Unplanned Cooking

Today we’re raking our front yard. Here, in Minnesota, our first snowfall hit before the leaves dropped from the trees. Which meant we shoveled before we raked. How odd is that?

But today, we’re expecting 60-degree weather. And the sunshine has brought out the optimists in us. Here’s our plan: We’ll rake leaves into a lush pile, into which the boys will gleefully jump, while our 10-month-old claps her hands. And Matt and I will smile at one another, feeling we are one, connected by these three wonderful beings.

Yet, I know, reality will look more like this: our boys will argue over who gets the bigger rake, while our 10-month-old crawls off and shoves leaves in her mouth. Our dog will escape from our home and bolt across the street after another dog. And that dog owner will look at my dog with pity because I haven’t walked her in a month, while I’ll wish I had remembered to put a bra on.

Yet somehow, Matt will manage to stay focused in the chaos, filling eight bags with leaves, which he’ll lug to the curb, while I’ll stand there empty handed, sweating more than he.

This just in: Matt said, “Take the morning off.”  Where should I go?  What should I do?

To tide my boys over while I’m gone, I’ve whipped up a French Apple-Pear Salad, inspired by Robin Asbell’s delectable new book, The New Vegetarian, which her publisher sent me. I didn’t have half the ingredients I needed to make her version, so here’s what I concocted:

French Apple-Pear Salad:

• 2 large Harrison apples, sliced like matchsticks
• 2 Anjou pears, sliced like matchsticks
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon honey (to soften the olive oil)
• 1/4 cup pecans, toasted (to give it a hardiness for my hard-working men)
• 1/2 teaspoon tarragon
• 1 pinch salt

Now where are my car keys?

Matt’s rating:  6 out of 10.  Loved how the fruit and nuts played off each other, but wasn’t crazy about the olive oil.  Robin used walnut oil in her version.  Will have to try that next time.