Schelly!

To help gloss over my recent loss we had a visit from Rob's eldest sister, Schelly. I like Schelly, and not just because she's Rob's family member I know the best. She's an artist, she's smart, she's funny, and she really loves her brother. She also doesn't want to be that aunt of Olive's who lives in Alaska and never sees, so she pays her expat family a visit whenever she and her husband, Tim, travel east. Her stay was short but very enjoyable, filled mostly with lively conversation (she and Rob often talk of their family, their childhoods - she's six years older - and their father) and punctuated with several nice meals (Salt of the Earth. Wow.), a tour of the National Aviary, and Bananagrams. Rob and I declared Olive an FAS baby (Full-a-Sweet, not the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome baby topic that had spurred this in the first place) while Schelly was here; she was particularly lovable and instantly warmed to her aunt, bumbling into her bedroom to wake her in the mornings, learning to say "cow" in response to the cow-shaped humidifier, and being captivated by Schelly's candy-colored pink purse and the wonders inside (especially the little compact mirror). We are looking forward to Schelly's next Pittsburgh trip, when she'll hopefully have Tim and her son, Zac, in tow for a more extended stay.

My Full-A-Sweets

Olive enjoying her brunch at Pamela's Diner in the Strip: toast, a bowl of strawberries and bananas, tomato slices, and an egg white and vegetable omelette.

Schelly's scallops at Salt of the Earth. That frothy stuff is saffron foam.

I got the tofu dish - I can't pass up tofu, and yuba (tofu "skin") was on the menu, served over popcorn grits and dotted with a huitlocoche sauce (it's a mushroom that grows in corn. Who knew?)

And Rob got the squab. Squab is a farm-rasied pigeon and very good to eat.

And THIS was my dessert: Berry pretzel jello. Mesquite-herbed cream cheese at the base sprinkled with crushed pretzels and topped with local golden raspberries and huckleberries. Unbelievably good.

Schelly's got the Swiss Maiden dessert, finely shaved Swiss Maiden raw cowsmilk cheese topped with bull's blood microgreens all over a line of almonds, apricots, and maple.

Rob's s'mores may've taken the cake. Rich chocolate patties with the texture of flan, a scoop of maple ice cream, toasted marshmallow, crushed Golden Graham cereal and elderberries with orange zest curls. It was stunning, really. Go to this place if you ever get the chance.