Recipe for A Perfect Saturday

Wake early, rested, to perfect weather and a quick enjoyable view of the garden on the way out the door.

Get coffee and head to a beautiful local 10K. See local friends you didn't know would be there, meet their baby, and catch up for half an hour before the race. Run harder than you expected through hills to catch much better views than you realized were available. At the point where you most want to walk up the steps cut in the trail, encounter a mom with a jogging stroller who gives you the perfect excuse to walk and help her carry the stroller up the steps.

Long shower.

Bike downtown with E for a 2-hour outdoor brunch in perfect weather with wine at a local mediterranean food restaurant.

Nap.

Watch a hilariously cheesy movie where English is spoken in hell, Spanish on earth, and French in heaven while shelling fava beans that you harvested from the remaining plants before they were sacrificed for the compost pile (see the tall plants in the front box that are falling over? They are now a memory.)



Continue to shell fava beans while watching an hour of the Ken Burns documentary on the National Parks.

(Good thing favas fix nitrogen into the soil and plant matter for great composting. Because otherwise, the labor necessary to get to the edible portion would not be worth the ridiculous work of shelling and re-shelling. Here's the entire take after about 2.5 hours of lazy work by me, aka post de-podding, but pre-2nd shelling of the skin:)



Prepare an impromptu dinner of angel hair pasta and pesto made from random bits of deliciousness that were hiding in the kitchen (antipasti, croutons, 5 chili preserves, anchovies, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil, what?).

Eat pasta and continue to enjoy the National Parks documentary. Fall asleep to images of beautiful nature on husband's lap.

Eventually move to the bed. Sleep. Well.

Ahhhh...