Dinner for a Perfect Day

It started early--most of my days do. In the morning it was drizzling in between pretty breaks of sunshine, and I watched the kids while D got some alone-time to recuperate from the week. L and I played (while toting a fairly patient JJ around) until close to lunchtime, when she selected a Hamtaro video to watch and I did a bit of cleaning up.

In the afternoon, on report that it was much warmer than we'd expected it to be, and that the rain had stopped, we went up to Elm Park. The bank clock said it was 75 out, and the clouds had cleared away. We spent two hours there. A tall black man practiced the trumpet over by the pond, while near the playground a woman whose cloud of long gray hair proclaimed a hippie-ish bent played a wooden flute. A polyracial chaos of children climbed, swang, slid, and sprinted (D and I took turns keeping track of L's pink corduroys in the crowd). A few teenagers slouched about--couples holding hands, a trio of girls giggling as they played on the equipment with the younger kids and took pictures of each other with their cell phones. We even ran into our landlord and her family.

When it started clouding up again we decided to call it a day. On arriving home, I went off to do the grocery shopping, and only got slightly rained on walking home. It was just about time to start dinner. I had made the dough for the rolls before we left for the park, and put in the fridge (which for once was clean enough that I had room for a bowl of dough!).

Both this soup and these rolls I've made at least a dozen times; insofar as I have a repertoire,
they're in it. And every time I make them I think "I should make these more often." I often talk myself out of making dinner rolls. Not enough time, I say. Too much trouble. And so I end up going to the grocery store and buying some overpriced (though admittedly very good) La Brea loaf every time I want something to go with the soup. Not much sense in that.

Escarole and Orzo Soup with Turkey Parmesan Meatballs

Cloverleaf Honey-Wheat Rolls

After dinner another thunderstorm passed through, leaving a rainbow behind. Days don't come much better.