Friday, October 24, 2008

Greens and Good News

Yesterday as I was stopping by my house in between shuttling the kids back and forth, my neighbor yelled out, "Hey! Do y'all like lettuce?" This is my crazy, bee-keeping, pineapple-growing, leaving-random-tomatoes-on-my-porch neighbor. I like this neighbor.
I said yes, we do.
"I got some red leaf lettuce. Y'all like that?"
Oh yeah, we do.
"I got some escarole too. Y'all like that?"
Yes. We like that too.
"(Chuckle) Do you even know what escarole is? It's kinda bitter..."
Yeah, I know what it is. We eat lots of vegetables.
"Well, I got way more than I need. I'm gonna drop you some by later."
Alright! Thanks, I said.
And when I came home yesterday, there were two grocery bags full of assorted lettuces (four heads of lettuce!). And today there were three purple onions waiting for me.

I love my neighbor.

We are dog-sitting and house-sitting for my out-of-town parents this weekend, so I used my mandoline to slice up one of those onions super-thin and grabbed our overnight bags and two bags of lettuce and a bag of sliced onions and headed to my mom's. I had the most delicious, fresh and huge salad for dinner with just a little olive oil, lemon juice and coarse salt to dress it. Delish!
I also made some more caramel. I'm sort of obsessed with caramel. I made some a couple of weeks ago and then I saw this post on Smitten Kitchen and I absolutely had to make more. And I swear that I did not just eat the sauce, spoon after spoon. I did not. Excuse me a moment, there seems to be something sticky on my chin...

So, happy weekend to you all. It will be another busy one for me. But that doesn't surprise any of us, now, does it?
But if any of you need a salad....I've got lots of it. More than I'll ever eat. And that escarole is yummy. So, drop by, won't you?

Oh - the good news! I nearly forgot. Do you guys remember Herb and Tilly and Bill, my sand hill cranes? They were at my office today. Bill has a girlfriend, now. So they are a happy, traveling pair of couples now. The new girl's name is Jill and she's a little snooty, but Tilly likes her just fine.

DAILY BLISS: the prospect of an evening of debauchery. cable tv and a whole pan of caramel sauce.

2 comments:

Mary said...

Do you plan your debauchery? I do. I ate early and little at dinner tonight, so that I could eat some ice cream after the boys are in bed.

The lettuce sounds wonderful...I can almost smell it thinking about it.

Christy said...

Oh yes. I absolutely plan it. Maybe not with prudence and good judgment beforehand, but I do plan it and get terribly upset if my plans fall through.
And yeah - the lettuce smelled great. Earthy (but not in a dirt way, you know?) and substantial.