home alone

Today was one of those leisurely, peaceful days - completely unexpected. I slept late - an annoyance call woke me at 9:30 and I hung up on the guy. What ever happened to the DO NOT CALL list? Cheesh. Well, I had to get up anyway... By the time I made coffee, read 2 newspapers, and looked at yesterday's piece, half the morning was over - or so it seemed. I looked at the photo I took last night of the piece and was not happy.I worked back into it and then decided it was part of my crap quota, so aptly named by Jane Steinberg. Time to move on. This is the state of the table in my little sewing room/home studio and I was not going to my other studio, so I needed to find an alternative. In the meantime, it was lunchtime. Since I had a number of pathetic cucumbers languishing in the fridge and some previously-fresh mint that had dried out, and I always have yogurt, it was time to make - yes - you guessed it - cucumber yogurt mint soup. I never putter around in the kitchen in the middle of the day anymore: I am either out at my Franklin Street Studio or, if I am at home, I am working, working, working. It is a luxury I don't have time for these days, so something must be afoot. Yesterday afternoon I made moules marinières and threw some beets and eggplant on the grill to roast. Today, this! Actually, it was more like a raita than a soup, but it was delicious. While I was in the kitchen, I realized that I have the perfect work surface right there! So I spent the rest of the afternoon cutting, pinning, and ironing on this wonderful soapstone island. It's long enough for a large piece, is completely heatproof so the iron doesn't damage it, and I was right near the coffeepot. What could be better? Tonight we had omelettes, leftover cold marinated roasted beets, French potato salad ( oil, lemon, mustard, dill dressing) and the rest of the raita/soup. Ah, contentment.