Tuesday, May 29, 2012

on laura

I don’t have a sister, but if I did, I would choose my friend Laura. I love everything about Laura, her enthusiasm, her smarts, her ability to make people feel at ease, her sense of humor and her lighthearted nature. If we were sisters, I’d get to see her over the holidays, and on family trips and we’d call each other on the regular. Although there would also be the typical in-fighting and tension and rivalries that sisters share, so maybe we wouldn’t even like each other as much.

Laura lives outside of St. Louis and I flew there recently for a girls’ weekend. The timing happened to be almost ten years since we met as interns for a magazine in Birmingham, Alabama. We spent those golden months taking weekend trips, eating Southern food, meeting guys, drinking too much and wondering what we were going to do with our lives post-internship. I had a semester of college left, but Laura had already graduated and quickly scored a job as a business reporter in Arkansas. Which seemed as far away from Florida, where I was living, as the moon.

Monday, May 14, 2012

a note fromm mabel

Mabel heere.

A teep frum me too yu. Wen yur mammee and daddee hav peeple ovr and yu dont wont to hav a partee (be-cus they dont ask yu) fynd a gud plas to hyde lik thee londree bas-kut. No won wil no! And thee kloths smel gud, a boneus.

Sincereely,
Mabel

ps: Mammee ses I hav an arkive now, whutevr that is.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

rhubarb upside-down cake

Isn't it pretty? Let me tell you, though, this cake is a shape shifter.

I was expecting the traditional upside-down cake, which usually tastes like a basic yellow (or vanilla) cake with caramelized fruit. Somehow, probably because of some ingredient tinkering on my part, it was dense and moist, like a rhubarb upside-down cheesecake. Which is nothing to complain about!

The rhubarb, which had turned caramel sweet from a mix of brown sugar and butter, was tender but still held its shape. After our spring feast, we ate the cake with plain whipped cream and everyone sang the praises of its weird deliciousness.

The next day, it changed again.

Monday, May 7, 2012

springing forward

In spite of tormenting tree pollen, in spite of the warm-cold-freezing-warm-cold weather, in spite of April showers, I love spring. I can't help it. The leaves on the trees outside of our apartment came back this week and I can't stop looking at the bright tangle of yellow-green filling our front windows. When Dan and I walk Mabel around the neighborhood, I routinely force him to stop and admire a particular patch of tulips that are so deep purple they almost look black. (He humors me.) And at the vegetable market near my office, I squealed over baby artichokes and tiny little carrots as if they were a bin full of puppies. I bought them and a dinner party menu started to take shape.

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