind all week. So I booked a weekend away to our beloved Portland, ME, and I've also put together a short mental list of local stuff I'd love to do, like going back to the Gardner and trying this fun looking new spot.

That advice really works for almost all of us, no matter what our lives look like at the moment, right? The dusty house will wait, but we need to make space to enjoy the fleeting blooms on the trees.

Getting Ready

This semester, one of my classes is being taught by the editor of The Horn Book. Yesterday we got to visit their offices, which featured stuffed shelf after stuffed shelf of children's book - essentially, heaven. I love the magazine's most recent magazine cover from the lovely Jonathan Beam.

It's fitting on multiple levels right now. I could practically build a snowman this large with the amount of snow in my tiny yard. And we're getting ready to go back into building, renovating, and construction-mode in our house. The plan is for the latest (and maybe final?!?) round to be done by mid-April, leaving a couple of weeks to clear the dust ahead of my due date (which I share with Grace and Olivia, weirdly enough! Also, those are two names are on our long list of girl's names, ha.). If the baby comes early, though, hooooooly cow.

I'll be able to give more of an update about our plans later, once we review all the quotes and make our final-final decisions about what to do. Suffice to say, I'm having frantic thoughts at 4:00 a.m. about setting up our dressers in the bathroom upstairs and assessing how many slow-cooker recipes are actually in my repertoire (not nearly enough).

Plans for the weekend include watching the open ceremony tonight with take-out, lots of school work, and hosting friends for a dinner party on Sunday. I have zero ideas about what to make, which isn't like me, but I'm sure it will come together just fine. (Just kidding, as I was reading over this post, some inspiration struck: meatballs with braised onions and mashed potatoes, carrots and fennel, and the most perfect brownies would all be good.)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, friends!

A Shot of Spring

Abbie shared a link to the Lyman Estate Greenhouses last week, and I was immediately sold. It's just a few minutes away from our house, so on Sunday afternoon, Peter and I popped in for a much needed shot of spring.

There are four lush greenhouses that are all connected, as well as a nice plant shop that has succulents, orchids, and citrus trees for sale. The whole place smells so clean and wet and green.

In a few weeks, their camellia blooming season officially starts, which sounds lovely. There were tons of unopened blooms on all the plants in that greenhouse, so it might be worth a repeat visit (and then you can buy a ticket to see the estate, too!). It's the perfect anecdote to our endless seeming winter.

If you go, you'll also be right near here, too! Sadly, it's closed on Sundays (WHY are you closed on Sundays, Moody's Delicatessen?!?!), but next time. Next time.

Winter Cooking

We've been cooking so many good things lately, but I've been terrible about sharing! This post is a giant collection of yummy things that have come out of our kitchen in 2014. Up above was our New Years Day dinner - Hoppin' John, corn bread, and Ina's broccoli rabe with garlic (a Northern's version of greens?!). I think it's bringing us luck so far.

Next was a fantastic dish Peter made - toad in the hole. He remembered an au pair making this when he was a kid, so it was fun to recreate. There were a mix of spicy and sweet sausages, which I highly recommend.

Remember when I told you I had a pineapple hanging around? Part of it went into this gingery stir fry with sugar snap peas, broccoli, shredded carrots, and left-over beef brisket (I don't have pictures of that, but Peter used these tips from Chow Hound to make it).

Over the years, I've figured out how to rework lots of things to avoid tomatoes, but ragout always stumped me. A few weeks ago, we had both left-over lamb stew that had lots of carrots, and also a mixture of sausages cooked with onions and peppers. I pulled out the meat from both dishes and chopped it up very finely (it basically fell apart since they'd both been cooked before), and then put all the vegetables into the food processor. I combined the meat and vegetables with some butter and let it simmer for a while, and then added a blob of goat cheese right at the end. Not AT ALL traditional, but it was seriously amazing. I'm not sure I'll ever have that weird combination of left-overs again in my life, but it's worth trying to recreate it. We had a kale and arugula salad with red pears to go with it.

And finally, Ina Garten's baked shrimp scampi. Shrimp is one of those weird foods that inexplicably scares me to cook (for years I didn't like it, so maybe that's why?). I was flipping through one of her cookbooks, though, and this caught my eye. Peter had been on a grading tear, so I peeled and de-veined the shrimp myself (not my favorite job), and even still, this dish was totally worth it. It would be a great choice if you're making a fun dinner at home for Valentine's Day this year - it's even pink!

What are you cooking this winter?

California, Here We Come

(Watercolor map via Stamen Design)

This is a somewhat cruel announcement to make while most of the country is suffering from such awful cold weather, but we're headed to San Diego in a couple of weeks for a sunshiny vacation with my family! 

I've been pulling together a list of restaurants and things we'd like to do, including the usual suspects like Balboa Park, the San Diego Zoo, a Stone Brewery tour, and shopping around La Jolla. I've been using Eat This Poem's Literary City Guide and the Design Sponge City Guide as my jumping off points, but please do let me know if you have any additional tips or suggestions!

A Little Ice Age

(Wilson Bentley's snowflake photos)

I'm reading Adam Gopnik's Winter in an attempt to overcome my distaste for the season we're smack in the middle of. It's kind of working? It's certainly a beautiful meditation on the many pleasures (and challenges) that winter can bring. This week we experienced a bit of a thaw, and I find myself thinking, I can totally do this! But alas, more snow is on the way; if not this weekend, then surely sometime soon.

The photos above are from Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley's stunning photography collection. He was obsessed with capturing images of snowflakes, but one thing Gopnik notes is that these snowflakes are certainly not the norm. Most aren't symmetrical, or have pretty boring shapes. They may be unique, but that alone doesn't make them noteworthy (sort of like people, no?).

One other interesting tidbit - did you know there was a Little Ice Age between about 1550-1850 where the Northern Hemisphere was significantly colder than it was before and after? I did not! It was during that time period that lots of snowy, grey paintings were created in Europe. This is a stunning little collection you can click through, if you're interested!

Do you have fun plans for the weekend? We've been giving our upstairs bathroom a bit of a makeover in the last few weeks, and I hope we'll be able to buy a new vanity this weekend! Aaand hopefully we won't be too tired for some kind of date tonight (I want to see Frozen, Her, and Wolf of Wall Street - anybody have any recs?).

Happy Friday to all!

P.S. The essays in Winter were originally broadcast on the CBC - you can listen to part 1 here. 

Winter Trip to NYC

It already feels like a lifetime ago, but earlier this week, Peter and I popped down to NYC for a fun overnight. We drove right into midtown so that I could wait in line for rush ticket to see Waiting for Godot while Peter parked the car and checked into our hotel. The timing worked out perfectly - just when I finished up in line, he met me!

We had about an hour and a half before the show started, so we went to Benoit for brunch. On this trip, we wanted to force ourselves to try a few new places (it's so easy to just return to old favorites!), and this was one of them. Generally, the Eater 38 list is great for some direction since there are just so many restaurants. Benoit is delightfully French and charming, and the location couldn't be beat for proximity to the theater.

Broadway theaters are so beautiful, no? This show, featuring Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart, was such a pleasure to watch. I wasn't familiar with the play beforehand, and was surprised at how accessible it was (though I'm sure there was quite a bit I missed, too!). 

After the show, we were able to meet up with a smattering of old friends at the Headless Horseman in Union Square. It was nice and open, and could even accomodate a cute baby and all his gear! We've been so lucky to meet a lot of new friends in Boston, but I still miss all those NYC friends so much, particularly my girlfriends, so it was amazing to get to catch up for a little bit. 

For dinner that night, we went to Gramercy Tavern, an old favorite. We ate in the tavern part (and actually have never been to the dining room - maybe someday!). Everything was still decked out like crazy for the holidays - I love the decor there almost as much as the food and service. I had two dishes I'd like to try to recreate at home: an amazing grilled radicchio and apple salad with pistachios, and a smoked potato chowder with mussels, fish, and octopus (I'd probably skip the octopus at home!). 

The next morning, we left our downtown hotel and caught a peek at the Freedom Tower - very impressive! - on our way to MOMA. We came here years ago on a packed free Friday evening, and even though it was still quite busy, it was lovely to return.

After exploring the museum for a few hours, we headed to Kin Shop for lunch, another new-to-us spot that had been our list even before we moved. The space is serene and cool, and the food is fantastic. We shared fried Brussels sprouts with Chinese sausage and the stir fried Dungeness crab noodles - both incredible. As we were leaving, Peter realized we were very close to Amorino, so, of course, we had to pop over there for a bit of gelato.

We made one final stop at Gorilla Coffee in our old neighborhood before hitting the road back to Boston. In fact, I'm sipping that delicious coffee as I type!

NYC, it was so wonderful to see you again!

Vacation Days

Happy New Year, friends! I hope you had a lovely close to 2013.

For the last few days, I've been thinking about how very different my life is now compared to this time last year. I desperately wanted to be pregnant, and we were desperately searching for a house to buy. Both were more difficult to achieve than anticipated! There is something strange - and wonderful, of course, so, so wonderful - about getting the things you want most. Things felt somewhat lonely and sad last winter, wishing for these things to come into my life that turned out to be quite out of my control.

I can't say that I'm grateful for that time, or that I learned lots of profound lessons. Really, I just wish I could go back and tell myself to be a bit more zen about everything. I'm trying to carry that message into this year, and have been thinking a lot about patience, and how much I'll need to cultivate it in the coming months. Patience with our slowly evolving house, with myself during the rest of pregnancy and new motherhood, with finding my footing professionally during all this change, with Peter and our new baby.

Last night, we went to our dear friends' apartment in the South End for a small New Years party, just like last year. The food was incredible, we played games right up until the ball drop, and then we toasted each other at midnight with Champagne. Today, I'm making corn bread and hoppin' john while forging ahead on back issues of the New Yorker and my big stack of library books, just like last year.

But everything looks different in this bright new light.

Gnocchi with Lentils and Prosciutto

When we were in Montreal, we had the most decadent, duck-fat filled creation at Au Pied de Cochon with gnocchi, lentils, and all kinds of meat. We tried to re-create it at my parent's house about a month ago, and it was delicious, but I wanted to see if I could do again with an even more humble interpretation since we used an amazing duck liver mousse the first time around.

I'm know I just said I'm desperate for spring flavors, but as we hunker down for yet another snow storm (!), this kind of comforting, stick to your ribs food still feels right. The ingredient list is a little long, but you could sub out anything on it (except the gnocchi and lentils!). Celery, cauliflower, broccoli, and kale could all be nice additions, and I think a vegetarian version would be just lovely.

I've done my best with the directions, but this loose recipe is bound to frustrate you rule-followers in our midst :) If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments!

Gnocchi with Lentils and Prosciutto

Serves 4
You will need:

1 package potato gnocchi
1/2 cup lentils
1 medium onion, chopped
1 carrot, sliced and halved
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 pound mushrooms (we used oyster)
3 slices prosciutto, torn into bite-sized pieces
1 cup liquid - water, stock, wine, and cream (I used some of each)

The original dish had pickled beets - divine. In place of that, I used a small bundle of broccoli rabe for some bitterness. Also, a warning: regular beets will turn the dish pink :) The original was also meatier - feel free to add sausage, duck, chicken, or pate of some kind if you're feeling fancy!
Preheat the oven to 325 F.

Boil the lentils for a bit, just to get them going in the cooking process - maybe 15 minutes. You don't want to turn them into mush since they cook in the oven, too. While those are cooking, saute the vegetables in a bit of butter until soft, about 10 minutes. In a casserole dish, combine the uncooked gnocchi, lentils, and vegetables. Season generously with salt and pepper. Add liquid until you can see it come up the sides, but don't submerge everything - I'd guess you need about a cup total. Place the torn pieces of prosciutto on top - the liquid you added shouldn't really make these wet at all.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the gnocchi is soft and the prosciutto is crispy.

Forcing Spring

OMG. Happy March 1st!!! The forecast called for a rainy/snowy mix today, but the weather gods could clearly see that we've been pushed to the limit in Boston - the sun is shining, and all looks much better than it did before we turned the page on the calendar.

This is the time of year when I get very itchy to wear my plethora of pink clothing. I'm tired of piling mountains of blankets on the bed, and I'm desperate for some asparagus. However! These things won't be viable options for about six more weeks. It's time to force spring in my life. 

I'm already on my second pot of daffodils - they're only $2.50 at Trader Joe's, and they are so happy and cheerful. I might need one for every room in the house. I've also got my little Easter tree up (with branches I stole - spy-style - from our neighbors at dusk!). These will be replaced with forsythia or some other floral thing as soon as I can get my hands on it from the grocery store.  

And speaking of the grocery store! I can't eat another parsnip or butternut squash. In this funny interim stage, I buy frozen artichokes, asparagus, and peas, lots of the those plastic packets of fresh herbs (mint and parsley feel especially good right now), and big bags of lemons. The dish above is based on this recipe, but I added feta and olives - delicious additions that I highly recommend. 

For fun stuff, I would absolutely love to make it to the Bulb Show at Smith this year, and I sort of feel like I need this shirt to celebrate spring's impending arrival. Is anyone else as desperate for spring as I am?!