Out with the Old...

... holiday catalogs, and 500 first-grade math worksheets. Out with the tree, having served its purpose. Out with toys no longer played with ("out" meaning "into storage until Mimi is old enough for them"). Out with the old ownership of my company, and in with A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Oracle, Inc. Out with cold, grey days, in with more of the same for three more months.

Out with 0-3 month clothes, in with 3-6 month. They do grow quickly. She's found her hands; last night I saw her staring at her fist with an expression I can only call astonished.

Dave took the kids out to a museum in the afternoon. I cleaned the kitchen, put together dinner, and played Super Mario Brothers while Mimi napped.

This is the recipe I intended to make, Braised Beef Short Rib with Salsa Verde and Feta. I was planning to cheat on the salsa, mind. At the last moment I decided that there was no reason to dump salsa on these lovely ribs, and served them as they were, with the vegetables from the sauce (which I rough-chopped in a manner that would have gotten me thrown out of Ms Goin's kitchen at once) and a simple risotto. I love risotto, and I never get around to making it so often that I get tired of it. I'm sure the sauce would have been better had I done it her way, but the ribs were gorgeously silky with their big chunks of carrot and onion, and I have no regrets.

Gearing Up for the New Year

The office last week was tomb-like, a handful of us sprinkled through the big room, trading "sure is quiet" "yep, sure is" comments when we passed. I have been tidying up old projects and giving some thought to new ones. Home has been noisier, but with nothing much going on in terms of the holiday. It's been an exciting year, and we just weren't ready yet to go out and do anything major.

The Weekly Recipe Project is giving me trouble; when I look at it under that name, it seems impossibly limited. Only 52 recipes? I probably have that many online recipes bookmarked, never mind a hundred-odd cookbooks and binders of clippings. How to approach the task of selecting my pool? I browse through blogs, look at files I have saved for years, visualize my bookshelves. Perhaps I should restrict the project to soup recipes, or bread, or desserts? Take one recipe from a different cookbook every week?

I was up early New Years day--for creatures that sleep so damn much themselves, cats don't grasp the idea of sleeping in--and decided to get the grocery list/menu planning out of the way. I already had one new recipe lined up for later in the week, but in the spirit of starting the new year right, I grabbed my new copy of At Home with Madhur Jaffrey and started with the fish chapter.

I made this pretty much as written, except I don't have any asefetida and my fenugreek is ground, not whole. I added more cayenne than specified, but that was by mistake--the result was intensely hot, and made me wish I had some naan. I served this with rice alone, but it would make a nice component in a multi-course meal. It came together quickly and without much fussing, and made a nice change from my usual fish standbys.

Fish and Peas in a Fennel-Fenugreek Sauce

1 lb fillet of cod, hake, or halibut, 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick
1 tsp salt, divided
pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne, divided
1/8 tsp ground turmeric
3 Tbsp mustard, olive, or canola oil
1/8 tsp ground asafetida
1/4 tsp whole mustard seeds
1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
1/4 tsp whole fennel seeds
1/8 tsp whole fenugreek seeds
3 Tbsp plain yogurt
4 medium tomatoes, coarsely grated (I used a can of tomato sauce)
1 c fresh or frozen and defrosted peas

1. Sprinkle the fish on both sides with 1/4 tsp salt, freshly ground black pepper, 1/4 tsp cayenne, and the turmeric. Set aside 30 minutes or longer, refrigerating if necessary.
2. Put the oil in a frying pan and set on medium-high. Put in the asafetida, then the mustard, cumin, fennel, and fenugreek seeds. 
3. As soon as the mustard seeds start to pop, add the yogurt. Stir until it almost disappears.*
4. Add the tomatoes, 3/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp cayenne, and more pepper if desired. Stir and cook for five minutes, until tomatoes thicken slightly. 
5. Add the peas, stir, and continue to cook another minute on medium heat.**
6. Lay the fish down in the sauce. Spoon the sauce over the fish and bring to a simmer. Partially cover and poach fish on medium-low heat until just cooked through, 7-10 minutes. Add water if the pan dries out.

* Mine did not disappear, but left little spongy bits like tofu behind. I used Greek-style yogurt, so maybe it had more solids.
** I added the peas near the end. Why would you cook peas for 10 minutes?

No pictures because my five-year-old camera died last week. I am trying to decide between size and features with a new one.

I am in the middle of a four-day weekend, trying to get the place back to some semblance of normality. More tidying than cleaning, trying to find homes for new things and continue whittling down the old.

On other resolution-related fronts, I sent Empire off to Dragon Moon Press, which was having an open sub month, and have put together a list of agents to query. The first chapter of Fury's Flight went to the writing group for crit, though I haven't psyched myself up sufficiently to read the feedback yet.

The Usual Look Back

Time for the standard evaluation of the past year's goals, and the setting of some for 2011. I think one goal must be to keep better track of my goals, since after August the whole enterprise went by the wayside. So did a lot of other things. When I wrote these out at the end of last year, I didn't expect to be having a baby.

• Financial -- Blown in a big way, what with moving and buying the van. We did pay off one of the credit cards, and an another unexpected event (my company being bought) should allow us to pay off the other one.
• Health -- Also blown, given that I quit exercising in July. 
• Food-Related -- Hit or miss, and I can't entirely blame pregnancy for this one. My energy level did suffer a lot from our crazy summer and autumn.
• Writing -- I didn't get done what I wanted to, but I did get a lot done, including a second NaNoWriMo win. 
• Reading -- More hits than misses.
• Birthday observance -- Started well, then lost it over the summer.

All of which misses the point of the year, unexpected as it all was. Miriam is the sweetest baby one could wish for. The move was exhausting and difficult, but we're glad we did it; we like our new place, and our new town, and my new commute. We got rid of a lot of stuff we didn't need any more, and got some new things we've been needing for a while. I might not have been tracking my cooking well, but we have eaten well much of the time.

My hopes for 2011 are for recuperation and exploration.

• Financial -- The emergency fund needs to be replenished, we have three college educations to think about, and of course we still hope to buy a house someday.
• Writing -- Empire goes out to agents in February. If no one likes it, it goes in the drawer, under a rock. I'll also be working on a proper draft of last year's NaNoWriMo project.
• Do Things -- This is a new one. I want to get out and about in New England, to see our friends, and to take advantage of the wonderful resources of this region.
• Food -- I'll shoot again for at least one new recipe per week, and a blog entry for it. I hope to spend some time on ways to make my kitchen more efficient, to smooth out our weeknights as much as possible.
  

I would like to make exercise a goal, but experience tells me that rarely works with nursing; there's only so much time in a day. I'll work on my eating habits and see how the weight loss goes.

I've also been hearing about the 365 project, which sounds like it would be fun, but I'm not so good at forming new habits unless they fit into a particular time slot.

So that's it, and there's nothing too ambitious on the list. May 2010 go out in peace, and the new year be all that you wish for. 

How I Spent November

Retail Therapy

During the long, long week and a half we spent waiting for Mimi to arrive, and the long, long days I spent having contractions that didn't get anywhere, I must confess to having vented some of my frustration by shopping. I splurged at Penzeys,

indulged myself at amazon.com,

and after our daughter finally decided to join us out in the world, reached an agreement with my mom in which we would split the cost of a new, 6-quart stand mixer as an early Christmas gift--replacing the smaller one that has been used pretty darn hard for the ten years I've had it, and which spews flour all over the place every time I start it.

I don't think I'll be getting anything else for Christmas now, but I'm going to have a lot of fun!

Today is the next-to-last market of the season. The temperatures have gotten sharply colder. It's time to snuggle down and think warm thoughts, turn on the oven, dig out the hats and mittens, and buy root vegetables.

Where I've Been

Kind of a weird week here

I woke up at 2 a.m. on Tuesday feeling crampy. This being exactly how labor started with JJ, we figured things were getting underway. We kept on thinking that for the next couple of days, but as I am posting this on Saturday, still babyless, you can infer that this was not the case. It's been pretty exhausting and frustrating; having an occasional contraction seems like a cruel tease on nature's part.

What with trips to the hospital and fretting, I didn't end up doing nearly as much cooking (or anything else) as I was planning to last week, but these new recipes made it in before things got stressful:

• Chicken fried rice with bok choy -- Excellent. I even got L to eat some of it, by keeping the various pieces separate for her consumption.
• Bo nuong cha (about halfway down the page)-- A lot of trouble to make and to eat, but totally yummy; a keeper

At least the false alarm gave us a chance to get things sorted out at home; the baby's room has been cleared of moving boxes, the clothes are washed, the car seat installed. Yesterday I went in for my trifecta of appointments: ultrasound to check fluid levels (fine), non-stress test to make sure the baby's doing okay (fine), general -purpose appointment with one of the midwives (fine, though they have a whole new batch of them who all seem terribly young).

We made it to the market this morning regardless--a bright, chilly day after yesterday's storm, the first one that has really felt like autumn to me--and made the rounds. I have been trying to buy some meat there every week, stocking up the freezer, but I am a bad locavore, since I have not yet been able to bring myself to pay $25 for a chicken.

Back at home, we had what is becoming our traditional post-market lunch of fresh mozzarella on focaccia with sliced tomato--quite possibly the last tomato of the summer. I am planning next week's menus, and feeling more than a little grumpy about, well, everything. I am going to try to put that grumpiness to some productive use this afternoon, but we'll see.

No links this week because most of these are improv to at least some extent:

• Zucchini fritatta; squash soup
• Braised chicken and root vegetables; mashed potatoes
• Pizza
• Pasta with beans and broccoli
• Something in which I can use Thai peppers (so cute I had to buy them) and bok choy
• Calzones with chard and....?

It would be nice to get some baking done, too, but I've been saying that for weeks now and haven't managed to do any.