Menus, October 31, 2012



We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

That's T.S. Eliot, one of the swooniest, brilliantiest poetry gods in my personal pantheon. My fingers could type, delete, type, delete, type for days about the overlooked magic of the familiar and what home is or might be, and still not catch the truth he did in those four velvety lines.
You go ahead and apply those golden words to your own explorations and homecomings; I'm going to turn them into dinner.

Because while outside, nature is spending immoderate amounts of energy throwing one last spectacular orange and yellow party, inside, I'm planning a week of cozy, familiar meals to share with cozy, familiar people around a cozy, familiar table.

Because for me, in autumn,

this

  

becomes a destination as exciting as

any of these

and this

is an adventure

 as heart stopping

as this

In autumn, familiarity no longer breeds contempt; it pulls you to the chair you like best, passes you that novel you're in the middle of, puts your favorite mug in your hand, and remembers that you absolutely LOVE those teeny marshmallows in your cocoa.

*sigh* It seems that maple trees aren't the only things that go all sappy in October.
Anyway, here are the meal discoveries that we'll be rediscovering this week:

Wednesday: Halloweeeen!!!!! PUMPKINFEST!!!!!
We'll be having pumpkin, followed by pumpkin, with pumpkin for dessert.
No, for reals.We will.
shrimp stuffed pumpkin,  salad with butternut squash and walnuts  andpumpkin chocolate chip bread!
Now that the pesky what's-for-dinner-decision is made, we can focus our energies on today's genuinely crucial dilemma:

will it be Cinderella........................or Ariel?

 Thursday: mushroom soup,  easy chicken parmesan and green beans.
There's a tiny bit of red sauce left in the freezer- we'll be using that on the chicken instead of the jar of pasta sauce.  If the mushroom soup recipe looks too fiddly, follow the advice of the farmer who grew these beauties-

saute them in butter, and cover them with cream.
(might be worth a try- he looked like a man
 deeply at peace with himself and the world.)

Friday: Flank steak and stuffed squash.
We'll be broiling, not grilling the steak, and adding some rice and cranberries to the squash filling.
Wait. If the oven's busy with the squash, how are we going to broil the steak? hmmm. well, we've got 3 days to work that out. We may have to wake up the grill.

Saturday: Back by popular request,Spiced Chicken with apples and pumpkin I know, we had it just last week, but we were dishing thirds- THIRDS I tell you, onto our plates! We'll have this over rice- we'll be making some on friday for stuffed squash, and we'll just make extra.

Sunday: Salmon, Greek salad and oven fries
We'll be either poaching the salmon in white wine and a squeeze of lemon juice, or popping it the oven for the last 15 minutes or so of the ovenfry baking time.
The salad? lettuce, tomatoes, olives and feta. easy peasy.

Happy eating and happy cooking everyone- I hope that this week holds for you lots of space for explorations- whether large or small, whether interior or exterior, whether charming or terrifying.
 And I hope that this week when you return, changed by your exploring, to a familiar place, you'll know it as a place of peace and grace.

Weekend update by Monday morning!