The package thing, however, works a lot better if you’re actually home.  Last week I was in Chicago visiting my parents – by myself – and on the phone from home, Greg mentioned that a box had arrived. For me.

Really?  A package, hmm, nothing I had ordered, a box out of the blue, a box with my name on it!  So sad – forty years old and I’m aflutter for mail.

“So where’s it from?” I was talking in my parents’ living room, my mother in a big stuffed chair, perusing the fourth Restoration Hardware that week.  Now her ears perked up.

“It’s from Teller’s,” he said.

“Tellers.” The restaurant?

I should say that Teller’s is two blocks from our house.  What were they sending me, my favorite antipasto, to go?  Greg went on.

“Should we open it?”

“Oh, well…okay…oh fine, open it…”

Grrr.  Is there anything worse than someone else opening a package intended for you?

Well, of course there is.  But it’s up there – like Santa came and you weren’t home.  Not that Santa visits our home, not unless he is hankering for latkes on Christmas Eve – but you know, if I did fry latkes for Santa and then someone else ate them, that too would be bad.  In the same way. Whatever.

Josie chimed in – I could hear her ripping tape.  “It’s a board!”

“A board.”

“Yeah!”  she got excited, “it’s a breadboard, you know the breadboard, and the card says from Mom and Dad.”

the original breadboard of my dreams, at Teller’s

The breadboard, I repeated.  Across the room my mom was laughing.  Oh, that breadboard!

After I’d blogged about my crush on a simple piece of wood, they found it – hello, she just called the restaurant – and had it sent to me, which is lovely, but…now I was standing there. In Chicago.  And my surprise package opened by not-me back in Lawrence.  What do mothers, airplanes, the web and the US mail have in common?  They all work in mysterious ways.

look…right in my kitchen!

In review, the board is great.  My mom apparently had a nice little chat with the manager and learned the boards are made from reclaimed walnut, made by a buddy of his, right here in Lawrence.  Could they get me one?  Well, they don’t normally sell them, but sure, no problem.

Sheesh.  Perhaps I should post my wish list on the blog more often?

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Dipping Oil from Baguette Heaven

1/2 cup olive oil
sea salt
fresh-ground black pepper
oregano and dried red pepper flakes, crushed together
grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese

Whisk oil with salt and spices, seasoning to your taste. Top with a sprinkling of parmesan or romano, add sliced baguette or Italian bread, and dip away!