Pizza Season

Made pizza the other night. I know that pizza is baking and that baking feels like the sort of thing one does in cold weather when the leaves are all blustering and we're battening down the hinges and making ourselves as cozy as possible. Pizza however, is different. Pizza and lemon meringue pie (although that's another blog post) are meant to be made in warm weather. I do bake pizzas on occasion in the winter but it really feels like spring and summer food for me. I think this largely has to do with the sort of things I like on pizzas.

I'm partial to asparagus tips, fresh mushrooms, crumbled goat cheeses, wilted spinach, ripe tomatoes, glowing olives and no matter what the toppings a snipping of fresh herbs is mandatory. I know that there are lots of things you can use on pizza but I can't wait to troll the farmer's markets to find the best, most gleaming produce to use. I think real pizza season begins when there are finally enough fresh herbs to snip them over the top of the pie before the wheeled cutter has it's run.

The Scrubbing Begins

Well all, I am not vanquished yet but, I'm to the really mirey stage of The Big Clean. This is the part where I get weepy and almost quit five times a day. Things really slow down here. I was clipping merrily along yesterday but today I got to the jobs that are really grubby (scrubbing down the toilets, really, really well....cleaning the oven within an inch of its life...etc.) and they take a lot of time.

I spent all morning on just the refrigerator and by lunchtime I think everyone was on the verge of crying between the buckets and buckets of murky water I kept dumping out and refilling and the hunger level of various toddlers. Whew. Some things are nice to have over.

The hard news is that tomorrow is another hard day. After tomorrow (assuming I get tomorrow's stuff done tomorrow) I will be down to the fluffier finishing up tasks. Today, I began scrubbing with the kitchen appliances and bathrooms, and tomorrow I do glass (windows, mirrors, picture fronts and the like) and then hit the floors, walls, light plates, and skirting boards. Am trying not to think about that as I head to bed. Must just focus on rest at the moment. In the morning my aunt arrives to bolster the forces and fill our tummies with comforting food.

I will survive!

In the vein of distracting oneself...I thought you'd like to see the pictures I never posted from Dee's second birthday celebration.