Menus May 28, 2013

"Here's rosemary, that's for remembrance;

pray, love, remember"
Ophelia, in Hamlet, Act 4

William Shakespeare

I missed an opportunity last Tuesday. I overlooked a calendar event that makes a late May dinner fall naturally onto the plate. I must have curled up with a book in a sunny time warp or something, because it wasn't until late Wednesday, as the internet began to scroll out dozens of tender reminders, that I realized...

What!? Memorial Day this weekend?!?
But it was only just Mother's Day!
 I have planned zero barbecue things!

Alas, the week's menus were already set in cyber-stone and I'd already shopped for groceries. But in an odd way, forgetting made me think about remembering, and as we drove past lawn flags and concert posters, I thought of poor mad Ophelia, sending messages in secret flower code when she could no longer speak a sane sentence. 

Don't be misled- the fact that this line about remembrance stuck in my brain does not mean that I am either high-class or high-brow.

It just means I know a thing or two about women and crazy.
From, you know, watching movies.

And yes, rosemary really was for remembrance. The Victorians  confirmed it when they formalized the flower code in a "language of flowers" dictionary , which  made it possible for repressed Victorian rascals to assemble cute little bouquets to send to each other instead of actually talking. I'm sure this went a long way toward making communication between the sexes less confusing. 

See, If only she'd said
"Sweet pea, white clover, arbutus, gardenia. Jonquil? Celadine!"
Instead of "Pass the grapefruit."
Breakfast would not have ended so badly.

 So, rosemary and remembering have been twining together in my mind ever since last week;  since there seems to be no untangling the two, I think I'll take them to dinner. Rosemary gives a few of this week's meals a little flavor kick, and as far as cooking with memory, well that's for Friday.

There are a few tenacious sprigs of rosemary growing in our backyard, which I planted  years ago after reaching for that little plastic folder of fresh rosemary at the grocery store, hesitating, doing a little math...

"Holy herbaceous border, Batman!
That's $13 a pound!"

If you don't have such easy access to rosemary  and you want to play with these recipes, use it dried or live dangerously and pinch a stem from almost any landscaped shopping center or housing development. (Once you look for it, you'll see it everywhere.)

But in case you, like I, am botanically challenged, or in case the rosemary in your neighborhood park is trying to blend in with real roses, I offer this "recognizing rosemary" tutorial from my own....er...garden, where I have planted both roses and rosemary. With unequal success:                                                   

Rose. Tallish. Thorny.                                                                  Rosemary. Shorter. Spikey.
Dies.                                                                                           Does not die.
Requires pruning, often with a shovel.                                          Does not require pruning.

And now that we've taken a stroll down the garden path, let's make our way to dinner, shall we?

Wednesday: Roasted rosemary chicken, Rosemary mashed potatoes and salad.

I'll be cooking two chickens tonight, because I've a use for cooked chicken two nights from now, and if I get started in time, I'll brine them in salt and honey. The salad will be any simple something that lets me feel like we ate a green veg.

Thursday: Pizza and salad.

Ok! excitement is rising, because I've found a recipe for a no-knead bread  that looks easy and fun. It takes time though. Little effort, but lots of time. It needs about 18 to 24 hours to rise, so I'll  need to stir it together after dinner on Wednesday. In case I forget, I'll make this more standard but still easy foccacia dough. A homemade crust costs pennies, and makes the house smell like little warm carbohydrate angels did a happy dance in the kitchen, but a premade crust (or a premade pizza) is a good time-saving option. The salad will be tomatoes, olives, and chunks of mozarella on lettuce. 

Friday:Retro chicken casserole and Morton's wedge salad

Thinking of wars and remembrance took me on a brief cruise around some fantastic websites that list hundreds of retro recipes. Wanna know how to make a dessert with your sugar ration? How to use the veggies in your victory garden?  try here. Or, move up to the 50's here, and you'll see things like this "hey my mother used to make that"  chicken casserole, and this salad that became famous when iceberg lettuce was a luxury that only the wealthy could afford. And jello. Lots of jello.

I'll be using the leftover chicken from Wednesday.

Saturday: Burgers and  Oven fries and tomato salad

The smoke of neighborhood grills scented the air here all weekend, and I've been jonesing for a burger ever since. We're currently between grills though, so I'll be trying this method of getting a crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside burger from the stovetop.  This is my all time favorite oven fry recipe and this week, I'm going to try it with uber nutritious sweet potatoes. 

Sunday: Tacos and salsa

For some reason, after a burger feast, we always patties leftover. I'll make taco filling by chopping them fine and mixing with taco seasoning.  Since the tacos are going to be so easy, and since I've yet to find salsa in a jar that we're crazy about, I'm thinking about making this salsa. And, since avocados are hovering around 40 cents apiece at Aldi, we'll have some guacamole too.

Roast chicken, casserole, pizza, burgers, tacos- you know it's a quintessentially American meal plan when it has it's roots in 4 different countries.

and of course, the rosemary- because

It's so easy to forget, isn't it? 

So easy to forget how connected we all are-

how kindness or cruelty or courage ripple over and through our lives

like the circles from the splash of a stone.

I hope this week you can remember.

I hope you can remember a time (maybe even now) 

when you were surrounded by love.

When you were embraced with a fierce kindness that would fight tigers for you

or feed tigers for you.

When you were protected by a fearless wisdom that knew which tigers to combat, and which tigers to cuddle. 

even when all those tigers were you.