Menus, January 1, 2013

every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

supersonic

Sure, I could've come off all posh poetry lover by quoting for you T.S. Eliot's line "in my beginning is my end", or about a bajillion other quotes on the topic of endings and beginnings, but it was supersonic's hit from the 90's that was playing in my brain last Sunday afternoon.

Well, Supersonic mashed with Pachabel.

 Because on Sunday, at the end of this-

  I was sitting outdoors at the top of a hill with a few dozen of the dearly beloved, waiting to watch one of our sweetest friends glide down the bridal aisle into a new beginning.
And besides all the excited curiousity that bubbles around one's brain in the minutes before a wedding,
I was looking at those quiet winter woods and thinking about three (maybe four) other things.

First. How when that frantic spring and summer stuff has ended, and the trees  rest from the hard work of holding up all those leaves, they look really....



.....beautiful

Second. How the beginning of something new and wonderful can lead to the gathering of all sorts of happy people, and can leave a girl looking absolutely....

.....beautiful

Third. I was also, of course, thinking about dinner.
Specifically, about the way new foods are added to our dinner routines, and the way old foods fall away. About things we learn to like, and things we learn to leave behind. Learning to like fish, for example. And learning to rely less on those yummy things that are maybe not so conducive to strength and health.
Fourth. I was noticing that my nose had gone all red and runny, and thinking (vis a vis thought #3) that maybe this week I should eat fewer Christmas cookies and more vegetables.
And so, here's what we'll be eating this week-

Wednesday:     Blackened Chicken Salad
I'll be using fresh spinach as a base for the salad, and since the recipe calls for tomato chutney without including any clues about how to make or find it, I'll be using this tomato chutney recipe. And I'll be cooking some extra chicken to use on Friday.

Thursday:  Vegetarian Chili
This vegetarian chili goes head to head with  this veggie chili from last week. Which will be interesting. Because here's what I learned about my excellent and well-trained family when I asked them whether this hot stuff chili was better than this chicken chili. I learned that they are the sort of open-minded, non-judgemental people who say "well, they're both really good- they're different, not better or worse..." I learned that with this sort of easy audience, opinions are best solicited by saying "Well, thanks for the cooking affirmations, can you tell me which one you'd rather eat again?"
Which is how the hot stuff chili got knocked out.

Friday:     Creamy Chicken Chili
I'll be using Wednesday's leftover chicken breast and losing a few (or a few hundred) fat calories by subbing Greek yogurt for the sour cream and evaporated milk for the cream.

Saturday:   Orange ginger salmon
It's been way too long since good ol finned protein swam over for dinner, hasn't it? And since salmon's on sale at Kroger this week, we'll be having it tonight, and the inevitable leftovers tomorrow. I'll be using mustard greens instead of the spinach in the recipe and cooking up some brown rice.

Sunday:   Salmon Cakes
I'll be using last night's brown rice, and stirring up some frozen green beans. And, maybe I'll actually stir up the horseradish sauce. But I'll bet that tartar sauce or ketchup would be just as nice.

 Fish. vegetables. and no biscuits or pasta. Some things fall away, some things remain. And entirely new things start.
  And they matter, I think.
The things you choose to keep, the things you choose to let go of, the things that change because of those choices. All your endings, all your beginnings, all your losses, all your gains.
The ones that you realize are important and the ones you don't.
They matter because you matter. Because your life matters.
And I'm wondering if maybe that old middle school joke was right. Maybe I should make like a tree. No, not make like a tree and leaf-
Make like a tree and...

release.                                                retain.                                       renew.

Repeat.



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!