Sara + h

mail :: installment no. 1

:: from Sally ::

Sally's post today reminded me that though [most of] these photos have been up on Flickr since the day I received her wonderful package, I never properly posted them here.  I aim to remedy that right now.

I took these photographs as I opened the package.  Yes, that did take an impressive amount of restraint, but as anyone who has been lucky enough to receive a parcel from Sally will know, the packaging is part of the experience.  Not everything included is pictured here (like the candy I didn't share with my children...mine...all mine) but it should be enough to give you an idea just what that experience was like.  Lovely.

Thank you, Sally.

risen

We're having pizza for dinner tonight.  Turkey pepperoni for the girls and caramelized onion, prosciutto, and more Maytag Blue Cheese for Dan's and my slightly more sophisticated palettes.

It's been forever and a day since I've made a yeast risen dough of any sort.  I always mean to make pizza dough but then time runs short and we go for the convenience of a pre-baked shell.  There was plenty of time for dough making today though, so I threw this together before Astrid's nap and resolved while it was rising to make pizza dough from scratch more often.  Thrown together in about 15 minutes, it's simple, quick, and I get the satisfaction of punching it down and feeling the silky, elastic stuff collapse around my fist.

Sadly, this pizza dough was the high point of my day.  A few hours after making it I sideswiped a parked car while pulling into a parking space near the school where Lola is attending art camp.  No one was hurt and the damage was relatively minor but nonetheless my insides turned to jelly and I was beset with a quivering upper lip.  It's really not much fun to sprint to get your child only to sprint back to the car you've just hit so you can wait 15 minutes with your children in tow to inform the car's owner, the parent of a child in Lola's class as a matter of fact, of what you've done.  I don't recommend it at all.

I'm going to drown my sorrows in pizza now.

a good meal

Marinated flank steak with roasted new potatoes (red, white, and purple) and baby yams sprinkled with chunks of Maytag Blue Cheese and a simple green leaf lettuce salad with grated carrots and a balsamic vinaigrette (olive oil, balsamic vinegar, kosher salt, freshly ground pepper and a bit of Penzey's granulated garlic).  All accompanied with a glass of Monte Antico Toscano.  Not just a good meal, a damn fine meal.  Apologies to the vegetarians among you.

come out, come out wherever you are!

If anyone local would like to join me and a few friends while we knit in public this afternoon, we'll be at Patrick McGovern's (225 W. 7th Street) in downtown St. Paul from about 1:30 p.m. to ?.  We'll be the ones with the yarn and the knitting needles.

 

super

Just a bit of goodness that arrived in the mail about a week or so ago.  It's Chlorine from Superhero Designs.   I've not been feeling all that super lately (despite others' enthusiasm for summer, to me it's feeling like a loooooong stretch of time to survive) but I love this necklace regardless.  The blues and greens do impart a certain sense of calm.  Perhaps tomorrow I'll start feeling like a Wonder Woman.  Today I'll just enjoy this loveliness around my neck.