Last week, this week menus

Closing in on the end of this pregnancy (2 1/2 weeks to go, more or less). Tthings are going well. We've been shopping for baby things, we got the van inspected, and the baby's room is slowly taking shape (though it does still have the curtains the previous tenants left, which are black). We think we have a name.

I haven't bothered to pack a bag for the hospital; previous experience suggests that labor is proof against pretty much all distractions, that you may as well go home in the clothes you arrived in because you still look pregnant, and that the baby will be professionally swaddled the whole time and oblivious to any adorable outfits you attempt to impose.

Last week's recipes turned out thusly:

• Eggplant and fig caponata -- Excellent as always, the only problem is that one tends to eat too much of it on this fantastic foccaccia and can hardly eat any dinner.  
• Red Potato and Tomato Gratin -- Just okay, a lot of work for what you get out of it; I doubt I'll make it again.
• Spiced Kuri Squash and Chicken Stew --  Really good. The squash turned out to be very dense and not too sweet, and went marvelously with the spice. I wish I had used both squash and skipped the chicken. Seriously.
• North Woods Bean Soup -- Old standby for a reason. She ate two helpings = success. 
• Mushroom and Fettucine with Red Pepper Flakes -- Excellent! I didn't have as many mushrooms as recommended, added some sliced up pattypan squash. It was really good..
• Couscous Salad with Chickpeas and Tomatoes -- Haven't made this in a long time; it remains an excellent recipe

This week should include:

• Chicken fried rice with bok choy
• Bo nuong cha (about halfway down the page)
• Improv pasta salad
• Stuffed squash
• Chicken with linguine, leeks and tomatoes

Tonight, assuming I don't have a baby, I'll be meeting with a new supper club for the first time, but I'll try to blog that separately.

Menus for a new week

As usual, I bought things willy-nilly, or perhaps giddy would be a better word, buying whatever caught my eye. Now this week's market jigsaw is nearing completion:

• Sunday: Eggplant and fig caponata, an old favorite I make every summer when there's good eggplant to be had. Red Potato and Tomato Gratin, a new one from a source I am coming to like more and more. Some sort of pork tenderloin to go with.
• Monday: Spiced Kuri Squash and Chicken Stew, which I didn't get to last week. Good thing squash keeps well.
• Tuesday: North Woods Bean Soup. I'm tentatively designating Tuesdays as "Lydia's Choice" night, and this is a recipe she usually eats. 
• Wednesday: Mushroom and Fettucine with Red Pepper Flakes. I found this blog a few weeks back, and this will be the first recipe I've tried from it. I am very curious about their wine, and will be keeping my eyes open for it once I'm on a more relaxed regime there. School open house is this night, so best to do something simple.
• Thursday: Tacos. Take it easy.

If I can get my act together, I'll put together Couscous Salad with Chickpeas and Tomatoes for lunches, to use up a few more veggies.

I will be tucking extra chard into a number of these recipes, and I have yet to find a place to use the bok choy - perhaps alongside the curry, in a pan-Asian nod? - and the daikon - pickle it? - but this is the overall shape of the plan.

Baby is very stretchy this morning, making her mother very uncomfortable, and creating a distinctly lopsided bulge in my belly. At this point, one occasionally feels like a balloon about to pop.

Still crazy after all these years?

On Thursday D* and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary. It's been an eventful decade for us (the rest of the world goes without saying)--two moves, two layoffs, two children and all of the changes they brought, and will continue to bring us for many years to come. This year has been more eventful than most--as D* says, "Surprise baby is surprising." There have certainly been difficult times, but on the whole we reckon ourselves blessed, or lucky, in that the good times have far outweighed the bad and overall things have kept getting better.

We spent yesterday afternoon car hunting, with little to show for it. Hardly anyone seems to be selling what we want. We set aside our disappointment and made our way back to Cambridge. A brief stop at the Wine & Cheese cask (where I confided in the teller that I would kill for a margarita and received a sympathetic look), a mosey down to Harvard in the cool afternoon air, and then we enjoyed a wonderful meal at Dali, a place we last visited while I was pregnant with Lydia (some day I'll get more than a sip of sangria, dammit). Some day we may be able to take the kids out for dinner and they'll actually eat something, but on this occasion they were being babysat by their saintly grandparents, so we had anchovies and baked goat cheese and prunes wrapped in bacon and rabbit and seafood ravioli and... I'm starting to feel stuffed again. And then we had dessert.

We also made it to the Union Square market in the morning, and came back with a fridge full of vegetables, so I am happily spending time now doing the jigaw-puzzle-like menu arrangement that must follow. This is what I have so far (subject to change, naturally!). 

Sun
Spicy Oven-Fried Chicken
Fingerling Potato Salad with Leeks and Fennel

Mon
Open-Faced Jerk Vegetable Sandwiches
Roasted Tomato Soup

Tues
Pan-Roasted Pork Chops with Cranberries and Swiss Chard
36 weeks!

Wed
Spiced Kuri Squash and Chicken Stew

The latter half of the week will be improvised, and next weekend will be another busy one--if we haven't gotten the car sorted out by then, we'll have to change strategy in order to get it done with, because we really can't waste much more time on this. Should probably also buy a few baby clothes and stuff!

Menu Planning for the New Year

The holidays seriously derailed my normal menu planning habit, resulting in last-minute decisions and a lot of after-work stops at the grocery store when I forgot to ask D* to pick something up. A hectic way of life, and unsatisfying for me as a cook. Today I sat down with some books and did a plan for the week after New Years, and it felt really, really good.

In the spirit of my fresh resolution to make more use of my cookbooks (I make and break this one every year), the book for this week is Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, which I picked up at Innisfree Bookshop over the summer. Those recipes are starred.

• Saturday: Italian Wedding Soup*; Country Hearth Bread
  
• Sunday: Bistro Chicken; Pan-Roasted Root Vegetables*
• Monday: Stir-Fried Orange-Ginger Tofu
• Tuesday: Three-Bean Tacos
• Wednesday: Pork au Poivre; Parmesan-Roasted Broccoli*
• Thursday: Salmon with Curried Chutney
• Friday: Lasagna Rolls

I am not someone who can designate Tuesday as "pasta night" and observe it unfailingly, but I try to aim for a balance of different types of meal, including some vegetarian, some easy ones for nights that follow busy days, some that use up odds and ends from the pantry.