Dec 13, 2020

Menu: Week of 12/13/20

Not feeling particularly chatty about food today as last week’s menu was a true dud and writing this week’s menu was, which happens rarely, a struggle. Many people have mentioned that they are all cooked out due to Covid lockdown restrictions and maybe even I have reached my limit. I certainly hope not since, for the most part, I do find joy and catharsis in equal measure when in my kitchen. I did clean and reorganize the pantry shelves so at least something worthwhile happened in my kitchen last week...

Don't get me wrong, dud may be too strong a word. Most of the food last week was fine, but there wasn’t a single recipe where I thought: “Oooh, must share!”, which is why no recipes are posted for last week. There are Instagram links to a couple of dinner images, and some throwback recipe links in the menu though, for those who are interested.

Worse than "meh" food, on several occasions, I messed up what I was trying to make, which doesn’t happen that often and made me especially cranky. I attempted a dessert for dinner with one of the few people in my Covid pod, something those of you who read this blog know is not my forte anyway, and – after three failed attempts – decided that ice cream was the way to go for dessert instead.

Hopefully, this week things will get back to the status quo and cooking will get back to being as easy and normal as brushing my teeth. In the meantime, you will notice that – though I am making dinner for my mother tomorrow – she has been asked to bring the dessert.

This Week's CSA box contained:

Herbs: a bunch each of Italian parsley, sage, and thyme

Greens: 2 beautiful bunches each of spinach and broccoli rabe, a bunch of Tuscan kale, a bunch of collard greens

Alliums: 2 large leeks, 5 shallots, 2 yellow onions, a head of garlic

Vegetables: 2 small daikon roots, 3 red beets, 3 turnips, a kohlrabi, 2 carrots, a punnet of Brussels sprouts, a medium-sized acorn squash, a Honeynut squash, yet another large cauliflower, a red cabbage, and 5 large potatoes

Fruit: 6 apples – 4 Golden Delicious, 2 Red Delicious

Remainders: a gigantic spaghetti squash of which I tried divesting myself by putting it down in the laundry room where my building has a ledge for residents to put items that they are happy to pass along to other residents. Unfortunately, the maintenance person was down there at the time and I was sent back upstairs with the squash after a stern "no food!" and finger wagging...

So, with the addition of the above remainder and the purchase of salad greens mid-week (minus lunch items) the CSA veggies will be transformed into:

Sunday “Pantry Roulette”; fridge, freezer, and pantry item dinner]

Spinach Salad with Double Slab Bacon and Avocado, Warm Honey-Grain Mustard Dressing

Poached Chicken Thighs and Steamed Greens “Mafe” Style

Steamed Yellow Rice

Monday [Wildcard; a more complex or fiddly dish than usual to test my culinary skills but this week my mother is coming for dinner]

Roasted Cauliflower and Tahini Spread with Crackers

Beet, Honeynut Squash, and Leek Salad with Pumpkin Seed Oil Dressing

Spiced Osso Bucco and Vegetables in Red Wine

Garlicky Broccoli Rabe

Creamy Polenta

My Mother’s Carrot Cake Cookies