Week 6

On Friday my mom turned 80. No one can believe it. I got to spend the weekend with her and my dad in Boise. It was wonderfully fun to witness the parade of cards, flowers, edible arrangements and balloons that entered the house. We love her!

I got to make her birthday dinner!

I also made her these socks to celebrate

Wine tasting was even more fun with my brother Dave

Leading up to the trip, it was kind of a whirlwind week. I didn't get much done. But we did make some momentous vacation plans, so I am a little sidetracked by dreaming and planning.

My kind of Sunday

Sundays have become extremely special to me in recent years. It's the one morning I'm off dog duty and can sleep in, with no obligations. It's also the only morning I get to share breakfast and a pot of French press with the person I love. Recently (and usually) I've been making poached eggs and bacon with English muffins, but this past Sunday I had a beautiful day-old loaf from Common Crumb bakery that inspired a different kind of spread. Sweet, sweet, sweet.

Movies

I reluctantly agreed to see The Shape of Water on Sunday - it seemed a little too weird and maybe kind of gross. Turns out, it totally was and I was still somehow completely charmed. Joel aptly described it as Splash meets Arrival meets Amelie meets The Artist. There were elements of all of them with an early 1950s vibe.

Reading

I've never read any John Updike, so I started this week with Rabbit, Run. After all the strong, sympathetic characters I've met in my reading thus far in 2018, Rabbit Angstrom is making me curse humanity. I was ready to give up on him, but now that I'm about halfway through, I'm ready to see how this all turns out. The writing is hooking me.

Listening

After watching Sting perform at the Grammy's the week before, I wanted more. So I rocked out to his "Ten Summoner's Tales" album this week. I'm pretty sure the last time I heard the album in its entirety was in 1994, when I was in Missouri for my sister's college graduation. I was sleeping on the floor in her room. At the time I had just begun wearing mascara and still wasn't washing my face at night, but rather in the shower in the morning. And for some reason, I was embarrassed and didn't want my sister to know I was wearing makeup now, and I knew that when I got up in the morning, the black smears around my eyes would make it obvious. So when I heard her get up that morning, I made sure my face was covered and turned the other way, and I decided to wait until she left the room before getting up and running to the shower. She turned on "Ten Summoner's Tales" softly on her CD player, and I could hear her rustling papers at her desk. Just when I thought she might have left, I heard the papers rustle again. She must be working on a paper or something, I thought. So I just lay there and listened to each song. "Fields of Gold," "If I Ever Lose My Faith," etc. It got to the end of the album and started all over again. Papers were still rustling. I was getting desperate. I rolled over and peeked through the covers and no one was there. The fan had been blowing the papers on the desk that whole time. And to this day, I always associate my sister with that album and how silly I was in my awkward preteens.

Recipes

Joel won the week by making chicken tinga tacos. We caught the recipe on an episode of America's Test Kitchen and knew we needed to make it ASAP. In short, you brown boneless/skinless chicken thighs, then make a sauce of sauteed onions, chipotle peppers, fire-roasted tomatoes, cinnamon, cumin,  and salt, and braise the chicken in the sauce. Then you shred the chicken, blend the pan sauce in a blender, add lime zest and lime juice to the sauce, and stir it all back together. We served the tacos with pickled onions, cilantro and cotija.

Also, Mom's birthday menu included Ina Garten's Engagement Chicken. It's the only roast chicken recipe I really care about. It's simple and never failed me.

COW

Up until now, I have been faithfully baking out of Dorie Greenspan's Cookies book. It was, after all, my inspiration for a cookie of the week. However, I can't go anywhere on the internet without coming across yet another person who is raving about Alison Roman's salted butter and chocolate chunk shortbread cookie. I was compelled to make them to see what the fuss is all about. After I took these out of the oven and posted a picture to Instagram (as we do), what should I find but a post by Dorie Greenspan on my feed: a picture of this exact cookie. I'm telling you, people, this is just too much.

The cookies were seriously good though, and if you're one of the 10 remaining people has yet to make them, get with the program and head to your kitchen immediately.