Christina, you do a beautiful job of feeding your family and yourself such delicious and healthy looking meals. Having raised 2 children, it can seem like a thankless task when things go south in the kitchen, or if everyone is tired and cranky. Keep up the good work, you will never regret it. ( We realized our food strategy with the kids, was maybe a little too good, when they didn’t want to go to slumber parties or overnight with friends because the food wasn’t good)!
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That is the ultimate compliment, right? Aww.
Thank you for the kind words - this was too spicy for the kiddo - we made him some other items which he picked at after having two cups of milk and snacks at a playdate earlier. We adults are trying to cut back on calories/carbs where we can 
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An excellent early afternoon visit with Mom. Then some errands.
Then the bell rang across the way, and I headed over to my neighbor’s for Pinot Grigio, cheese, crackers, nuts, and grapes and lots of gossip.
Back home about 7:30 after a plaintive Mrrrow from Alfie through the screen door reminded me the boyz hadn’t been fed.
For me, a very late dinner: a salad using my buttercrunch lettuce, along with hard-boiled eggs, sliced cukes, radishes, halved candy cherry tomatoes, grated carrots, bacon and goat cheese. Penzeys Creamy Peppercorn Dressing with some Tuscan Sunset blend added to the mix.
The pic is pre-salad dressing, as it looks much better.
The evening will be spent reading a bit on the anniversary of Anthony Bourdain’s passing. My heart hurt anew when my FB memories showed up this morning.
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Stuffed celery and home-cured olives.
Prawns.
Add some rice, splash of condiment of your choice, broccoli.
This was a dinner for son and grand-kids and was somewhat of a disaster. One proclaimed she didn’t like prawns, nor broccoli without cheese sauce, and hated mayo. She did eat rice and strawberries. One other ate well, and the third had 4ths on broccoli. However, the first seemed to be the loudest.
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Thank you for the kind words 
Yes, Mrs. P takes flower arrangements to a whole new dimension. She looks for height and depth and the colors of the various flowers have to blend. She really puts a whole lot of thought into each planter. Everything has to be symmetrical. If something doesn’t look right she will just rip it out and buy a new plant to blend right in. She would have made a great interior decorator.
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We had a sensational dinner at Tillie’s in Millburn with @Rich and his lovely wife. We shared a bunch of appetizers including crispy soft shell crab with a corn salad, lollipop chicken in a spicy BBQ mustard sauce, smoked slab bacon with port wine mustard and spicy slaw, gulf shrimp cocktail with lemon and scallions, grilled octopus with Claremont salad and romesco, burrata and shaved asparagus salad with watercress arugula and toasted almonds. For entrees we had pan roasted halibut with maitake mushrooms, ramps, pea greens and giardiniera, molasses brined pork chop with red beans and rice and roasted Brussels sprouts, grass fed NY strip steak with grilled asparagus and roasted onions, and Cajun shrimp and grits with brandy, hot sauce, and sweet peppers. We had an awesome key lime pie for dessert and some incredible wines.
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Made two pies…pizza (pepperoni, roasted tomatoes, and a bit of Calabria chilies) and a peach/blueberry galette.
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Tonight, we’ll start with a salad. Just a supermarket bag of rocket and other leaves. Bottled dressing. Followed by supermarket gnocchi with a home made tomato, garlic and basil sauce.
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Wow, nice spread Eli! Got about 6 crabs this morning. So far the season is dismal. I’ll keep you posted. That softie looks delicious!
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Thanks Johnny!
Wow , wow , wow , and wow . Plus a bottle from Ridge winery. One of my favorites .WOW !!!
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Fellow cashew fiend. Nice salad.
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We had an excellent dinner at Viaggio in Wayne, NJ. We Shared some excellent appetizers including an outstanding yellowtail crudo with salsa verde, Meyer lemon, Calabrian chili, and basil. We also had fried calamari with lemon butter, shallots, and chili, as well as homemade onion focaccia. For entrees I had the Piedmontese tagliata with rosemary smashed potatoes, and a cipollini agrodolce. Mrs. P had the branzino with fregula, tomato, olive, and capers. It all went great with a 2014 French Mas Champart red blend.
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Today was an out-of-sorts day. I went antiquing instead of doing stuff I had planned to do, and got a very nice wood-handled antique whisk for very short money. But it didn’t help my out-of-sortedness.
Dinner was a throw-together: b/s Frankenchicken breast split in half, seasoned with olive oil and Tuscan Sunset and ground sumac, pan-seared in hot butter and olive oil, then some white wine poured in to simmer and reduce while covered. Added some heavy cream to sauce it up, as I’m wont to do.
Sides were buttered and peppered pappardelle noodles and steamed green beans.
There was wine. I needed it.
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last night BF made Lucca’s frozen spinach/meat raviolis and his own tomato sauce, and tonight was another night of Italiano, even though it was 90 degrees here. I made more red sauce and big, fat meatballs. Used a little of BF’s leftover sauce, and two pearl onions he’d already sauteed, blended all in with San Marzanos, sauteed garlic, and salt, and simmered for about 45 minutes. meatballs were ground beef/pork, parm reg, minced garlic & parsley, a little salt, bread crumbs (mashed up panko because it’s all i had). browned in oil and then simmered in the sauce for almost 2 hours. super tender meatballs. I added ciliegine at the end and stuck the whole thing under the broiler but the mozz didn’t melt! Still tasty. Garlic bread instead of pasta. Zucchini drizzled with a puree of basil/garlic/olive oil/lemon. Completely stuffed, because we had our usual Sunday brunch of beers and fries earlier today (rosé for me).
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Let me get my fork…
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That garlic bread…damnnnnnn…
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Dinner out last night and tonight.
Last night at friends’ with a new backyard and a newer bbq. Another friend and I seasoned and marinated the proteins when we arrived (they were sitting out, blank looks 
). Everything took a while and felt experimental, but it was a fun evening. We made bone-in tandoori-ish chicken breasts, ginger-garlic lamb chops, a simple side of cod, and lots of veg - mushrooms, peppers, asaparagus, corn. Plenty of wine, lots of laughs, and a chocolate ganache tart at the end fixed all shortfalls.
Tonight was another backyard meal, at a new little thai place. Superb food - a whole fish given the larb treatment was the star of the meal. Have to go back with more people so we can try more things!
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