so it’s thursday afternoon as i begin this draft chatter offering-  i made a joke on my Facebook page earlier–  tonight would be the kick off of ‘red wine drinking’ season for me… and the reasoning went something like this. Today is the 27th, and 2+7=9, and 9 goes into 27 three times… and everyone knows that 3 is the magic number. it’s logic like this that will have me up until 1am blogging about the pink satin jacket with turquoise cuffs i had as a small child… and how great terry cloth clothing felt.  interpretation: there need not be logic for fabulous things. they just are. tonight will be filled with goodies in all elements, shapes and sizes- starting with the silver lining of being off of work until Monday afternoon. a long weekend is always a beautiful thing. i’m planning to bake up a few rustic pita pizzas for dinner, with the liquid to solid food ratio leaning toward the liquid and the lovely. we’ve been lucky enough to avoid a frost so far, allowing us plenty of freshly torn basil leaves for a topping. i love the end of the harvest when you are savoring sweet sliced tomatoes with every meal… and the crusts from pita pizzas make perfect sponges for the tomato juice on the cutting board. in my house, most meals are consumed while standing in the kitchen- my hubby and i, listening to some of our favorite tunes and watching the tiny tots be young, wild and free. it’s one of our favorite times of the day… and when it’s happening, it’s easy to see why.  yes, we may only get through one Neil Young track and half of a Ray LaMontagne before the tots request Britney Spears… but it’s all part of the charm of our off center, stand up family dinner.  i don’t imagine this part of the day would be half as fun if it weren’t for my love and passion for food. my son (3) used to ask me, “is it gonna be good mommy?” as i prepped a meal… but somewhere along our life path he stopped asking.  now he knows.  he prefers ‘linguini with red sauce’ over spaghettios if you get me.  i’m creating a food conscious little fella – but some girl, somewhere will thank me one day.  tonight there will be wine, and there will be flame in the fireplace, and the flame will be from that of the large red oak that fell on part of our house three years ago. funny how that whole event can be passed off in one sentence as i blog here, but at the time it consumed our lives to the point of exhaustion.  time marches on, and if you’re too busy sitting on your dupa watching Honey boo boo, you’ll miss the beauty hidden in these stolen moments.  sometimes i like to do a pre-blog… leading up to the evening events- and then follow up with a photog synopsis of the magic, and how it all went down.  today is one of those days.

Coppolla cab. red wine season’s first pour.

i feel like weekday dinners should be easy, but no less delicious than a weekend meal would be. anytime there’s sauce and melty fontina cheese involved, it’s bound to be fabulous. this is a meal the whole family can be a part of- kids love to spread their own sauce and sprinkle the cheese all over the top. these bake off at 375  in 7 minutes when placed directly on the rack. enjoy, we sure did!!  see our evening gallery below!