Laura’s first words to her parents this morning was “I’d like a printout of a sparkly horse”. Wayne finds coloring pages on the internet. It’s preempted coloring books. Laura’s requests become more and more elaborate and are fun views into her imagination. For example, a komodo dragon fighting a giant spider. Wayne had to say no to that one. Most of the time, it is just horses.
Today was promised to be clear, maybe creeping up to 70. It didn’t do much creeping, at least not in the morning. I’ve become a weather fanatic now that I bike the girls for exercise. Yesterday, I specifically chose to go to the gym since it was supposed to rain. Today we biked because of that forecast of sun. It stayed overcast and damp most of the day. There were even a few sprinkles.
I got Sara to school early so she could run laps. She’s going to do a marathon a mile at a time over 2 months. Since she’s not in an organized sport, biking and running seem good ways to get exercise indoctrinated in her while she’s young. Her opinion of biking seems to have gone down. She told me that we need to park the bike 2 blocks away from the school to get more exercise for her marathon. I’m trying to convince her the bike actually counts. I’ll have to check with her gym teacher about that. It seems to undo the point of biking if I have to stop 2 blocks away to walk.
Photo Dad took of me on the bike with the girls after swim lessons one day at the beginning of summer. It’s a good photo to see clearly what our bike set up is.
Sara’s tall. Watching her run was neat. I cheered her. Running brought out her tallness. Her legs are long and she was running at a fast pace. Her cheeks were cheerfully red by the beginning of class.
Laura found her friend from preschool. She has to run all her fashion decisions by Helen. Lately, all Laura wants to wear are dresses “so I can look pretty”. The problem is she doesn’t own enough acceptable dresses to feed her habit. Since she’s shunning all shirts, short or long sleeved, we’re getting into wardrobe crisis. Some dresses we have are too nice to play with on the playground. I tried to make today a “shirt day”. Conceptually, she would alternate a dress with a shirt on alternating days. This concept worked till 10am when we got home. Clean clothes got thrown in the laundry after 2 hrs of wear in favor of a dress. Sigh.
Then another play date, this time with Emi. Did I mention I’ve been reconnecting with my social circle after a packed summer?
Another reclaimed tradition was swimming. The irony on swim lessons this summer, was I never got to swim. The other was we never went to our regular pool. I want to get back to my weekly tradition of swimming if possible. I’ll have to play it by ear. We ate pizza at Zayda Buddy’s after school. Such good pizza. It was also happy hour, so cheap pizza. That got the girls calorically ready for 1.5 hr swim fest. Sara got a lesson for 30 min. She liked it. I’ll have to see about doing that more often. Laura swam like a fish with floaties. I hovered, but wasn’t really needed.
Then a date with my husband, another reclaimed tradition. Last year, Bastille was the IT place. We tried to go twice one date night, once for dinner and again for desert later. Both times turned away. This time we wanted to trial Staple and Fancy. No way on that one. But 2 days in advance could get a 6:15pm reservation at Bastille thru Open Table. I’ve been to Bastille 3 times after tonight. 2 years ago at dinner with my parents, I was underwhelmed by a lamb burger and a croque monsieur (it didn’t hold a candle to the demised 35th st Bistro). A desert with girls was more positive with a lavendar creme brulee. Still not sure what all the fuss is about. The interior is amazing. The wait staff attentive. I just couldn’t get myself excited by the food. Tonight mostly broke that mold. We’ll be back. I might not be “the” favorite, but the intriguing tastes from tonight will draw me back occasionally.
The food:
Salade verte
Mixed greens in champagne vinaigrette with crushed hazelnuts.
Most of Bastille’s herbs and salad greens are grown in our French-style raised-bed planter boxes on the restaurant’s roof (French, toit). We mix our own with locally sourced ingredients, and this is as local as it gets.
*solid, good salad. fresh greens. hazelnuts add nice crunch.
Baguette with salted butter. need I say more. SALTED butter, yummm.
Duck confit was the real power taste of the night.
The entrees were both solid, but less powerful. My chicken had a smooth, but essentially tasteless sauce. It was saved by the crispy skin on the chicken. The sauce should have tasted like that to pop this dish. Mine was chicken with chanterelle mushrooms.
Joues De Porc Braiseés
Braised Carlton Farms pork cheeks with Merguez sausage, Olsen Farms potatoes & pearl onions.
*Wayne was much more content with his.
Deserts was where the true enjoyment lay.
Wayne got a plate du chocolat. Lovely. Nuff said.
I got glacee something. Peanut butter looking like silky soft brittle with cocoa nibs creating a wafer like crunch with salted caramel subtlely flavored ice cream. Best desert ever!