It's Labor Day and on this subject, I have been trying to figure out how to adequately describe the importance of the food supply in my house of men. Due to the number of man-boys (five) and their unusually high rates of metabolism, I always felt like my single most important job as a mother was "gatherer of groceries". I once snapped a pic of the third son home from high school, standing in front of the open fridge with backpack, jacket, gloves, and snow boots on. That's how desperate he was to confirm his snack.

This weekend, we all traveled together up north. My parents came too. My mother, who survives on Tic Tacs and vodka tonics, was freshly shocked at their locust-like behavior. She unloaded the dishwasher twenty times in three days. By the year 2200, someone will have developed a quick test to measure rates of metabolism and I will finally get my due as the woman who fed the five highest metabolisms for twenty years without losing her marbles. 

So, this weekend listicle is devoted to random food things because, well, you know.

• This strikingly beautiful video is an homage to the art of slow cooking. It features a mezzaluna chopper (photo above), which is available in my shop. But it induced no end of eye-rolling in me. What is missing in the art direction is the pack of feral children hungrily waiting off-set who will lick out the contents of the bowl in three swipes of the tongue.

• This poor woman's costume wouldn't survive ten minutes at our house. Need a Halloween idea, anyone?

• Yesterday my mom and I saw these in a shop. They're pretty and strangely, they do work. But would they retain their stickiness after going through a dishwasher?

• I get a lot of recipes from Ree Drummond, because she gets it. She lives on a ranch for cripe's sake. Here are her favorite meals that are "ready in a jiffy."

• A Philadelphia public school, shuttered by a broke school district was recently purchased and turned into a private gastropub. Bizarre on so many levels. Read about it here.

• My husband has lusted after espresso makers for years but their price tags! This is our new one which is easy-to-use, small in scale, and very affordable.

P.S. Wisconsin peeps! My favorite blogger, The Bloggess, is coming to Boswell Books on Tuesday, October 27th. Email me if you want to join me (mithra@thebubblejoy.com). Here is my all-time favorite post she wrote in 2011 about Beyoncé, a rusty rooster. The post went viral, attracting legions of fans as well as internet trolls who questioned her wifely abilities. Either way, it propelled her career.

Here is what Neil Gaiman had to say about her writing: "The Bloggess writes stuff that actually is laugh out loud, but you know that really you shouldn't be laughing and probably you'll go to hell for laughing, so maybe you shouldn't read it. That would be safer and wiser."

I'll need help thinking of a bizarre gift to give her. Maybe the mezzaluna? 

Thank you for spending time with me on this beautiful Labor Day. Would you consider subscribing to this listicle? It posts every Monday at noon.