eat cake!

Yesterday, Lindsay and I made a pilgrimmage to one of our favorite places on earth, Terrain for Brooklyn Day. We met one of the boys from McClure's Pickles (whose Bloody Mary Mix was super-delicious), as well as the lovely boys behind Brooklyn-bakery Baked, whose cookbook Baked Explorations is one of my new faves (I've made the doughnuts, whoopie pies, and a chocolate snack cake since I bought the book at Christmas-time). We hit it off with The Baked Boys immediately -- I think my size may have been an indication to them that I take baked goods pretty seriously. Then I showed them my tattoo -- needless to say, it was a big hit. Matt (in the middle of the picture) recommends their chocolate chip oatmeal cake as the next must-bake. I'm planning to try it this afternoon -- will let you know!

eggs

andrew and neal make beautiful eggs. philadelphia magazine says so.

harry, and mom v. dad

I came across a writing assignment that Lucy did early on in 3rd grade (ages and ages ago...5th grade is on the horizon!), a tragic tale about our dog Harry's death. Harry was an awesome dog -- a funny looking terrier mix who loved nothing more than to follow Richard around and drive him crazy. Lucy was five when he died of mysterious causes. A trip to the emergency vet on the day he died yielded a report that read, "Harry is so cute!!!" Super helpful. Anyway...Lucy's description of the sad day, from a distance of three years, is both touching and hilarious, particularly in the way that Richard and I are depicted. While I am described as weeping on the night of Harry's death (true), I clearly recovered very quickly in Lucy's mind. Check out this touching exchange:

"A day later I was still very crestfallen. My mom decided that we should get him cremated. I asked her what it meant. She said it meant to burn him. 'No, no! Don't burn him,' I exclaimed. 'It'll hurt him! No, no! You can't!' My mom replied, 'Honey, I know you love him but we can't let him rot here in the house.'"

Oh. My. God. I know that I tend toward directness, but really? I am quite sure I never said "We can't let him rot here in the house" to my grieving 5-year-old.....

But no worries, Richard comes to the rescue.

"I soon fell asleep with a book over my face. In the morning my dad woke me up with the enticing aroma of pancakes."

So, I am the grim reaper, burning dead dogs, and Richard is Mary F-ing Poppins, whipping up a fresh batch of pancakes to restore happiness to the world. Perfect.

wishing

I asked Lucy today what she would wish for if she only had one wish.

She thought about it for a second or two, and then said, "A happy life."

Wow. That's what I wish for her too.

Lucy's best friend Serena reports that the last time she asked Lucy that question, she answered, "A lifetime supply of pancakes." Which in the end, amounts to the same thing, I suppose.

the simple things

My mom is a great cook, specializing in simple, old-fashioned food. And she knows how to cook just about everything -- if you're ever in a bind and don't know how to cook something, or need to know what cut of meat to buy, definitely call MJP -- she can help you out. She has taught me tons of great techniques -- like lump-free gravy, and a killer, foolproof pie crust. But one of the best things she ever taught me how to cook, and probably one one of the first, was popcorn. Old school popcorn in a dutch oven on the stove top. In need of a salty snack, and no chips in the house? Whip up a batch of popcorn! If you cook it in olive oil, it's even relatively healthy, and always delicious. Plus, it only takes about 5 minutes from start to finish. Suck it, greasy, salty, preservative-laden microwave popcorn. MJP has you beat.

pies n' thighs

reviewed in the new yorker this week. ate there with our brooklyn posse (this means you, JoJo, Franco, and Mike) earlier this year, and it was crazy tasty. fried chicken, mac & cheese, collards, biscuits, and pie - like whoa. love this line from the review: "The place is generally full of youngish Williamsburg types with beards and assertive eyewear, and enough plaid shirts to make you think you’ve ended up in the Appalachians."

assertive eyewear. funny.

tastes just like store-boughten!

homemade beet, sweet potato, and potato chips.


file under "yes, you CAN make these, but it will take you at least one hundred times as long as it would to open a bag of terra chips."

Farm51

My brother Andrew


and his friend Sarah



have started an urban farm in West Philadelphia.


Not on the trying-hard-to-be-hip-and-edgy-Bobby-Flay-burger-joint side of West Philly, but on the vacant-houses-corner-stores-micro-or-kinky?-gunshots-in-the-night side of West Philly (51st and Chester, to be exact). What started out as two overgrown and cement-strewn vacant lots next to my brother's apartment building is now lush with growth and bustling with activity. It even has an official name (Farm51), a farmstand (Saturdays from 10 - 2), a blog, and a logo (yay Neal Santos!).

Take lettuce, beets, radishes, collards, broccoli (can we talk about broccoli for a minute? it's a HUGE plant with ONE little broccoli stalk. lame.), raspberries, blueberries, tomatoes, to-mah-toes, potatoes, pot-ah-toes....then throw in 29 (!) chickens and a beehive, and you get the picture. But just in case you don't, here you go:

You should totally stop by. Buy some eggs. Pull some weeds. Pet a chicken. You won't be sorry.

i would love to make...

...these for my bedroom (especially since I happened to look up at my windows from the neighbor's yard the other day and realized you could TOTALLY see into my room, like A LOT), but I am pretty sure that my belief in the old adage measure once and cut twice (that's it, right?) means that I am far too half-assed to follow these directions: "It’s important to cut the fabric straight and even, so that the blind will hang straight. This is probably the trickiest part of this project, so take a little extra care to be sure you’ve got it really straight." Oh well.

i'm in love

As I see it, we have three choices:
1) start a business venture with a fleet of snazzy camper vans
2) take Flo for a spin across England
3) get one snazzy camper van for personal use

eat cake, in stop motion

Food about you - Annecy festival 2010 from Alexandre DUBOSC on Vimeo.

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how do i love thee? let me count the ways.

Lucy told me today that the four must-have qualities in a love interest are:

1) kindness
2) smartness
3) sense of humor
4) cuteness.

Her caveat was that as long as someone had 1 through 3, then 4 didn't matter. I think she's on to something.

are we there yet?

let's do a tour. we can go to all these places. especially the ones that involve food. or coffee.

holy hell

must make these and fill with nutella. (thanks jojo.)

you talkin' to me?

My day was made yesterday by the parking lot attendant who greeted me by saying, "Baby Girl, how you feelin'?" I have pretty firmly crossed over into the "Ma'am" category, and I am happy when someone calls me "Miss" instead -- so "Baby Girl"? That just took it to the next level of awesomeness.

super-excited for this!

Moth Member Show

Lucy is mad she is not invited.

a blog post, in three axiomatic chapters

1) better late than never
So, it's been awhile. I got out of the habit of blogging, and into the habit of facebook's quick fix. But I have discovered that I miss blogging. Miss taking note of something of interest, and saving it for later, to share. Miss turning an idea around in my head for awhile, and watching it take shape. So I'm back. For today at least. (Although Richard tells me that blogging is out of style. Oh well.)

2) patience is a virtue
Over the last year or so, I have mostly stopped biting my fingernails (my cuticles are a different story), and for the first time in my life, I pay attention to how they look, and even paint them from time to time. I painted them last week (gunmetal gray), and by this morning, they were a mess -- not fit to be on display at work. We were out of nail polish remover (amazing!), so I stopped at Happy Harry's on the way to work, and bought a jar of that remover stuff you just dip your fingers in. Obviously, I couldn't wait until I got to the office to use it (too exciting! too impatient!), so when I got to a red light, I opened the jar and promptly spilled acetone all over myself and my car (there is a lot more liquid in those jars than one might think!). I spent the morning in front of a space heater drying out my dress, and now my car smells like a nail salon. If you need me to drive you anywhere, just remember to bring your face mask.

3) honesty is(n't) the best policy
Lucy and I stopped at SuperFresh on the way home from work/school today and got sucked into an in-store demo of knives by the promise of a free knife and some pretty impressive displays of blade performance. The knives were amazing -- just ask Lucy. Not only did they slice tomatoes paper thin, but they also cut through a steel hammer and a block of wood (and were still sharp enough to make paper thin tomato slices!)....Duly impressed, under pressure from Lucy, and thinking about my friend Derek's summer selling Cutco knives (I still have one that he gave me as a wedding gift), I decided to pony up the $39.99 for not one, not two, but SEVEN knives, AND a food chopper, AND a juicer!! Amazing, right? So we went to the SuperFresh express lane with our groceries and our knives, and lo and behold, the check out girl neglected to charge me for the knife set. I had a moment where I debated leaving without saying anything, but then my conscience got the better of me (Lucy was with me after all), so I pointed out the mistake. The check out girl, clearly exhausted and uninterested in SuperFresh's bottom line, told me not to worry about it. Now, if this had been a $2.99 pack of Diet Coke, I might have let it go -- but really -- $39.99, and my kid at my side to boot? No way. We finished the transaction with the disinterested check out girl and walked over to the Customer Help desk. After waiting for an awfully long time to try to give SuperFresh more money, a customer service rep finally fixed the error and sent us on our way. We headed home to try out our fancy new knives, and make our fancy dinner of grilled cheese and tomato soup, only to discover that I had left our freshly-purchased milk on the SuperFresh customer service desk. Grrrr. That's what I get for being honest.

la gatica chiquita

First, some advice. When you get your next kitten, please give her a real name, because when she escapes from the house and climbs 60 feet up the tree in your backyard, you are going to feel like a real asshole standing at the bottom of the tree yelling, "Tiny Kitten."

Also, should the above scenario befall you or someone you know, do everyone a favor and refrain from dispensing the two most useless pieces of advice:

1) "Put a can of cat food or tuna at the bottom of the tree." If the cat can't figure out how to get down, aren't you really torturing the poor thing by putting a tasty treat way out of her reach? I mean, maybe if a fat guy got stuck up your tree, you could get him to scramble down for a plate of nachos and a beer, but cats don't seem to think that way.
2) "Call the fire department" They don't really do that, unless the volunteer fireman on duty happens to be the brother of the kid who ice skated over your daughter's fingers resulting in her getting eight stitches and a deformed fingernail, and even when they do do that, they are not very good at it.

You should also refrain from making the following statement: "You never see a cat skeleton up a tree." Because, while that may be true, it is not particularly helpful when someone is trying to figure out how to get their apparently-really-stupid-and-frightened-cat out of a tree. But if you do think the cat is dead and turning rapidly skeletal in the tree, try to do a little more investigating before you and your child break down in hysterics, sobbing things like "Tiny Kitten was too young to die," because it is highly likely that the cat is playing possum.

So, you ask, what SHOULD do if your cat gets stuck up a tree? Borrow your neighbor's 40-foot ladder and call my brother Andrew.

she's crafty, part II

Just a quick update about our Clark Park Flea Market adventures....with pictures. Despite some setbacks (kitten in a tree, road closures, no coffee), I managed to arrive at Clark Park unscathed. Andrew had MANY terrariums (awesome!) and Marianne had vintage clothes (killer demin jumpsuit! you should buy it!) AND some crafts (mustache pins! amazing potholders!) We set up camp, and then basically hung out for about 7 hours, with a rotating cast of visitors, and periodic rain. Our booth was definitely the most fun (I felt kind of bad for the lonely jewelry-seller next to us -- we were kind of obnoxious, as you can imagine.) All told, I made about $70. To my surprise, my wallpaper notecards were my most popular item, and my button rings, not so much. Thanks to everyone who helped/hung out/bought stuff. Etsy shop will be up by the end of this week, and fully stocked!

she's crafty

I have been crafting like a maniac in preparation for the Clark Park Flea Market, coming up this Saturday, where I will be sharing a table with Andrew (whimsical terrariums) and Marianne (cool vintage clothes). Once the Flea Market is over, I will unveil my new Etsy shop -- LucyEatsCake. But I know you are on the edge of your seat to see my wares, so here is a preview:





Vintage Button Rings (I inherited an amazing button collection from Aunt Jud.)






Serving Trays (that's vintage fabric, also from Aunt Jud, who rescued it before a museum sent it to the landfill. remind me to tell you about the time we all had to catalog the fabric collection. it was pretty hilarious.)


Bulletin Boards with Vintage Button Pushpins (that's vintage vinyl wallpaper, which I ordered from eBay -- isn't it spectacular? I probably have enough to wallpaper your whole house, so just let me know if you are interested.)

I have a selection of other items -- some button magnets, notecards with wallpaper -- I have been a little obsessed. If you're in Philly on Saturday, come visit us....and after that, go see my etsy shop! I just need to earn enough cash to support my craft habit!