The Birds & The Bees

A good understanding of that crucial life-lesson, "the Birds & the Bees" led me to yesterdays event: helping host a baby shower for one of my "loveliest" friends. On a sidenote, am I the only one who's wondered "Why birds, why bees, why together?"

Anyway, I took some vintage sketches of the two animals (also, are bees even considered animals?) and made up some invitations.*

I kept the little-tag theme going from the invitations to the seating cards...**

Now this particular friend loves all things French, charming, warm, and generally just "lovely," as she often says. She also harbors a delight in great children's books, so we requested each guest bring a copy of her childhood favorite, her classic.*** These were added to the Sholdt Family Library, and were stamped as such:

Rebecca's selections of fine teas, Jessica's homemade quiches, Le Panier brioches and macarons...yes, we showered...

(Two mothers-to-be, "lovely" on the right. 2010)

* Note: I'd arrived home the night before from the Motherland, so in my head I was actually serving dinner, not brunch

** Acknowedgement: A hearty thanks to the gentleman at Kinko's who helped print these invitations despite the fact that they were set up horrifically!

*** Note: We determined previously that a "good" children's book has memorable illustrations and does not try to sneak in some innane moral lesson (ie: eat organic, ride a bike to work, recycle).

Off to My Motherland

Can you guess where I'm heading in 6 hours?

I plan on feeling like this...

And stopping to smell roses, like this...

Someplace where this happens spontaneously...

And using these words...

Or perhaps words like va bene, prego, e troppo vino per piacere...to describe all of this I'm enjoying...

And eating lots and lots of this...

Can you guess the destination?

Random Summer Fruit

(My first nectarine tart with cornmeal crust, 2010)

There's something in my nature that attempts recipes without having complete or correct ingredients in hand. I'd decided to try a little apricot vanilla tart with cornmeal crust (thank you to whoever gifted us with a Williams Sonoma cookbook for a wedding gift). Sure, the store had no apricots, and yes, I forgot the apricot preserves and maybe one or two other things. Never mind that, because I loved how my Nectarine-tart-with-strawberry-and-vanilla turned out on my somewhat-difficult-to-cut-cornmeal-crust. I had to bake it no matter what the recipe called for: I think it's that summer is clearly closing its curtain and I'm trying to enjoy every last sense of it.

As a tribute to the end of summer, I want to share with you the following excerp. It's a bit random (like my baking and md) and not about elusive apricots or dainty, thin-skinned nectarines, but a tribute to my favorite summer symbol of all: Peaches.

From Blossoms

by Li-Young Lee

From blossoms comes this brown paper bag of peaches we bought from the boy at the bend in the road where we turned toward signs painted Peaches. From laden boughs, from hands, from sweet fellowship in the bins, comes nectar at the roadside, succulent peaches we devour, dusty skin and all, comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat. O, to take what we love inside, to carry within us an orchard, to eat not only the skin, but the shade, not only the sugar, but the days, to hold the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into the round jubilance of peach. There are days we live as if death were nowhere in the background; from joy to joy to joy, from wing to wing, from blossom to blossom to impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.