Fennel Salad

When I was in college I worked for a time at a cafe in the Financial District. I mostly liked it there. I put in a mostly full week of work, the schedule complemented my school hours, and I had weekends off. I took home a shit-ton of food on Fridays and ate free every single day. There wasn't a whole lot to complain about except for the go-nowhere-ed-ness nature of the job, of course.

Anywhoozle, this deli had a few salads it served on a regular rotation that I really enjoyed. Two of them even make me think for a moment that strawberries aren't so bad after all. 

One of the salads, not one of the strawberry ones, is the one I made this afternoon. I was craving it, so I made it. It's macerating right now.  I took a few bites of it right after I made it and it was good, but it will be so much better in about an hour or so

. 

Fennel, Parmesan and Walnut Salad

I never actually saw the actual recipe for this salad, so this is what I came up with on my own and it's delicious. 

Take a head of fennel and cut out the core and remove the outside pieces. Take your super scary hand held slicer with the ceramic blade and slice until you are afraid you're going to slice off your knuckles and fingertips.  

Add chopped up walnuts, grated parmesan cheese, olive oil, salt, Timut pepper. You can also add some parsley if you want a little bit of color. The Timut pepper is my own contribution to the gleaned recipe. I like the grapefruity essence of this type of pepper. 

It's yummy. 

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Bus #2 Rules!

The first day of school. I'm feeling a strange mix of excitement, trepidation and ennui. Excitement because my kids get to see their friends and learn with them together. They get to be outside, running around. I'm excited because I don't have to have 12 different alarms on my phone letting me know what kid had to log in to which class. I'm filled with trepidation because the virus is still out there and even though 3/4 of my household is vaccinated and I live in a city and state that takes covid safety seriously, it's still a bit scary. I'm also feeing a bit of ennui, It's been a hard time, this pandemic. I can feel it in the air that everyone is experiencing some of this. We are excited to be together again but wary of those destructive few who don't take this virus seriously or those who won't get vaccinated. They could seriously fuck it all up for us. We worked hard to stay inside, wear masks, use sanitizer. We missed people we love and didn't get to attend important events. I'm optimistic that we will be through with all of this soon enough, but sheesh. 

Anywhoozle, my kids comprise a brand new college graduate, an 8th grader and a 3rd grader. 

Upon my college graduation, I was definitely not as put together as my oldest. She rocks. I wish I had just an ounce of her determination and drive. 

When I started 8th grade, my teacher was brand new; I don't know if she was new to teaching, but she was new to the school. 8th grade is also where I had an English teacher who is the best teacher I ever had. He was really tall and had a really great "weird" about him. So much so that by his example, I became more comfortable with my own "strange." Life got a little easier after that. He liked music. He played guitar. He told great stories about him growing up. One time he brought his guitar into class and said nothing the whole class. He just played his guitar and sang Arlo Guthrie's Motorcycle Song.

When I started 3rd grade I started a new school.  We took the school bus (Bus #2 Rules!). Our driver was named Mrs. Black. On the walk on the way home from the bus stop after school we could take two routes. One took us by the liquor store. We would spend our offering money on candy there. The other route home took us by a house that I think Nicholas Cage grew up in and another that had a 3 foot statue of King Kamehameha holding a Swedish flag in its front yard.  I knew some of the kids from Sunday School, so I thought I would have an easy time making friends. Turns out, it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. The cool kid clique formed early in my class and I wasn't a part of it. However, it was also around that time that I met one of my closest friends and favoritest people. We're still friends to this day and I consider myself lucky because of it.

I hope this school year goes smoothly. I hope the vaccination rate goes up and the infection rates go down. I hope my kids are successful in their paths ahead of them.