The Meal Plan 2.24.14

I didn't tell you too much about the new series I began last week.  I just threw it at you and hoped it was mildly intriguing.  Is there anything intriguing about weekday meals?  

Last week started off strong.  The pizza dough turned out really well.  I followed Yvette's recipe from Homemade Winter.  She called for part semolina flour which could have been the reason it was so good.  Or, it could have been that I just put more effort into making it.  I set the timer and kneaded the dough with Naomi's help for the full ten minutes.  Tuesday we were away and Wednesday was lentil soup.  Fine.  Thursday we were without Eric for dinner.  He's our risotto guy, but I stuck with the plan and made the cauliflower risotto anyway.  Verity ate it.  I counted four bites for Naomi, and the fifth was not so sneakily  spit into her napkin.  By Friday I was done.  I started making dinner, realized I could not complete the task and called Eric with this update.  We ended up ordering some pasta from Basta Pasta -that is the very short version of that decision making process.  

This week I'm going to try to keep it simple.  I'm trying one new recipe and the rest will be reruns.  

Monday:  I didn't use any chickpea credits last week so we are going to try again.  This time with a recipe that looks more interesting to me.  Still from Plenty, which I am borrowing from my neighbor.  Chickpea Saute with Greek yogurt.  It calls for caraway seeds and lots of carrots and swiss chard.  And lemon juice.  Lemons help February.   

Tuesday:  Off night!

Wednesday:  Lentil Soup.  We have this one night every week.  

Thursday:  Sweet Potato Blintzes which are pretty labor intensive but the girls gobble them up and make great leftovers.  I'll make black bean sweet potato "burritos" if I'm not up for it.  

Friday:  Pizza.  I think.  I don't have any more semolina flour, but will hopefully be kneading for the full ten minutes again.  

Are you making anything mildly intriguing this week?  :)     

Winter Still

It's still winter here.  We are still sloshing our way through it.  We are still eating our way through it.  It's not so bad really.  It hits 40 degrees and I don't know what to do.  Wait, give me back the teens.  We know the teens.  40 degrees and you feel like you should go on a walk and never stop.  We did that yesterday and Naomi asked to be picked up the entire way back.  Verity was on my back.  I thought we were done with the ergo, but with the snow and the ice, she is back in it.  She's such an easy baby to carry.  A heavy baby to carry.  

On today's big adventure we made sure to leave the ergo and bring the stroller.  I gave an evil eye to every house who hadn't shoveled wide enough to allow a tiny little umbrella stroller to pass. We shoved our way to the bus stop.  We rode the bus.  We rode the T.  We rode the Purple Train.  The man on the purple train wasn't happy to see my stroller.  But I averted my eyes to his glare and heaved it up the train steps with Verity in it.  The purple train took us with friends to this idyllic bookstore, just in time for story hour.  It's such a cheery place; filled with color and books.  And it has one of the nicest bathrooms I've ever visited with a toddler.  

I have neglected to take any pictures of my children this week.  It's too bad, but also really nice.  I missed THE picture of Verity's babyhood this week.  With the standing still and the falling snow and the rosy cheeks.  I just didn't have my phone on me.  Who wants to bring a phone outside to play in the snow?  I hope I will always remember the picture of her in my head.  I'm glad it belongs to me at least.  

Here's one from last week's snowstorm.  It's very similar.

And here are the scones I made this week.  Motivation:  so I could eat them.  I have some serious habits to break if Spring ever comes.  

Cup of Jo had a great post a while back about surviving Winter.  I've taken number nine to heart.  Because she's right -it's winter and all bets are off.  

Have a great weekend..

The Meal Plan 2.16.14

I'm happy to say you will be able to count on me for at least one small something moving forward.
The Meal Plan.  My meal plan for dinners each week.  I've been at it since the fall and I'm starting to get the hang of it.  It's really a sketch, written in pencil.  The meals get moved around, bumped back, replaced.  But I can say that it adds an element of peace to my week when originally I thought it would only add constraint with no flavor.  And since I always want to know what my friends are making for dinner, I'll start by sharing what's on my table!

1. pizza: oof's basic recipe -Homemade Winter by Yyette Van Boven
2.  Lentil Soup -duh
3.  Chickpea, tomato and bread soup, Plenty by Ottolenghi
4.  Swiss Chard, Tomato and Garlic over Polenta -friend's recipe archive
5.  Baked Risotto with Cauliflower -Homemade Winter
6.  Baked potatoes with sauteed mushrooms -back-up meal idea from Bon Appetite because there appears to be strong tomato overtones throughout. :)

I'll report back.

Nashville

Nashville lived up to its hype.  Emily and I went for the weekend, flying on one regional jet after another to get there.  After each leg we would celebrate that we were still mothers.  We went to have dinner with our little brother before he flew off to Jalalabad.  J-bad.  It was really sad to say goodbye.  We moaned and laughed continuously the rest of the weekend and ate our way around Music City.  It helped that the food was so good.  

Since returning, I've been googling "antique bungalow for sale boston".  Nashville was dotted with them and I want one, just one.  

A Week Without

I love and will always love my Neal's Yard Dairy tote.  But I'm confident I will find new ways to remember my trips to old London town, rather than carrying this bag with its stains and thread-bare straps.  This week I upgraded to a new used Dooney and Bourke.  The brand doesn't mean much to me, but it's well made and appears to be a classic of sorts.  I can fit and find my keys, my Rosebud Salve and a diaper all in two shakes of a lamb's tail.  It didn't cost terribly much, but it was definitely a discretionary expense and one that I wanted to disappear.  And so I decided I would eat it for lunch.  There is this great scene in Crossing Delancy, (one of our favorite movies) where Izzy walks into the bookstore where she works with a large shopping bag in her arms and someone asks her, "What's in the bag?", and she answers, "My lunch for the next month."  Really, there is a dress she can't afford in the bag.  And so it went for me.  Starting with beans then lentils, back to beans then lentils, finishing with homemade pizza.    

Monday:  Depression Stew from My Berlin Kitchen.  This has become a mainstay in our home.  I love it and I double it.  It's made with flageolet beans and carrots and potatoes in a tomato base.  

Tuesday:  I tried this recipe from Food52 for red lentil dal.  It was fine and would have been much better had I not elminated the last and perhaps the most interesting part of the recipe.  

Wednesday:  Black Bean and Rice Skillet from Simply in Season.  Another simple favorite and one where I get to use my cast iron skillet from start to finish.  

Thursday:  Lentil Soup which got bumped back from Monday night.  My own version, fairly simply and fairly heavy on the cumin and tumeric.  

Friday:  Pizza.  Smitten Kitchen's crust.  The rest of it was unremarkable, but none of us really cared.  Especially me.  

After a week like that one, I can't wait to read through my new Bon Appetit, paying careful attention to the Chicken and Dumplings on the cover.

The weekend!  

Artifact Uprising

Today I received a pretty major tip-off.  Artifact Uprising.  This company is giving me hope that maybe, just maybe I will have proof of these present days in hard copy photos.  Maybe I won't have to reminisce in the years to come by passing my old phone around from one family member to the next.  That would be so great.  

A Birthday Crown and a Toile Tent

  This past Saturday Naomi turned three!  She feels so grown up all of the sudden.  But I can still see a little baby chub in her cheeks and when she starts to babble I know that she is still little.  "I don't know if she can come, but I don't know if she can come, because I don't know if she can come."  We built a tent made out of fabric poles and some old toile (originally intended for her nursery room curtains), and blew up balloons for her to wake up to.  We took a bus ride and went out to lunch and she picked out a book at the toy store with some of her birthday five dollars sent to her by a loving great-aunt.  After a birthday nap we had a few families over and ate macaroni and cheese and chocolate cupcakes.  And shock beyond shock -she wore the birthday crown I made for her.  She must have known.  :)