TurbulentFlow

Catching up with December. Christmas prep often becomes a part-time job leading up to the holiday. With no social activities allowed I wanted to make sure the kiddo still felt like it was a special time. I think we succeeded, and I’m now happily into the sloth filled interstitial time between Christmas and New Year. Been filling my days with circus workouts, cured meat, cheese, books, books and tv time. As you can clearly see, I don’t have any room in my schedule for more than a photo dump.

And here is our plan for the last week of the year! My partner’s handwriting isn’t the most legible.

• Sunday: leftover takeout
• Monday: chorizo, carrot slaw and cheese grits
• Tuesday: sweet and sour chicken, noodles and greens
• Wednesday: skirt steak and salad
• New Years Eve: seafood paella
• Friday: leftover paella
• Saturday: fondue
• Sunday: takeout

I can’t put my finger on any single reason why, but last week was tough. Crossed wires, misunderstandings, general grumpiness and self-flagellation felt like the running theme. I’m trying to find a positive attitude, but the onset of winter combined with rising covid rates in Ontario and around the world make that a challenge some days.

Happily the weekend has helped reset the personal mental processing unit. Simon and I spent Saturday fixing a much procrastinated hallway lighting issue at the house that has very literally brightened things up. Add in a few hours cleaning along with a potential longer term project opportunity to get me thinking about the future and winter things aren’t feeling as bleak.

With the exception of swapping Tuesday and Thursday meals because I didn’t get gnocchi until later, last week went almost completely to plan. Wednesdays chicken/squash/grits combo made enough to have it again Friday so the kohlrabi and carrot slaw has now moved into tonight’s Sunday taco plan.

Here’s the plan for upcoming week.

• Sunday: tacos! steak, kohlrabi/carrot/cilantro slaw, with tortillas
• Monday: porchetta, kale and roast potatoes
• Tuesday: porchetta part 2, mac&cheese and kale
• Wednesday: coconut miso salmon arugula curry over rice
• Thursday/Friday: daikon fries, bok choy and fire chicken
• Saturday: ramen takeout?

Mid-november means winter is clearly coming so we spent yesterday raking leaves and attempting to plug some of the drafts in our 100+ year old house. Despite it being a beautiful sunny day, we took the dogs for a walk right after dinner and there were already stars out – a clear sign that fixing the dead front hall light fixture can’t wait much longer. I’m trying not to panic about Christmas, getting the tires changed on the car, end of year work stuff and all the other things that always start looming in the back of my head around this time whether I like it our not. Blargh is all I have in answer to that.

Let’s look at how the meal plan worked out: Monday moved to Wednesday. Tuesday moved to Monday. Wednesday became Tuesday. The roast moose actually turned into a stew so combined with the clam chowder there was a lot of soup happening overall which is reasonable for autumn. This week’s eggplant turned out to be teeny tiny, plus I forgot to buy tofu, and then I spotted a package of butter chicken sauce in the pantry so Friday merged with Saturday to become butter chicken curry with eggplant and kale. Friday actually became takeout burgers (Tuckshop Food Kitchen) paired with oven fries which was generally hailed by the family as the best idea ever. 

Yep. That’s exactly why we write the plan in chalk. 

I made the cornbread in a cast iron skillet and it turned out thin with extra crispy edges. I will never make cornbread any other way again! This is the recipe I used but left the adobo sauce since the kid can’t handle that kind of spice. I also learned that cornbread works with either cornmeal or masa harina. Useful information since I was on the verge of running out of cornmeal.

This week’s vegetable delivery is typical of what we will likely be heading into winter. Finding creative uses for root vegetables and members of the cabbage family is critical if we want to eat local through Canadian winter.

• Sunday/Monday: cod au gratin with green beans and roast beets
• Tuesday: gnocchi with brussels sprouts and bacon
• Wednesday: flat chicken with squash and cheesy grits
• Thursday: kale, sausage pasta
• Friday: chicken part 2 with kohlrabi and carrot slaw
• Saturday: date night – take out – maybe try oysters again now that we have two shucking knives AND a fancy support board thanks to Oyster Boy!