Flavors 518

I love the Gardner Museum Cafe Cookbook , because who doesn't want to cook luncheon pies and party like its 1890? I also love the photos in the book from the archives at the museum taken during many of Gardner's fancy dinner parties. Everyone looks so relaxed in their tight-fitting Victorian outfits. I made the ratatouille pie recipe last night from this cookbook. I have to admit to having felt a bit stressed. I remember when I was in college and reading in the bath a short story in The Atlantic about a doctor who got to Friday night and collapsed and thought to himself "This is professional life?" I remember thinking "That can't be right, clearly you finish all your school assignments and the whole rest of life is easy." Where I got this idea I can't ever recall. When I was a kid it was always all this pressure to do well at each thing so that you could get onto the next thing ("You better be perfect in high school so that you can go to co...

Last weekend a car full of my coworkers and I went to the Brimfield Antique Show in Brimfield, MA . We were originally going to go back to the Raynham, MA Flea Market , but that one isn't open on Saturdays. I had originally read about the Brimfield one, which is on a few times a year, in the Martha Stewart Living Magazine. I met my corworkers who live in North Adams, MA at the Lee Outlets, and it was about a two hour drive total. It was totally worth the distance though. One of my coworkers naively thought we could or should see the whole thing. This thing is monstrous. We got there pretty early, and still couldn't really see it all. By shopping around we only paid $3 for parking, which was pretty good because there were $5 and $7 lots right next to that lot. I got a crazy amount of stuff: one green polka dot dress, one brightly colored floral dress, a schnauzer brooch (we had one of those dogs when I was a kid), a cookbook from 1930 about hot weather dishes, a plate to h...