morning eggs

Spring is finally here. We're faced with sporadic weather, changing by the week. Sneezing noses are all the rage. All of the sudden I'm remembering what humidity is like. And for all these things, I couldn't be happier.

Spring really is rebirth. It's new life. It's the birds in my backyard that literally shout across the trees every morning. It's the flowers on my table and the breeze that brushes my back. This winter has felt long, longer than usual. I think all the transitions and changes that have taken place this year have caused all aspects of my life to be drug out in their intensity. And now that spring has come, it really, truly feels like the first time in my life that I've smelled these aromas and heard these songs. I had forgotten that this would, actually, come again, that we wouldn't stay in short days and cold nights forever. All of the sudden this beauty is hitting me like a gust of wind on my face, forcing my eyes opening and rushing air through my nose and my mouth, renewing my sight and my lungs. And all of the sudden my heart is softened, my understanding is more tender, my gratitude explodes. "Thank you, thank you for beauty and gifts and new life."

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my favorite apple pie in all the world

This pie is close to my heart. It's my favorite in all the earth, literally.

I perfected this recipe about a year ago, while I was in Italy, strangely. They don't really eat apple pie over there, but there were countless times throughout the autumn season when my dearest friends and I would long for home and its comforting normalcies. We wanted pumpkin and apple and cinnamon everything, to the degree that we had friends and family cram cans and jars into their suitcases when they came to visit. It wasn't just a missing feeling; there were some deep cravings going on, probably more so for a familiar coziness than anything else.

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homemade mayo & peppery garlic aioli

Yay for life! Today is blue-skyed and breezy, quite warm for an October day but beautiful nonetheless.

Yesterday I bought big-girl perfume (this, if you care to know). Last night my mom slept over; we had Scottish gin with tonic and cucumber wedges and chicken soup with buttercup squash and kale while we watched one of our favorite movies. I was off work today so this morning we drank coffee on the porch and ate peppery fried eggs and talked about cake combinations and how to skin a lizard. Just kidding, we didn't talk about that last part; more like where to plug in the new string lights I bought for my porch. And then I put on lipstick and perfume and went to the local restaurant supply store to buy a candy thermometer, where the middle-aged Italian woman who works there called me sweetie. And when I got home I listened to this and made homemade mayonnaise and black pepper garlic aioli, just like the one at my sister's restaurant.
Tonight we will go to a pub and eat fish & chips, in honor of my darling Gran's birthday. I will wear her old wind-up watch and pretend like I'm back in Scotland, and we will probably cry and tell some stories. She would have been 69 today, and she was one of the most treasured and joyful people I've ever known.

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