Birthday List

My birthday is rapidly approaching (as in, it's tomorrow). Here are a few things I'm wishing I'd unwrap...

domed octopus cuff, jewelry by naomi

tentacle earrings, OctopusMe

gwyneth's cookbook

An Anthro or Tory Burch gift card would also be lovely....

Most of all, I'm hoping for some nice weather so we can head to the zoo with G/Q.

Let the Summer Reading Begin!

It could not feel less like summer here. It's currently 51 degrees, foggy as heck, and drizzling. It's putting me in an incredible funk because instead of sitting on my sunny back porch playing with G and Q, I'm huddled on the sofa under a down blanket, nursing a luke-warm cup of coffee, wasting time on the Nets while the boys take their morning nap. Surly, I tell you...I'm downright surly.

But despite the very unsummerlike weather conditions, last night I kicked off my summer reading with Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea. Mother's Day weekend I saw the Jane Eyre movie that's out right now, so I decided it was finally time to tackle this book. I'm about halfway through already and love the spooky, slightly disjointed narration (which, incidentally, feels very much like the tone of the new movie). I have a feeling reading this book is going to forever change how I feel about Jane Eyre, making me completely sympathetic to the "first Mrs. Rochester" like how reading Wicked has now made me sad for the Wicked Witch whenever I watch Wizard of Oz.

Next up...John Knowles' The Magus and Caleb Carr's The Alienist. (Think the weather is influencing my decisions at all?) What's on your summer reading list?

p.s. I'm always in love with Ruth Orkin's photos. Don't you want her sandals?

Cool Coat

I love this peacoat from Ramona West for it's Ali Macgraw/Sally MacMillan 70s chicness.

Have you tried...pumpkin seed oil?

We eat a lot of roasted squash around here in the fall (like at least twice a week). Butternut, acorn, delicata, sweet dumpling...we love them all. Usually I simply roast the squashes with olive oil and s&p, but after reading about pumpkin seed oil, I picked some up a few months ago, and it's been my roasting oil of choice since then.

It definitely has a nuttier, richer flavor than olive oil, but doesn't overwhelm an ingredient as light as delicata. I even used it to roast golden beets, adding a little curry powder as well. The result was a super nutty, almost meat-y tasting beet that I added to a curry dish, then later put on top of a salad.

Last night we had one of our favorite meals: roasted sweet dumpling squash, stuffed with a wild rice pilaf filled with celery, carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, dried cranberries, apples, and walnuts (normally it would also have onions, but since they don't seem to agree with the twins, I can't eat them until I'm done nursing), with a side of wilted kale dressed in a maple dijon vinaigrette. The best part? The glass of Sauvignon Blanc we drank to wash it all down!