This week’s beautiful bouquet from the Union Square Greenmarket.
[Yes, that’s my desk you see in the background…don’t tell anyone how messy it is, ok?]
Ok, now I know most of you won’t need such detailed instructions on how to put together a little bruschetta…but I came up with this for Mimi.
Mimi, who, when she asked me to write down the recipe, and I said, “No need! It’s so simple, I just throw it together, all you need is some tomatoes…” Interrupted me right then and there, looked me straight in the eye and said: “Oh, no! None of that ‘I-do-it-by-feel’ stuff for me! Write it up like I’m a person who’s never seen the inside of a kitchen, now would ya?”
So here is “Bruschetta 101” for all you Mimi’s out there!
Since Labor Day Weekend proved cool and rainy in the Northeast, it felt more the “Kick-Off-to Fall” than the “Last-Summer-Weekend-Blowout”. Not one to let the unseasonable weather get me down, I used the weather as an excuse to get back to my youth.
I was visiting my parents and younger sister, “The Suz”, in central Connecticut…in a town my college friends nicknamed “Cleaverland“….. sleeping in my old bedroom–complete with twin bed, pale pink walls and a white dresser with pink roses across each drawer–so it wasn’t hard to feel like it was “back-to-school” time again. Time for new notebooks and plaid skirts and knee-socks you were dying to wear, even though it wasn’t *quite* cool enough for such things. So in keeping with these fall-like feelings, we headed over to Rogers Orchard.
I’ve been making Whoopie Pies practically since I was born. So imagine my surprise when they failed—twice in a row! I made a batch on Friday–a double batch in fact, since there is no such thing as “enough” Whoopie Pies…..and they came out flat. Tasted good, but not the cakey pillows they were supposed to be. Hmmmm….What happened? To be honest… I *had* been talking on the phone while making them, and even had someone stop by during the crucial measuring and mixing stages….maybe I just lost count or left out an ingredient. I had made them for TG, but as this would be his first Whoopie Pie experience, these just wouldn’t do–I couldn’t give him one that wasn’t up to snuff. Luckily, I was visiting my family for the weekend, and as my Mama said: “They’re not quite Whoopie Pies, but they’re certainly worth eating!” so finding takers for the double batch was easy.
Kurt (my fabulous boss) gave us the day off today—got to love that man!—so I decided, for once, to take a me day. Sleep in a bit. Enjoy some coffee. Read while I sip. Spend some time writing. Do a bit of singing. Go to the gym. Finally begin to put some order to the chaos that is my room. Cook a bit–but not in my usual frenzy—just a thing or two, and only if I feel like it. Take a walk. Catch up with some friends. See my friend’s band at CBGB’s tonight.
Ok, reading back over all that, it’s pretty much what I do on a non-“me” day! But I guess the difference comes in my attitude towards it. I’m only doing what I feel like…and at a much less aggressive, much less ‘I-must-multi-task-at-all-times-or-I’m-not-doing-enough’…way! Hmmm…I wonder if I can actually pull it off? *smile*
