NYE 2011

    This has been a very restful holiday- two four-day weekends, great weather.  On New Year's Eve I made a big batch of spaghetti and meatballs, a recipe my dear friend and great cook Molly Lyon directed me to.  She made this for a dinner party in St Louis and it was so delicious that I tried to eat a little (just a little! I told myself at a stoplight) of my to-go portion in the car.  On the way home.  An ignoble act but I share it in order to convey its absolute deliciousness.
    I even attempted to make the spaghetti myself, but soon realized that I need a pasta drying rack for such a large scale noodle operation.  (Luke was dispatched hastily for one pound of the dried version.)
   In the morning I made pomegranate champagne sorbet so between that and the spaghetti the day was largely spent, happily, in the kitchen.  My friend and co-worker Jean invited us over for poolside, fireside s'mores (my contribution: the sorbet and gooey butter cake ice cream) with her and another AF family.

Some leftover champagne from the sorbet.... and because we're not wasteful...

Late lunch of spaghetti

Luke doesn't like spaghetti or meatball particularly, but proclaimed this 'so ^*&^ing good.'
Thanks baby.

Maddie and Louis

Louis (pronounced Lou-eey) enjoys a graham cracker.

Maddie and Jean

From there we headed to Hofbrau, a restaurant fortuitously very close to our house (I am loathe to drive around on NYE) where Dave Fenley and the Good Deal were playing; Luke sang backup on a few songs on their new record and they kindly invited him to sing with them, as well as play the piano between their sets.

outdoor heaters.  critical for enjoyment of evening.

Luke took the stage:

(attempts to rotate this video are in vain)

Sunday morning we picked up our CSA share and spend some time on the newly furnished sunroom/front porch, Luke reading the New York Times (and I, the NYT magazine which had some great articles [Julie-duly noted: start getting Sunday edition delivered) including these droll notes that constitute critic-at-large Sam Anderson's marginalia.  I plotted how to use our veggies this week (how many Swiss chard recipes are there?!) and Luke started playing the piano inside.  In my heart, contentment thickly flowed, cream poured into coffee.

This week's share: tomatoes, chard, spinach, eggs, green peppers, turnips, cilantro, broccoli, cauliflower and  a rump roast.

View from the sunroom.

Almost finished with Christopher Hitchens' memoir.  More on that later.

The evening was spent watching Hitchens' interviews and Portlandia.   And looking forward to one more languorous day of vacation!