Settings: ISO 400, f/1.6, 1/100 sec, 50mm lens

This is the ridiculously delicious tomato sauce I made last night courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis’s recipe.  I ate some meatballs with sauce for lunch today and they were even better as leftovers!   Really…there’s just something about cooking with a Le Creuset dutch oven… it makes me feel so earthy and domestic – do you know what I mean?  Perhaps the weight of it?   I don’t know – I get a genuine satisfaction whenever I use it.   This one is actually my friend Amie’s.  I borrowed it from her months ago (she lives downstairs from me in the same building) – but she’s seen it at my apartment a million times now.   I’m thinking she has no space for it in her apartment so she doesn’t mind keeping it at mine!  Just a hunch.  We actually got a beautiful blue Le Creuset as a wedding gift, but it’s still at my parents’ house in Massachusetts because we have no space!  (I’ve been keeping this one on my stovetop).  The plan is, we’ll move into a new apartment next year – possibly in Brooklyn, DEFINITELY with more space, and we’ll bring all our wonderful new wedding gifts with us when we go.  I kind of can’t wait.  Though moving in NYC is not so much fun.  I try to avoid it whenever possible.  I’m on my fifth year in this apartment right now – and believe me, if it had two bedrooms and a little more space, we’d probably never leave.

I don’t know what it is today, but I am ZONKED!  I think maybe it’s the heat and humidity – but I’ve been walking around all day in a total daze.  Even the five-block walk to the nursing home wore me out.   Adam’s nephew Tomas is coming tomorrow to visit us for a week so we have to rest up and think of some fun NYC things to do!  Then this weekend I’m taking off for the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival!  I’m super excited!  I’m going to bring a notebook with me so I can keep lots of good tasting notes and I’ll report in with my official cheese log next week – along with some highly cheesy photography.   Stay tuned.