Lunch on a Saturday

Hilary and I had an excellent lunch today, the second time in the last month or so we've been able to enjoy it. Fresh french bread, sliced mozzarella, fresh and local tomatoes, and outstanding olive oil. Think of it as bruschetta al fresca. We could perhaps have had basil leaves, too, but we didn't put any keep any whole ones from the massive pesto wave of this past fall.

Yes, a remarkably simple meal, and yet not so at the same time. The bread, while an excellent European style, still comes from a Panera franchise. The mozzarella was from a (organic, wisconsin-farmed) block from the super market (alas, it has still been too cold for the cheese people at the farmer's market to pull their own fresh motz). The tomatoes were indeed fresh and indeed local, purchased from our farmer's market (which means it was grown from within 50 miles), but have spent the last two weeks in a paper bag ripening up on our kitchen counter. The olive oil we had to travel to Italy to get.

And yet, the fact that we could do have such a meal on a still-cold-and-snowy March 1st in Minnesota, is itself a small miracle.