Week 10

Dulce de Leche

This was the week it finally felt safe to hope for spring. I got my snow tires taken off. I went out once with just a cardigan. I spied a couple tulip leaves emerging in my garden. It was light out when I made breakfast (but darn you now, Daylight Saving). A forecast of some sun and blustery winds brought in 50-degree weather.

Last week I was thinking about sunrises and sunsets. Which do you prefer? I recently read a passage in The Bean Trees where this question was posed. As long as I can remember, I've been a sunrise person. A fresh day, a new start, all the possibilities, the gentle volume increase as the world wakes up...versus the end of a day - maybe it's been good, maybe not, stuff may or may not have happened, but it's the end and now I have a stain on my shirt. Now I have truly revealed something about myself, I think.

Classic Margot lap lounge

Reading 
I enjoy non-linear plot puzzles and I'm starting to see the finished picture of Idaho. The regional references are an added bonus since I can picture the back country in North Idaho where this takes place.

Watching

On Sunday we hosted an Oscar viewing party, and despite my general ambivalence about the whole event, I ended up winning our competition.

We also finished Queer Eye and started Season 4 of Mozart in the Jungle, as well as Season 3 of Love. Not to mention the fact that I've got to figure out how to squeeze in Masterchef Junior. Good grief. I hate how much TV there is to watch sometimes.

Recipes

For Sunday's party, Joel made a pasta with a chickpea sauce that was quite unusually delicious. The rest of the week was a hodgepodge of using stuff up in the fridge, including my favorite baked chicken meatballs. On Friday I tried a new recipe featured on The Splendid Table for green chicken which was herbaceous and satisfying.

I purchased Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables this week and am looking forward to beefing up, so to speak, my vegetable dishes.

Cocoa tahini with sesame crunch...and a manicure

COW

This week's cookie was Dorie's cocoa tahini cookie with sesame crunch (someone shared the recipe here). You first make a sort of sesame seed brittle, then chop it up and add it into the cookie dough with chocolate chips, and with the tahini, it has a nutty flavor that makes it a much more interesting chocolate cookie. Joel declared it one of the best cookies I've ever made, so there's that, too.