Morning Commute

My feet were soaking wet by the time I crossed the parking lot to my car yesterday afternoon.  I wore open-toed shoes with 3-inch heels...not expecting a torrential downpour.  The rain came at me sideways so that my umbrella sheltered my head, neck, part of my back and that was pretty much it. Hence this morning when I awoke to the sounds of rain splashing angrily against my windows I knew there was no way I would step out of the house in heels.

It rained hard.  So much rain arrived that all the water on the roads didn't know where to go.  Highways were flooded...side streets were flooded...residential areas were flooded.  I had to turn around because the road that lead to my office was flooded.  Needless to say, the ho-hum morning commute was not boring today.

Waiting in traffic...along with everybody else

Side view of rain on my window...and the gas station

A friend at work gave me this 

itty-bitty cluster of

Champagne grapes

Feeling Peachy

My friend, whom I met three years ago, is back in town.  Yea!  She invited me over for dinner so we could catch up on what's taken place in each of our lives.  When I asked her what I could bring, she said dessert.

No problem!

Last week I saw a yummy looking peach shortbread on smittenkitchen.com.  Voila!--I happened to have all the ingredients on hand.  (I love that!)

So...dinner was scheduled for Monday, Labor Day.  I spent the morning basking in the leisure of waking up late, enjoying my first cup of coffee, and reading.  It was a tremendously bright outside.  (Rain however was in the forecast for Tuesday.)  

Into the kitchen I went and began assembling the needed ingredients.

Peach Shortbread

Recipe adapted from smittenkitchen.com

1 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter (cut into small cubes)

1 egg

2 peaches (I used white flesh peached) - sliced thinly

Preheat oven 375 degrees.  Butter a 9x13 pan.  (I used a glass baking dish.)

Combine and stir sugar, baking powder, flour, salt & spices.

Using a paster blender, blend in butter with the flour mixture.  Then add the egg.  Use your fingers to massage and blend mixture.  Result will be a crumbly crumb.

Pat 3/4 of crumbs into pan.  Tile peach slices over crumb in single layer.  Scatter remaining crumbs over peaches (I did not use all of my remaining crumbs.  It seemed too much.  Use your judgement and preference.)  I then dusted the peaches with some sugar--very lightly--along with a few dashes of cardamom (my preference).

Bake 30 minutes until top is slightly brown and edges are colored.

Let shortbread cool completely before cutting into squares.

The result was delightful.  Not too sweet, the peaches contributed such a fabulous taste to the buttery shortbread.  I say it makes for a good brunch item...pairs quite well with one's favorite cup of coffee.  Sit back, relax and enjoy.  There's a lingering flavor of summer in a square of peach shortbread.

Savor the last bits of Summer!

Cleaning, French Lessons...and a Perfect Avocado

Friday morning...I hit the snooze button at 5 a.m.  Too early.  After an extra 30 minutes of dozing, I forced myself to get up.  I was meeting a coworker at the local Starbucks at 7:30, and then we were going across town to meet with one of our vendors.  Even though it was an early start for a Friday morning, all in all it was a very good and productive day.  I came home and took a nap.  

When I awoke I had an insatiable urge to clean.  (Better take advantage of the desire to do so, I told myself.)  I started with the bedroom and went through all the papers and folders and books that I had accumulated, stuffed and crammed into my bookcase.  Lots of junk.  Why did I keep these?  I had books that I started reading but now have no interest in finishing them.  Those went into boxes...two full boxes to be exact.  Oh yes--to make cleaning not such a bore, I played one of my podcast subscriptions: Coffee Break French.  

Bonjour!  C'est va?  Tres bien, merci.

It was lovely not to have anyone within earshot as I practiced the pronunciations. 

Au revoir.  Bonne nuit.  

(I'm only on lesson 3 of 80.)  

After the bedroom I moved on to the living room and dusted.  Where did all the dust come from??  Then it was time to tackle the bathroom.  Then vacuum.  Then wash the dishes and clean the kitchen floor.  By the time I was finished my garbage bag was a large bulge, and the sun had set.  I had missed the colorful evening horizon.  Instead the city lights shone like happy pin-pricks.  It was Friday night and my neighborhood was quiet.  I imagined that everyone in their homes were simply enjoying their moments of relaxation from a full work week.  

Feeling very hungry all of a sudden, I grabbed my car keys and headed to the grocery store.  Salad sounded appetizing.  A simple salad of crunchy lettuce, crumbled crispy bacon and generous feta.  A bottle of Riesling sounded good, too.  This summer I had not been craving fresh vegetables like usual.  Instead it's been Mexican food...crispy--not greasy--tacos, guacamole with lots of fresh squeezed lime juice, white corn tortillas and premium tortilla chips, chipotle salsa, Spanish rice, spicy fajita steaks...Lord, have mercy.  Usually I would splurge on blueberries and strawberries and white-fleshed peaches.  Not so much this year.  Perhaps it was due to the many disappointments I encountered with tasteless berries, bruised berries, rotten berries, over-priced berries--and the peaches!  It's been awful... I couldn't take it any more.  Oh, but I did discover Nutella spread.  It's glorious with bananas.

I purchased one avocado while at the store.  $1.50 for one avocado.  When I sliced into it a smile spread across my face.  $1.50 well spent.

Perfection.

I chopped it along with a tomato, salted them and added fresh lime juice.  Yes!--I had some tortilla chips for the perfect accompaniment.  

Naked lettuce.

With a glass of Riesling, I was ready to drift happily into a very much-looked-forward-to weekend.

My simple Friday night dinner

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Pink Sky

The evening was a harmonious fusion of pink.  Happy.  I drove home contented. 

My friend and I met for dinner after work at a taco/burrito establishment.  The music was loud, funky loud.  Too loud to discuss our day's events over steak and carnitas tacos.  I had the steak.  

Yum!  

Another view of these lovely tacos.

(Thank you, my sweet friend, for dinner!)

We found a spot on the patio underneath a ceiling fan.  It was still hot.  The fan stirred the warm humid air.  No relief.  My blouse clung to me, and I thought the backside of my skirt would be drenched.  But the crispy tacos were good!  All too soon they were gone.  It was a crazy day at work, a cross between the Twilight Zone and the Land of Oz.  I was glad it was done.  Before my friend and I parted finished our meal with frozen yogurt at a nearby corner shop.  When I got home, the sky blushed.  Or perhaps it was already blushing.

Love is a wonderfully unexplainable thing.  One can try to explain love--pare the exquisiteness of it's character down into a reduction of words.  I suppose there is legitimate need to explain it, to sing of it, to herald it.  If we can easily identify love, then I am sure we can also identity what it is not.  It is not love when you beat someone over the head while they are in a world of hurt.  Plain common sense and a little sensitivity could of advised a person to lay off and help.  Love, people, is not so much in the saying as it is in the doing.  Would you rather hear a sermon or see one in action?


I digress.  Pink sky.  That was yesterday.  Today it rained.  Finally.  It poured.  It was glorious.  I didn't even mind getting my feet wet from walking in the parking lot to my car.  The temperature dipped, and it was finally no longer hotter than hell.