A Big Event
Saturday night we celebrated Madeline and Dave Harris’s 40^th wedding anniversary with a party hosted by me, their daughter Amanda, and our sister Anne.  Forty years!  Same person.  Still sane. Still loving.  Now, that’s something to celebrate.  Friends, family, food, flowers and balloons abounded.  In fact, here’s a picture of Amanda and Anne as they spent a couple of hours detangling balloons whose ribbons had thoroughly embraced one another on the ride home in Amanda’s SUV. They were determined to do it without cutting the ribbons.  At the end of the game, balloons one, women zero.

So, how about a little before and after perspective on the honorees?

Dave Davies, David and Madeline Harris, Jan Davies - Dec. 31, 1971

Dave Davies, David and Madeline Harris, Jan Davies - Jan. 7, 2012

Happy Anniversary (Dec. 31) Madeline and David!  Click here for more pics from the celebration.

Mark Bittman Month
I’ve always had a bit of a No New Year’s Resolutions policy.  For one thing, everybody’s doing it – something I tend to resist.  Secondly, it seems to run counter to my “denial is our friend” mantra.  However, on January One this year, in a moment of let’s just call it weakness, I decided on two resolutions: 1) blog more, and 2) January is Mark Bittman Month.  I also added a couple of New Year’s suggestions, which I may or may not discuss in a later entry.

Rachel and Bret gave me Mark Bittman’s The Food Matters Cookbook for Christmas, so, in keeping with resolution two, last night I made a dinner of Curried Chickpeas and Cauliflower from the book and Chicken and Roasted Squash with Kale.  The latter recipe illustrates one of the things I love about Mark’s recipes.  Sometimes they’re more suggestions for combinations of ingredients than actual recipes.  Both dishes were delicious.  (I’d say, “amazing,” but am trying to not overuse that descriptor.)

Mark’s cookbook includes a panegyric to the pot of beans, and so far I’ve cooked a pot of mixed beans for traditional bean soup and a pot of chick peas.  I used some of the chick peas in the recipe mentioned above and plan to use more of them later this week in his recipe for Chickpea Tagine with Chicken and Bulgur from the book.  It sounds amaz…, er, yummy!

Jeanne Silliman
January 9, 2012