Thursday, July 03, 2008

Antidote

Today I fervently embarked on concocting an antidote to the mediocre road food I consumed while on vacation:
A caramelized onion, goat cheese and pancetta tart with a salad from the garden with two kinds of lettuce, peas and snipped chives. And a glass of The Wolftrap syrah that some nice friend left at my house.

There is plenty of good food to be had in Colorado, but my access to it was limited by the two picky eaters with whom I traveled. I gave myself a talking to before we left in the hope that my frustration level at missing out on good available food would not impact my affection for my kids. And mostly it worked. But I was craving my kind of food in a big way when we got back, so despite the fact that no one had clean underwear, the bags remained unpacked and the cat was desperate for attention, I spent a good amount of time today making tart crust, caramelizing onions (which I'd forgotten take forever to caramelize without burning) and heading over to the garden to harvest lettuces from between the really tall weeds that had sprung up in the week of neglect. Priorities people! The Kate Monster must be fed!

Brian was working in Colorado and the kids and I flew out to meet him, then we all went camping together at Rocky Mountain National Park before driving back to Michigan. While we were there
a boy I know turned 8 years old,
we hung out with some marmots who were mighty blase about their spectacular surroundings,
we went to a place where kids feel big and grown ups feel huge,
and we hiked up to exquisite mountain lakes and feasted on the views.

So the lack of literal feasting wasn't such a hardship after all. But I'm glad to be back to my verdant garden where I can make myself the kind of food I love.