And Into the New Week

Repeat after me: Chloe starts pre-school tomorrow!

Yay! I love summer.  I love the challenge of organizing fun things to do with my kids to enjoy all those beautiful summer days, but I think Chloe and I both are not unhappy to see its backside at present.  My sweet 3 year old has copped quite the attitude with me the past few days. 

Allow me to illuminate. We had her "preview day" at school last Thursday, which follows directly parent-teacher night on Wednesday.  Preview day is just an hour in the classroom for the kids to get acclimated with the safety of a parent or other trusted adult looking on.  I thought this was a wonderful idea for kids that might feel a little shy or uneasy about going to a new place without Mommy or Daddy.  Chloe, however, got in the room and was immediately busy having a blast.  After 15 minutes or so, she turned around, looked a little like, "Oh you're still here?" Then waved at me and said, "OK Bye Mom!" :) 

That one was precocious and cute, even if she did throw  tantrum over leaving and I had to sit her in a classroom chair and call it the naughty chair.  Yesterday, though, we went shopping at Costco with Grandma.  *groans* My kids are champion shoppers.  Truly.  They very rarely give me any hassle or incident, or anything but sunny happy faces.  There are those "3 Year Old Days" though when I can see the attitude as soon as Chloe wakes up and I think, "this will not be good."  Those are the days I usually shuffle plans around to make life easier on all of us, but when your plans for the day involve a fun parade followed by a very necessary shopping trip with a guest, there's just not much to do except to take a leap and hope for the best. 

She warmed up to the parade immediately, of course.  My parents went ahead of us and found a table on the Nancy Noel Gallery's porch.  Let me briefly interrupt this tirade about my beautiful daughter's attitude (whom I love more than anything), and write a ballad about the glories of this restaurant. 

This is the Nancy Noel Gallery on Main Street Zionsville (and these are my town-mates enjoying the longest small town parade ever - 2 hours!  I'm always amazed at how many people show-up to watch it because I think surely the whole town is already IN the parade. I wrote about this last year at length.) :)

Our table on the porch!

Mom (Grandma to the kids) and Liam enjoying some yummy refreshments

Chloe enjoying the music in her own special way as a marching band rolled by.  :)

I had heard she (Nancy Noel, famous artist and Zionsville resident) had quite the little cafe in her gallery, but had never had the opportunity to try it.  Serendipity intervened though and I found myself enjoying the Fall Festival Parade from the comfort of a gracious porch, with delicious iced tea and an equally delicious Mediterranean Platter appetizer that we'd gotten to be nice (we were all full from our breakfasts, but didn't want to take a table without ordering something).  After sampling the platter, though, we wished we weren't so full so we could eat more!

The remainders of the Mediterranean Platter.  I assure you it was gorgeous, and the fact that it's mostly gone is a testament to its yumminess.  The eggplant tapanade was o.m.g. delcious (it was in the far left upper corner). :)

A waitress came around with complimentary pastry samples and my heart did a flutter then a sigh as I bit into a pistachio macaroon filled with strawberry cream that was so light and airy I heard harps.  That free sample led me to order a mini cake crafted with such care I photographed it.

Photographing this is what made me realize I should be documenting more of this meal, hence the half-eaten Mediterranean Platter.  It was simply too good a find not to share with you all. 

Once I got into the mindset to take photos, I took a lot! Seriously I was so happy to have found this place! Here's a few of the best.

This is the interior restaurant in the Gallery.  You walk in to this beautiful achitecture everywhere, gorgeous art, and then keep on walking back to this cafe. 

the pastry case where those to-die-for mini cakes reside.  They had a whole pamphlet hand-out on, Ghyslain, the pastry chef from Quebec (and my new hero) behind this, and YES these are all available to order! Go! GO now!:)

The view of the cafe from what was the choir loft (when this was a church.... when I was little).  I had to get down, though, because I get vertigo.  I was a champ to get the shot! And yes, if you're not like me - there are some really cute and romantic tables up here. :)

One of her paintings that struck me. 

We stayed at the parade an hour - after arriving a little late - and called it quits right after the ginormous ZCS Middle School band did their thing.  Holy cow that must have been like 400 kids. :)  Brian took off with my Dad to go do man-fixing-stuff, and Mom came with me and the kids to do the shopping at Costco. 

I am aware that my kids are sleepy.  This is never a good thing to be aware of as you are about to shop, especially at an incredibly busy and somewhat frustrating place such as Costco.  Alas, I'm too far into it to stop, so off we go! Chloe does alright at first.  Then we see Ariel.  Or the Ariel Halloween Costume, rather.  Because of my recent unemployment, I had decided I would simply mend the pink and heart princess dress she plays princess in every.single.day, plop a tiara on her head and call her a princess for Halloween.  However, Chloe is 3 and doesn't see the practicality in this decision, and therefore lusts after this Ariel costume so fiercely that Grandma is ready to put back some of her purchases to get the costume for her.  I say no way Jose.  I get it, Mom.  I know.  She knows, too, but she's no longer The Mom, instead she's the Grandma - purveyor of all things wonderful and does not, therefore, have to be the mean one to stoicly wait out a tantrum.

I explain to Chloe calmly that Grandma wants to give her that Ariel costume as a present, but that she will have to wait for it.  Grandma will buy it next time, then bring it to Chloe and she will have it in time for Trick or Treat.  No dice.  My kid throws an unholy terror tantrum the likes of which I've not seen from her ever.  I try to ignore her.  It doesn't work.  I try to reason again.  It doesn't work.  I try to warn her,"You won't get it at all if you keep this up." It doesn't work.  So, I find an empty aisle, set her on the floor, tell her this is the naughty corner in this store, and walk away from her - hiding behind some stacks of boxes so I can keep an eye on her. 

Adults walk past her in alarm: Is she lost? Where's her mother? Then they see me and scowl.  I just stare back at them like, "What? You've never seen a public time-out?  Keep on movin'.  Fruit snacks are that way." After 3 minutes I go to Chloe, reiterate everything, then ask her if she's sorry.  I know my daughter.  She wants to apologize.  But the words don't come.  Her stubborn won.  So.... I walk away again.  I'm sure by now I am pure evil to the crowd on onlookers, but whatever.  I'm having a teachable moment, it just doesn't involve rainbows and unicorns, ok? The next time I come back, I don't have to ask.  She says she's sorry, hugs me like the dickens, and then I scoop her up and love on her like nothing bad just happened.  That's what you do when your 3 year old does the right thing. 

Oh there's more examples I could give to fully explain just how happy Chloe is and I am that she starts school tomorrow, but surely those 2 suffice.  And wasn't the restaurant review thrown haphazardly into the middle a nice breather? I didn't want to stress you out. :)

And we're walking! OK.  So it's the beginning of a new week and a new weekly menu.  Before we get to that, I just have to say that I wish my photos of my French Onion Soup had turned out because it was masterful.  I guess it's been more than several years since I last made it because I've never made it for Brian.  Uh.  Whoops. :)  It's such a classic soup and I'm not sure he'd even ever had it!  If you want a good recipe, Tyler Florence has a good one on foodnetwork.com.  I use 1 less garlic clove than he does, dried thyme instead of whole sprigs, and about 1/2 C of cognac instead of red wine (which is so worth the purchase and will stretch a lot further in the long run).  Then I homemade some garlic croutons with lots and lots of pepper and do swiss cheese and provolone cheese.  Other than that, though, it's almost exactly the same. 

The only other thing of note that I photographed was the weekly pizza. 

Sorry it's a little fuzzy - I couldn't get my light reading right.  Anyway - it was rollover cilantro lime shredded pork taco pizza: cilantro-lime pork, sofrito rice, a monterey jack cheese sauce, black beans, cilantro, shredded lettuce, and crushed tortilla chips.  I had such a splitting headache this is all I could do - mushroom alfredo seemed a bridge too far for some reason.  This was stuff I'd made and just had to put in a different order on the pizza. :)

What can I say.... I've lost a little of my oomph.  It's hard to lose one's job, especially if that job is a part of your identity - a place you find fulfillment and joy.  I suppose I cook a little like a performer acts - it helps when I have an audience, or a customer, in mind to spur my creativity.  I also wasn't sleeping for like, a week and a half, a whole insomnia worry issue that just beat me down ragged.  Blessedly, last night Brian took the kids and I went to bed and did sleep.  12 whole hours (Thanks honey)!!! So, I feel a lot better.  A little more me.  I even baked bread, made muffins, got the kitchen scrub a dubbed and ready for more canning, and am off to a good start for the week, I think. 

I know it's been a while since I posted a recipe, and I thank you all for understanding the time I need to take.  The writing is therapeutic, the process necessary.  I'm hopeful soon that I'll start having amazing ideas for new recipes, but for now I'm revisiting older ones with the same kind of sentiment with which one gazes at their high school yearbook.  In truth, this time has given me a break-through of sorts on the cookbook - a chronology that offers a linear organization, a clear purpose that it lacked before.  So, I'm thankful and in the meantime enjoying looking back and remembering.

Anyway. This is the first week I'm offering take-home-yummies from the order page.  I had some pot pies get ordered, so those will be getting made and be ready for pick-ups this week.  I've gone ahead and put the coming week's availability on the page to give you more time to get orders in.  And other than that, here's what's for dinner this coming week!

The beef stew is an old recipe, but I've not shared it here so it'll be new for you all! The roman pepper pasta comes from the book I'm reading Eat, Pray, Love (an excellent read, by the way!). In her Italy leg of her trip she describes this incredibly simple Roman lunch of pasta with good cheese and lots of pepper, so we're going for it! In the book they used pecorino romano, but I've got a whole hunk of parmigiano reggiano from my work kitchen so I'll just use that. I'm sure the romano will be better, but c'est la vie. The napa valley pizza is a favorite from WineStyles and getting made because a customer of mine is picking up her pot pie and bringing some fresh rosemary to me.  If you recall, Liam kept digging up my rosemary this year and it died. *shakes head* It just smelled too good, apparently. :) So, I've had no fresh rosemary this year, which is a bummer because this is one of my favorite pizzas.

Well that's all for now folks. :)  I'm tired. There's more laundry that needs doing before school and dishes that need getting done.  As always, thanks for listening.