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I'm working on some new recipes for upcoming My First Kitchen classes, and I'd love some ideas from anyone interested in sharing!

What's your standby ingredient that is always in your kitchen? What do you love to cook with? Or better yet, what do you love to eat?

I want to focus on dishes that use popular, easy-to-use ingredients, so help me figure out what those are!

Soundtracks

Do you ever feel like you're in a movie? Music does that to me. It transports me to a New York street in the fall waiting to meet my long lost love. It puts me in a car, driving down a thickly tree-lined street to a home I haven't seen in years. It comforts me after a loved one dies. It makes me stop, close my eyes, smile, and think about how music is one of the most emotionally powerful mediums in my life. It goes beyond something fun to sing or something sentimental to listen to. A moment can be perfectly identified by a lyric, a note, a voice. I cry listening to music more than I cry about real life problems. It just speaks to me in a way that nothing else does. It's abandonment and quiet and rest. It's love and death and courage and hurt. It's perfect.

My Favorite Day

It's 1:11pm on a Wednesday, and I'm still in my pajamas. Granted I have been working all day, but I haven't taken the time to change. That FlyLady lady would be quite angry that I don't have my shoes and my face on. But there's something about pajamas. They're cozy and soft and warm and safe. Nothing bad happens when I'm wearing them. I'm not self-conscious (unless a neighbor drops by... oops), I don't feel bloated after I eat because of precious elastic, and I can crawl back in bed without worrying about wrinkles... on my clothes, not my face. Just to clarify.

So why am I sharing this? I have no idea. I'm just happy right now! I just ate a tasty lunch, I'm warm and comfy in my pajamas, I'm working but it's mindless, I'm halfway watching season three of LOST, and I am deeply loved. It's just really nice.

I like this kind of day.

A Great Uncle

Let me tell you about my Uncle Rex.

I told him I'd start my blog that way. Who knows if he'll actually read it. Still, I'm a woman of my word. So here's a post dedicated to my Uncle Rex.

He's my grandpa's brother, so I guess that makes him my great uncle. He is that... a great uncle. You know those people that you just feel totally comfortable with even if you don't see them but once every year? It's like Anne Shirley looking for her kindred spirit. I found one of very few in Uncle Rex.

My grandpa has been in the hospital for the last month going through triple bypass surgery and subsequent surgeries and therapies to help him recover. Over the four weeks, I've only gone a couple of times, but every time I've gone, Uncle Rex has been there. He sits and waits. Even on days where seeing my grandpa is hours away, he sits and waits. He's quiet and consistent, and silence is okay. And he's got my website in his favorites on his computer which I think is sweet.

And he teases. Goodness, does he tease. He loves to take little jabs at people he likes. Today I opened an issue of Entertainment Weekly in the waiting room, and Uncle Rex said, "You can read?" He does that. He loves to tease. But that's one of the reasons why I love him. I love that when he questions my mom's cooking ability and work ethic, he's really saying that he respects the woman she is. I love that when he tells me to keep my mom in line, he's really saying that he likes the fact that my mom and I love each other and love each other well. I'm glad he teases me, because it means he likes me. And I sure do like him.

So, Uncle Rex, if you're reading this, I did what I said. I wrote about you in my blog. I hope none of the words are too big for you.

Restaurant Review

Kaz and I went to Fincastle's Diner last night. You should, too.

I was going to cook, but you know how it goes (or try and remember how it went pre-kids). You have a dinner plan; ours was baked potatoes and salad. Not the most exciting thing, I know, but it works on days I don't feel like cooking (yes, there are days I don't feel like cooking). Somehow though, baked potatoes didn't seem like the fun Friday night dinner young couples unsaddled with families are supposed to have. So we went to Target. Not to eat. To buy shaving cream and dish soap and to think about what we wanted to eat.

Quick note on the dish soap. I almost got the "green" version to help save the environment a little. I picked up a bottle of Seventh Generation, took a whiff, quickly put it back on the shelf, and grabbed a bottle of good ol' Dawn. Stuff smelled like old dish water with a few lavender petals thrown in. Gross. I'll have to figure out another way to save the planet. Okay, back to dinner.

So we thought walking around Target would inspire a dinner plan; it did not. We sat in the parking lot for a couple of minutes throwing out ideas. Nothing. We don't eat out much, so we wanted to make this meal count; we take our food seriously. We landed on Napoli, a little Italian place on State St. that's actually quite good. We went there for lunch a couple of months ago and decided then we wanted to try it for dinner sometime. Was tonight that sometime? For four and a half minutes, it was.

Then sitting at the intersection of Cornwallis and Elm, we had a brainwave. We've always wanted to try Fincastle's! It's a little burger joint on Elm St. downtown that's been open for a couple of years. Now a word about downtown... Kaz and I don't feel cool enough for downtown. There are restaurants we want to try and we realize we're the last people in Greensboro to have never gone to the Greenbean (one word or two?), but Kaz's glasses aren't cool enough, my coat is too "soccer mom," and we definitely don't walk like we know what we're doing or where we're going. But despite all of those anxiety-producing facts, we decided to try Fincastle's. So glad we did.

It's a little narrow restaurant with maybe ten tables and a long counter. They serve perfectly simple burgers, freakishly awesome onion rings, and ice cream that I will try the next time we go. The service was casual and prompt, the decor was fun and diner-y, and the food kept us from talking for awhile because we just kept cramming it in. We liked that there were kids and older folks and college kids (and us) in the same restaurant. The jukebox makes the place a little throw-back. The prices are great. We got burgers with fries/onion rings, Kaz got a soda, and it was just under $14. Sure, you have to leave a tip on top of that, but that's just a buck or two more than dinner for us at Panera. Totally worth it. And parking in the deck a block over is free at night.

So go to Fincastle's. It's fun no matter who you are. And seriously... get the onion rings.