The Queen and Her Court

Queen Bernice Maples gives her subjects the royal wave on her 90th birthday during the feast held in her honor at Jimm's Restaurant.

She holds court with her consort and a couple of her male descendants. No, Logan is not her consort, the honor goes to Arlan. Son Steve looks on.

After the feast, it was hard to think about eating again, but today is the last day of January and I hadn't had my New Year's lentils. So, I whipped up a batch, and had a cup for dinner. I try to avoid using salt, so I jazzed this batch up with tons of garlic, balsamic vinegar, and garnished it with sour cream (has some salt in it, I think) and arugula. We get lots of arugula from our winter CSA share and I'm always struggling for ways to use it. I've made arugula pesto, salads, sandwiches, wilted, braised, and buried it in soups, pastas, casseroles, and omelets. Now, I've discovered I like its slightly peppery taste as a garnish.

Incidentally -- the deal with lentils in my family is that they represent coins or money and you are supposed to have them for New Years to insure a prosperous year. I've adopted a house rule that allows me till the end of January to consume them. I hope I'm not too late!