A decidedly different meal from my simple, home-cooked one last night. For the first night of IACP, I met up with three friends for dinner at Caffe Storico. It was such a good meal.

I got walloped by a nasty flu-like thing this week. Normally, when I feel crappy, I try to stay as far away from the kitchen as possible. However, I also started to feel really tired of take-out. So this dinner appeared. Whole wheat spaghetti with pesto from the freezer. Roasted asparagus. Pan-seared chicken tenders. It was easy and didn’t require a lot of pots or pans. I sometimes forget that dinner doesn’t have to be a big deal. Sometimes it can just be this.

Some of the food books that I’ve worked my way through of late.

Prepping for Easter with red beet eggs. Love that pink color.

City Hall reflected in 1500 Market Street.

Gathering friends around my dining room table is one of my favorite things.

A full dish drainer is the sign of a productive and full day in the kitchen.

Jury duty. Thankfully, it was a slow day in the court system and the large panel to which I was assigned was canceled before we even had a chance to leave the jury assembly room. I served for a full week back in 2009 (it was just a few days after we got back from our honeymoon) and it was such a negative experience that I was relieved not to have to do it again so soon.

I recently finished reading Tamar Adler’s book, An Everlasting Meal. It inspired me to change up my kitchen life a little and slow cook a pot of beans.

Last summer, Scott and I stopped in to an antique mall in Morgantown, PA. In one of the stalls, I spotted this blue Dansk fondue pot. It was $18 and wanted it in the worst way. At the time, I made what I thought was the adult decision not to get it (because I already have two fondue pots). But since then, I’ve thought about it on several occasions and wished I’d bought it.

This trip, we happened to be passing by the same antique mall and so stopped and went in. The fondue pot was still there and it was 20% off to boot.

A fun little treasure, to be sure.