Nothing like a beautiful fish to get you back in the swim. It’s all sweet smell of ocean breezes and tender flesh. I always feel like the luckiest girl in the world when the beach is delivered to the city. And when I have a crowd who love to eat. I crushed some fennel seed, sauteed it with parsley stems, shallots, slashed heads of garlic and my beautiful olive oil. Made a crosshatch with celery stalks in a roasting pan, scattered half of the aromatics over, then sea salt over one side of the fish and same on the other. Set it down on the celery rack and spooned the rest of all the goodness on top. A good pour of olive oil and orange slices tucked in under the edges. In a minute more than half an hour, a ten pound, half a fish, done. Served with a platters of poached baby beets with marinated capers, one of ruby red tomatoes and basil, another of sauteed swiss chard and stems, lentils with fried mint, and salad of white peaches, cucumber, pignoli and red gem lettuce.

Today’s lunch, I don’t know yet. Ferdinand woke up (singing,) a minute ago and it’s almost noon. All we have in the house is rice. We may just pick cherry tomatoes from the vine and figs from the tree for the mama and take the boy out for a chicken soup.