Music for when it rains.

If April showers flowers bring May flowers showers, then what do May flowers showers bring?

Good rainy-day music. And cooking from scratch. And listening to good rainy-day music while cooking from scratch.

I received in the mail, about a week ago, the beginning of a new way of life. Making things, all things, at home from scratch-- alright, not all things, that's a bit dramatic. Who even has the time for that? Someday when I'm a millionaire farmer's wife, maybe...

It's a cookbook unlike all other cookbooks I've ever owned, and it had me from "Homemade Butter." Even though I haven't tried making the "Homemade Butter" yet, it feels good to know that someday I will.

I found a few hours to myself on Sunny Saturday (a brief hiatus in the Rainy Season of Boston) and spent those hours strolling Whole Foods and a little Russian market in linen pants and big necklaces. I bought vanilla beans for my own vanilla extract, molasses for my own brown sugar, tomatoes for my own tomato sauce. Life was good. Life was really good. I had good music in my ears (Hurray for the Riff Raff's Pandora playlist) and aisles of fresh produce and bulk oats/nuts/rice/beans/granola/other stuff in my eyes. A Sunny Saturday in my world doesn't get much better.

(Weird, you think. Who spends enjoys hours shopping for food? I do. If you're my mom, you know that I can spend literally HOURS in a grocery store-- especially a grocery store like Whole Foods. And if you're my mom, you know that I enjoy making frequent [read daily] trips to the grocery store to buy...anything. Or nothing. When I'm home home (the ol' City of Good Neighbors), it's Wegmans. Wegmans is my Mecca, but don't ask me why because the only reason why is because it feels good, and no one ever really understands/likes that answer. But that's all you'll get, so don't ask me why.)

At Whole Foods and the little Russian market, I bought spices that I could pot in my backyard-aka-fire escape (can't tell you what kinds since the names were in Russian. They smelled good, though, so why not, right?), fresh fruits and vegetables, and one sweet onion to make homemade onion rings. If you've never made onion rings at home, do it.

I laid everything out on my table and took a nice picture of it. That also made me feel good. Such simple joys on a Sunny Saturday.

But, alas, today it rains just like the weatherman said it would. Back to rainboots and frizzy hair. Love the former, hate the latter. What makes me happy, though, is that it's the perfect day to make baked onion rings from scratch along with homemade tomato soup. I'll probably listen to Gregory Alan Isakov's albums while I stew the tomatoes and chop the onions. I'll also cry while chopping the onions.

Gregory Alan Isakov on Pandora is my go-to on a rainy day. Anything Bon Iver is good, too. Its melancholy poetics and lush, languid melodies stir me. He churns up his own musical atmosphere, ruled by the moon and the sea, at least aesthetically if not always lyrically-- so says Isakov's website (which I frequent). Doesn't that just sound like a rainy day?

If you've never listened to Gregory Alan Isakov or Bon Iver before, do it. Do it while you're making onion rings at home for the first time. Make sure it's rainy outside though, or it might put a damper on your Sunny Saturday.


Update... check out these onion rings:



Tell me you wish you weren't eating these and I'll tell you that I've got a farm out back to sell.