Menus, July 31, 2013

 "Wisdom is knowing when to have rest, when to have activity, and how much of each to have. 

Finding them in each other - activity in rest and rest in activity - is the ultimate freedom.” 

Ravi Shankar

The thing was, I was a little tired. And I had too much cilantro.
What to do? (or what to not do?)
Firmly on the prongs of this dilemmic duo, I did what any expert decision maker would do:

I slept on it.

When I'd recovered from my nap, It struck me for the kabillionth time that waiting until 4:30 to figure out what's for dinner is even more tiresome than meal planning. Then it hit me that if I wanted to give myself a rest, I had better get to work.

Not to worry-
These little epiphanies strike so often,
they hardly even leave a mark anymore.

The cookbooks of the internet fell open at the words "easy" and "cilantro", releasing a week's worth of recipes that may provide a little rest to both a post-vacation body and a post-vacation bank account. The pics of these dinners may raise reasonable doubt about their ease, but have no fear, the bright colors of summer produce in these simple salads prove the axiom that my friend Carol taught me decades ago:
 Presentation is everything.
No, not this sort of presentation:

THIS sort of presentation:

look closely-
this is really just fruit stuck with vanilla yogurt to a slice of fruit.
With a drizzling of pretension on the side.
Impressive. 

Let's chop up those lovely summer veggies, cook some chicken in a lovely sauce, throw it all on a plate and call it midsummer awesome, shall we?

Wednesday:  Rodrigo style fish  and zucchini slaw

Here's where the cilantro comes in. Or, more precisely, goes out. There's  a real surplus of the stuff in the fridge right now- all because last Saturday at Farmer's Markey, cilantro was unbelievably cheap, so two bunches joined in the effort to restock our produce drawers. I had forgotten though, that our produce drawers weren't entirely empty.  Lurking in those lonely spaces were a half bag of carrots, a few fossilizing limes, an apple- and two bunches of cilantro.
I'm going to make a really big batch of this fantastic sauce, freeze some, and use spoonfuls of it in the dressing of Thursday's salad, and on Saturday's avocados.

Thursday: Shrimp, tomato, and avocado salad

Sorry, no link for this one- just cooked shrimp, halved grape tomatoes and chunks of avocados tossed in a dressing of plain yogurt, olive oil, and the Rodrigo sauce. There are innumerable great dressing options here: lime+ honey+ olive oil,  yogurt + mayo+ chili powder+ cumin, or olive oil+ sugar+white wine vinegar+cilantro.  I'll be going with a cilantro-y option, because, well, there's a field of it dying in the fridge....




Friday: Maple bourbon chicken and Kale and apple slaw

I'll be grilling enough chicken for tonight, tomorrow night, and some spur of the moment chicken salad for Saturday or Sunday lunch. The bourbon in the recipe forms a combination marinade/grilling sauce but if you prefer not to cook with bourbon, or don't want to buy a whole bottle for one recipe, consider buying a mini bourbon at a liquor shop, or leaving it out altogether. The internet will try to tell you that vanilla is an acceptable substitute, but that's probably only true in the bourbon dessert case.

Saturday: Chicken stuffed avocados and black bean and corn salad

I'll be using leftover chicken instead of the beautiful pulled chicken in the recipe, though it's possible that the chopped up leftovers will get a coating of this recipe's spice mix.  The Rodrigo sauce, or at least a handful or two of cilantro, will make an appearance tonight too. Isn't that salad pretty? Deconstruct it, and you'll see it's only a can of black beans, some corn (let's use frozen, shall we?) and some peppers. Since dinner is floating in an avocado boat, I'll be leaving them out of the salad. The avocado boats are, for those of you who are in the know, paleo. I am not in the know, but I am curious. I intend to find out how  the word paleo has extended itself out of anthropology labs and into the kitchen, and what it's doing there.

Sunday: cucumbers with ginger and asian noodle salad

I'm wonder what would happen if instead of standing at the chopping board slicing fresh ginger, I used the rest of that jar of sushi ginger that's in the back of the fridge... worth a try, maybe. Rice noodles are easy to find in this metropolis of ours, so we'll make this a gluten free week by using them.


Time will tell, if these ideas are indeed the easy, inexpensive things I hope they are.
I hope too, that whether you're feeding yourself
or a crowd of people you love-  in a restaurant, in a kitchen, or in a car,
that this week brings you the rest you need,
and the work you wish for.
I hope that whether you're busy or quiet, travelling or still,
alone or in company
that once or twice
you'll pause, and realize with a smile that even though things aren't anywhere near easy,
you are, remarkably, unbelievably,

completely at ease.