I believe in Providence.
I've seen it happen in huge ways and in small ways.
This is one of the small ways, to anyone except me, that God provided in a crystal clear way.
There is this space in our kitchen that I never publish photographs of, never.
Before the new floor was put down a few days ago it held a smallish wood table that held snacks. On the floor beside it was piled a box of trash liners, distilled water for my diffusers, a large jar of cleaning vinegar, a carton of beer, a box of Skinny Pop popcorn bags, a picnic basket holding crackers, opened bags of chips, pretzels, all that stuff I don't want readers to know we buy. Anything that wouldn't fit in the cabinets or that I didn't want put back in our pantry went in that corner. Oh, and the large canister of BreeBree and James Mason's kibble.
We could not put all that messy stuff back on our new kitchen floor so RH and I set out Friday to look for an industrial kitchen cart to fit in that space. We went to Home Depot and Lowe's and saw stuff made in China, ugly and expensive.
We didn't want to wait on a delivery from Wayfair or some place like that. The truth is I've never bought anything from them or their like. I suggested we go to our local antique mall that I hadn't been to in years but where I used to find great stuff.
We split up and found 3 possibilities but this cabinet was the winner. And it was the exact size that would fit, we hoped, and only $77, and...
it was gray and white, the color of the new floor!
Providence!
Don't worry, BreeBree and James Mason's kibble got put in a less noticeable spot. And if you've noticed that this window has a bush in front of it, that's a huge holly that thrashers and cardinals nest in and eat the berries. Even though we have a large window just down from this one, over my kitchen sink, it is getting time to do some pruning on this holly, in the proper time this winter. I would like to see a little sunshine coming in there.
For a what can I cook tonight night, in the summer there's always tomatoes for the salad.
This Sesame, Tomato, and Cucumber Salad from the June issue of Southern Living was good and I had everything for it except a yellow tomato. I even had the sesame seeds but as you can see I forgot to add them at the last.
Happens all the time now.
To go with it, I sat out ingredients for Frances Mayes' Odori:
--two stalks celery, 3 cloves of garlic, sautéd in olive oil until cooked but still crunchy. She calls for 2 carrots too but I was out. Scissor basil and parsley into the mixture, add more olive oil and cook on low flame for 2-3 minutes.
Then it was just a matter of tossing some angel hair pasta into that, with a little pasta water. I added more snipped basil to the top and that was our meal. Even without Mayes' suggestion of grated parmigiano (RH can't eat it), it was delicious.
I'm not sure if this recipe is from her Bella Tuscany or another one of her books but I use recipes from all her books.
I was excited to see Frances' North Carolina garden in the August issue of Southern Living. I hope they do another issue with the interior of her simple old white farmhouse with the two front doors--my grandparents had two front doors on their farmhouse!
I love all the Frances Mayes books for my armchair travel, just as I love visiting faraway lands through my blog friends.
I think the first "career" I ever thought about was being a travel agent, back when travel agencies were a big thing. I was about 13 and had a shoe box full of postcards I'd collected. With my shoebox full of postcards, paper and pencil, I planned vacations for pretend clients who called me on the telephone.
It is almost impossible to imagine a sophisticated streetwise 13 year old today "playing" travel agent. Today they would know how to book their own trip online for real and probably some do.
Ah, it was a simple time back then. Mama's tomatoes were just sliced and put on the table. And we never had pasta back then unless it was homemade macaroni and cheese--how I wish I could taste hers again!--and spaghetti with meat sauce if Daddy was out of town on a business trip.
I think one of Mama's suppers on a What Can I Cook Night was salmon patties. That's one of my favorites too, in fact, we're having them tomorrow night with black-eyed peas and broccoli.
Time was, when I wanted RH to take me out to supper or bring home takeout that I'd tell him we were having salmon patties for supper. Worked every time, but then he started liking them too.
It doesn't work anymore.
