Roasted Broccoli with Mozzarella: spring

When this post goes up, it will be Monday, April 22.  A week since the bombings at the Marathon.  Those of us fortunate enough not to be hurt, and for our friends and families not to be hurt, are back to doing whatever it is we normally do - indeed, if my own social circles are any indication, we were back to doing that pretty much immediately (with a government-mandated break on Friday during the lockdown).  But while we may be able to rally and continue on with strength, I know I'm not alone in feeling unsettled, still - not in a fear sense, or in a "how could that happen here?" sense, but more in the sense of standing on unstable ground.  I'm a bit wobbly.  I think perhaps some of you might be too.

What I can offer today comes in with the same promise of spring that the weather is bringing us these days.  It may still be chilly at night (and sometimes during the day, too, let's be honest), but we're having more and more warm days, the grass has greened, trees and shrubs are budding or in tentative bloom - and more than the usual metaphor of rebirth, I think this spring has meaning to us in our present situation.  It may be late April, but in Boston that is still the beginning of spring, so everything is still tentative, like us, like our hearts, but still starting to bud and bloom and warm up a little at a time anyway, because that is the only possibility.  Going on is not only preferable to going back, it's truly the only thing we can do.  Those "Keep Calm & Carry On" signs aren't prescriptive, they're descriptive.

So, today, some food that holds both the green and fresh promise of spring and the comfort and warmth of roasted vegetables and melty cheese: Roasted Broccoli with Mozzarella.  Do you roast your cruciferous vegetables? I never used to - but while you do need to heat up the oven to make this, I think the added depth is worth it.  Anyway, it's not so warm yet, like I was saying, that this is a dealbreaker.

So: keeping it simple, bridging the space between winter's need for solace and spring's new beginnings - usually my food isn't a metaphor, but this Roasted Broccoli with Mozzarella is really seeming appropriate right now.