Deluge is a fun word to say. Especially when you're not in one.

They say that when it rains it pours.

And that is certainly true this summer. More than once I've dashed under some overhang to escape the deluge and it's a fitting metaphor to describe my doings at the moment too. Lots, all at once, leaving me a little bedraggled but grinning ear to ear.

Has your summer been the same? Or is is full of long lazy afternoons of books and iced tea?

There have been few lazy afternoons so far but I have been drinking lots of iced tea...and recently discovered the magic of a Thai iced tea. Which is lovely for fueling hot summer days running to and fro having adventures. You should drink one too.

And of course I've been eating. Duh. The start of the farmer's market season brings me soooo much joy! Fresh bread (that I didn't have to bake and feel guilt free buying), lovely and cheap veg and fruit, and the odd homemade thing like those portobello ravioli above. Smaller trips if any to the grocery store and lots of little trips to bodegas, just picking up a few things like milk and cheese and cereal.

Lots of quesadillas (mozzarella and asparagus), fish tacos, Greek salads, brie on toast, and hummus on pita.

My new favorite summer dish is one I had while visiting my Big Sister Lyndsey up in Milwaukee a few weekends ago. There's a cantina there we love and I craved their tostada salad so made a version of it to eat while working Pitchfork for the lovely Miss Natalie:

Spread a layer of fresh or frozen corn on a baking sheet and roast in a hot oven until golden (you can skip this if the thought of turning on your oven makes you break out into a sweat, just go to Trader Joe's and buy their pre-roasted frozen corn or if you're feeling dangerous roast an ear of corn over your gas stove).  Chop up half a red onion and let it sit in lime juice to tone it down a bit. In a big bowl combine the roasted corn, one can of black beans, crumbled queso fresco, chopped avocado and chopped lettuce. Add the onion and more lime juice, S&P and whatever else you feel like adding. Tomatoes? Chile? You can crumble up some tortilla chips if you want more crunch. Wrap it up in a tortilla if you need to go mobile!

Instead of the bus I took the Amtrack to Milwaukee and despite a long delay on my way home it's now the only way I'm going to Milwaukee!

I had forgotten how much I loved traveling by train. It's just...better.

I sped into the sunset on the way there and watched rivers and fields on my way back. I only had two songs on my iPod about trains (I Was Young When I Left Home covered by Antony and Bryce Dessner and Monster of Folk's Sandman, Brakeman, and Me) but they are lovely and I fully intend to make a playlist for my next voyage.

Because there will always be a next time to Milwaukee, it's just too much fun to see my siblings!!

This time there were festivals, beignets, polka,

fries with aioli and pints, tiny things to buy,

beer and brats at 10 AM, and the new Much Ado, and most of all Sister Lyndsey's new house! I can't wait to see it grow!

While I wish I had as much space as she now has to play with I did make a change to my own little place recently! I bought a wee couch! It's all the fault of this kid...

...oh yeah. Twin times AGAIN.

We were hitting up the thrift stores and I had to sit down or fall down. And realized the couch I was reclined on was very nice and small and only $75...so I bought it! It was professionally reupholstered in the 60's (with the hideous fabric to prove it) but I've already taken the skirt off to show it's lovely legs and am happy with the Ikea douvet slipcover for the moment since it came with a granny-tastic slipcover I can pattern off of in the future.

But I had to wait a few days for it to be delivered so we ate pasta salad on the floor. It was very tasty pasta salad too! Two kinds of pasta (occasionally two Aries cannot agree over what type of pasta so get both), peas, snap peas, asparagus, mint, parsley, cilantro, parmigiano-reggiano, and ham. Followed up by French Yogurt Cake to ways:

Anwen had hers with mint on top and I had mine with berries on the side. It was the Fourth of July so it was a big show of national pride through baked goods on my part. A nod to Lafayette with the French yogurt. Add a patriotic themed episodes of Murder She Wrote marathon and I say Yankee Doodle is your uncle.




...I need a nap.

So there. Lots of doings!

And now I have to go do laundry and more things. Not nap. Sigh. O to relax with a book and glass of wine!

Hopefully the radio silence between posts won't be as long as the last one. Especially since Lizbeth informed me that every day I don't blog a fairy looses it's wings. So apparently I'm a fairy killer. And have horrifyingly hilarious friends.

But it will be a while as I'm trying to savor my last few weeks with this lady, Miss H, before she moves back to Ohio and leaves me a blithering mess of tears and woe.

But I will be back, I always am.  I don't want to kill fairies.

Halves

It was a quiet Sunday last Sunday. Which is the best type in my opinion. The soft light was coming through my curtains casting shadows.

I dozed.

I was halfway through my laundry. Halfway through Shadow of the Thin Man. There was a chicken, half cooked, in the oven.

I wish I could say I was halfway thorough that book but I'm not.

Lots of halves all over the place.

(These roasted apricots were the tastiest though)

The trick with being only half way is often you blink and it's over. Or it gets lost in the haze, never quite as clear as the beginning or the end.

So I'm putting it here, just in case I want to remember some day what it was like to be halfway on a Sunday.

The Twins Take Manhattan (And Parts of Brooklyn)

Have I mentioned that I had a birthday over a month ago?

NO!

Which is insane as I'm an aries so having a whole day where you're allowed to make everything be about yourself is just the best thing ever. Like eyes glossing over with the sick power of it all best thing ever.

And if you're like me and discovered you have a faux twin your freshman year of college not only did you have a childhood free from the real twin plague of constantly having to share everything BUT you get an adulthood where with your f-win powers combined the two of you can commandeer a whole week ALL ABOUT YOU.

So we did.

If you've never met my twin this picture pretty much sums her up. The Peanuts. Captain America. Kandinsky. Wonder Woman. Star Wars. Scarlett O'Hara. Degas. Disney.

Clearly this week was going to be insane.

I arrived in NYC sleep deprived and totally zonked but my darling twin fed me Chinese take-out, propped me up in front of the TV to watch The Avengers and put me to bed early. I love her.

You know how the French just sit in cafes drinking cafe and watch people? Well she's like that but with Dr. Pepper and dogs. It's true. No one dog can come within a two block radius and she's spotted it. And stares. And coos. And makes googly eyes and exclaims.

See that face?? Every. Time. She. Sees. A. Dog.  And I just stand there being all "Yay. It's ANOTHER dog. Can we go now please thank you."

That happened a lot.

We also rode a lot of trains. Someone in NYC has a deep love of Tolkien and a good sense of humor.

We had an epic day of shopping on my Birthday in which we took about 8 trains to get from her apartment in Coney Island to Lower Manhattan and then all the way up to the Upper East Side and back down again. It was epic.

We also rendez-vous-ed with my Fairy Godmother to see the Lion King which was hugely epic. Especially the back stage part where we got to TOUCH STUFF. I managed not to hyperventilate but it was a close call.

Luckily my twin is just as prone to excitement, this time it was about Abraham Lincoln in the Brooklyn Museum. She's be happy to live in that room forever. I'd come visit and tap on the glass. 

She even bought me a plate with his name all over it. Because I live in his land. Somehow I feel like she arranged that to get closer to him. Creeper. 

The rest of our museum day was spent taking turns freaking out over things.

I got excited that my shoes matched the tile floor.

And about some stairs.

And I booked it across the grand hall shrieking "OMG gilt!!" to salivate over medieval art. They even had my favorite martyr, St. Lawrence of Rome, asking the Romans to turn him over as he was done on that side. Cheeky.

Meanwhile Twin was across the hall staring at Russian art and later entranced by creepy South American death objects.

Other trip highlights include me insisting we buy buy flowers from a street vendor as Chicago has no flower stalls and it makes me sad. And Birthdays always need flowers!

We had a date at Lincoln Center a la Moonstruck...

...and had tea afterwards at Alice's Tea Cup.

Someone makes a very good Red Queen. Off with your head!

Or she would have been yelling that if her mouth wasn't stuffed with scones and tea sandwiches. I need to hold another tea party soon, they're just such fun!

But I think the best part of the whole mad week was here, eating a bagel with lox next to my Twin watching dogs on a quiet sunny street in Lower Manhattan. She's decided that we're on the cusp of great things this year, and I'm excited to see what life brings us. 

Hopefully more bagels. 

May Flowers

Our April showers have finally given way to May flowers, though it's still a bit colder than one would like.  Miss Linda came up for the Mother's Day weekend and we shivered together in sweaters and scarves before giving up and putting coats back on. But shoes can be worn without socks and the sun felt warm on our faces so I'm happy.

I've lived in the city long enough that we don't feel the need to see a million things, rather to simply enjoy each other's company. Walking through my neighborhood. Baking. Talking endlessly. Sleeping in. Standing in the lake. Pots of tea. Lots of lovely little things.

I made Molly's scones for breakfast with lemon zest, crystalized ginger and chopped walnuts over which I poured a glaze of lemon juice and powdered sugar. One of my best batches so far and will be savored  along with memories of this weekend. Lots of slightly sticky fingers will be licked. And a wonderful Mommy will be missed.

Scottish Scones with Lemon and Ginger

From A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg

2 c unbleached all-purpose flour (I ran out at 1 3/4 cups so the last 1/4 was whole wheat which adds a nice amount of wholesomeness without ruining it by making it too healty.)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

4 tbs (2 oz) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" cubes

3 tbs sugar

2 tsp grated lemon zest

1/4 c finely chopped crystalized ginger

(1/4 c finely chopped walnuts)

1/2 c half-and-half (or normal milk, don't not make these just because you don't have cream!!), plus more for glazing

1 lrg egg

(For Lemony Glaze whisk together the juice of half a lemon and about 6 tbs of powdered sugar or however many it takes to form a paste that you spread on the cooled scones. It really is the proverbial cherry on top of these particular scones and I won't vouch for their awesomeness without it!)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

In a large bowl, whist together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Using your hands, rub the butter into the flour mixture, squeezing and pinching with your fingertips until the mixture resembles a coarse meal and there are no butter lumps bigger than a pea. Add the sugar, lemon zest, and crystallized ginger, (walnuts), and whisk to incorporate.

Pour 1/2 cup half-an-half into a small bowl or measuring cup and add the egg. Beat with a fork to mix well. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture, and stir gently to just combine. The dough will look dry and shaggy, and there may be some unincorporated flour at the bottom of the bowl. Don't worry about that. Using your hands, squeeze and press the dough into a rough mass. Turn the dough, and any excess flour, out onto a board or countertop, and press and gather and knead it until it just comes together. You don't want to overwork the dough; ideally, do not knead more than 12 times. There may be some excess flour that is not absorbed, but it doesn't matter. As soon as the dough holds together, pat it into a rough circle about 1 inch thick. Cut the circle into 8 wedges.

Place the wedges on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Pour a splash of half-and-half into a small bowl. Using a pastry brush, gently brush the tops of the scones with a thin coat to glaze. Bake for 10 to 14 minutes, or until pale golden. Transfer them to a wire rack to cool slightly, and serve warm, with butter, if you like. (Make lemony glaze and spoon on top)

Note: If you plan to eat them within a day or two, store the scones in an airtight container at room temperature. For longer storage, seal them in a heavy plastic bag or container, and freeze them. Before serving, bring them to room temperature. Either way, reheat them briefly in a 300 degree oven. They're best served warm.