Maxwell is leaving on a trip to Africa next week, so I decided to make a special dinner for him.  He and I went shopping in the morning, which is pretty unusual; he never wants to go with me, unless purchasing something for him, is on the agenda.  Freyja and I often go the Sheridan on Saturday mornings, but she was on a sleep over, so the boy and went and he selected a large pork roast, a shoulder piece, which is not my favorite, but I went along.  He also talked me into a large bag of pistachios that cost a fortune, but I am a sucker for this kid, so there you got.   Expensive nuts.

We were making spaetzle, with out Rolf.  Both Mark and Maxwell questioned whether or not I would be able to make them as well as Onkel, which only acted as an incentive.  Unfortunately, I have the weakest hands in the world these days, and I needed Mark to do the beating of the batter, at the end, and also to hold to bowl, while I poured the batter into the spaetzle machine. Rolf would have been appalled by my addition of chopped herbs to the batter and of green apple to the caramelized onion topping.  I also used much less cheese than he does and more onion.  It was fantastic. 

Noodles: a work in progress.

I made the Vincent Price mayonnaise again, but this time with two yolks and garlic, herbs and lots of lemon, to go with artichokes and asparagus.  The extra yolk added a lot of unctuous mouth feel  as they might say on one of those cooking shows. 

The pork was pretty restaurant perfect! with a crust of mustard seed and applesauce.  I made a little white bean salad, just because I like navy beans and they sounded good. Tarragon, parsley, dill, lemon and oil. And some zucchini, because Mark likes zucchini.

My boss gave me this sweet little rose plant, for my one year anniversary at the school, I put it in a little pot I had, but I think I will eventually plant it in the ground.  Our yard is an abomination right now, me having done exactly nothing this spring to fix it up.