skip to main |
skip to sidebar
In my sister's 1955 Girl Scout handbook are nine proficiency badges listed under Agriculture -- Animal Raiser, Beekeeper, Dairying, Farmer, Fruit Raiser, Home Gardener, Landscaper, Poultry Raiser, and Truck Gardener. With the rise of backyard chicken coops, knowing how to candle an egg is regaining importance. But knowing the difference, in females, between a calf, a heifer, and a cow, and the quantity and type of feed for each? Not so much. I haven't seen many backyard Bessie's.
As in the general society, Girl Scouts are returning to the land. One of the new badges is Locavore. Girls will become knowledgeable on everything from the business of food to what’s in season in their area. Eating local and in season tends to be cheaper and better for the environment. If the produce is trucked in from a farm three counties away rather than a country in the other hemisphere, you'll save money because you won't be paying for all the various modes of transportation between farm and table. Less transportation means less pollution. It's a win-win. Even better would be just walking out your back door and harvesting your own turnips. But back to the Girl Scouts...
To earn the Locavore badge, five steps are required:
1. Explore the benefits and challenges of going local
2. Find your local food sources
3. Cook a simple dish showcasing local ingredients
4. Make a recipe with local ingredients
5. Try a local cooking challenge.
Each of the steps includes specific challenges such as interviewing chefs who specialize in locally grown foods, taking a favorite recipe and making it local, or, for the local cooking challenge, preparing a three-course meal based on local ingredients.
The Girl Scouts are returning to our roots. Think it's easy? I challenge YOU to the five badge requirements. I'll participate as well and report back with my progress. Can YOU earn the Girl Scouts Locavore badge?
Actual email:
"The United States Navy's Office of Legislative Affairs cordially invites you to a Pizza Brief from 1200-1300 on Day, Month Date in Room XXX. Join us as S.M.I., Assistant Director, National Security Directorate, Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) provides information on NCIS. To ensure we order enough pizza, please send me a short e-mail RSVP if you think you will attend."
Yes, the real NCIS! As if they have to entice me there with free pizza. They had me with blue eyes.
[Title taken from this.]
My girl card is about to be taken away. To me, a date on the calendar to celebrate love (February 14) or mothers (the second Sunday in May) or birthdays (for me, August 6) is not necessarily an excuse to shower me with presents. My family knows me so well.
Since today is Mother's Day, as with most holidays, we have a family traditional breakfast. Mr. Gaelic and the girls prepare eggs Benedict, hash browns, fruit salad, LeConte sunrise, and coffee. No gifts, no cards, only verbal wishes for a Happy Mother's Day. Except this year Deirdre, who has trouble saying things to me sometimes, gave me a card that expressed her appreciation for all I have done for her.
The rest of the day was picture perfect. An hour or so of working in my vegetable garden was followed by an extended manicure. Coffee, naptime, and a trip to the dog park with Baby, all with Mr. G, felt luxurious on a lovely spring day. When I retired to my boudoir with my laptop for some alone time, what was delivered to my room outdid everything else.
About to text message Mr. G to see what he was up to, his footsteps were heard on the stairs. Looking up as he opened the door, I noticed that he didn't have a load of laundry under his arm or a look of consternation on his brow from dealing with the kids alone. Instead he carried an antique martini glass by the stem. One bleu cheese-stuffed olive sat at the bottom of the clear liquid. His gift of making me a dirty martini was almost too much. My face lit up into the biggest smile possible and my profuse thanks delighted him.
A perfect way to end a perfect day.
*Mama said click here.
The following is not original material. It was plagarized from Becca. Play along on your own blog if you like.
NICKNAMES: Yes, I have two. One my husband calls me. One my father took to his grave with him.
BIRTHDAY: The anniversary of the first atomic bomb that was dropped. Yep, that pretty much describes me, too.
HEIGHT: 5'10"
EYE COLOR: Hazel
HAIR COLOR: Red, strawberry blonde, titian, I'm not really sure
HANDED: Bats left, throws right
FROM: American by birth, Southern by the grace of God!
PETS: One dog, two cats
PERSONALITY: Leo
HOBBIES: genealogy, hiking, backpacking, reading
LIKES: How long do you have?
DISLIKES: See last answer.
FAVORITE ACCENTS: Coastal Georgia, South Carolinian Low Country, Cajun, Scottish
FAVORITE COUNTRY: Other than my own, Scotland
FAVORITE DAY OF THE WEEK: Friday, Friday!
FAVORITE DRINK: Old Fashioned, Dirty Martini with bleu cheese stuffed olives, sweet iced tea, seltzer water
FAVORITE FLOWER: Orange Gerbera daisies
FAVORITE FOODS: Soft-shell crab, beets, creme brulee, gazpacho
FAVORITE GIRLS NAMES: Caroline, Rebecca
FAVORITE NUMBER: 1
FAVORITE PLACE TO HANG OUT: My own backyard
FAVORITE SHOES: Anything with a heel over 3 inches high
FAVORITE SPORT: Tennis to play, Football to watch
THREE THINGS THAT SCARE ME
1. Snakes
2. Serpents
3. Reptiles without legs
THREE THINGS I'D LIKE TO LEARN MORE OF:
1. Arabic
2. Shuttle tatting
3. Rock climbing
*See Emily Dickinson.
There are more than three senses. Yet there are only three sensory blogs on my list of non-Bucket-List lists. Sight, sound, and smell have been covered already. Time now for the all-important taste factor. No, this will not be a Fear Factor-type list of tastes. Just things to taste before I die.
- The best cup of coffee. Check. Already done. At a breakfast shack in Destin, FL, on the last day of a girls' weekend.
- Champagne at my daughters' weddings.
- Perfectly sautéed soft-shell crabs. Check. That was the main course at a dinner party at chez Gaelic.
- Blood pudding in Scotland. Haggis can be quite good if made by someone who knows how. Unfortunately, on our holiday in Scotland, our innkeepers didn't serve blood pudding.
- The fruits of my gardening labor. Last year's garden produced: beets, carrots, onions, leeks, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, corn, strawberries, and figs. For this year, add to that okra, eggplant, watermelon, raspberries, potatoes, garlic, zucchini, and three types of winter squash.
- Acacia honey with bread at an inn on Lake Como.
- Sauteed fiddlehead ferns.
- Blinis and caviar after touring the Hermitage.
- The perfect crème brûlée. It's all in how the sugar is burnt.
- S'mores dark chocolate pudding. Check. This was the dessert for a private Valentine's Day dinner at chez Gaelic.
Guessing at things to taste before I die is difficult. How does one know about all the different flavors in the world until one is exposed to them? My eyes, and mouth, will be open for new taste adventures. But no shots of horse semen.
My promise to Tim rings hollow today - this blog isn't a follow-up to his nominating me for the Stylish Blog Award as it was supposed to be. No pie-crust promise this time, Tim! The next blog *will* be in response to the Stylish Blog Award.
Today, there's just something I have to get off my chest. Uh-um... Out of my chest? Oh, bad pun (you'll understand after reading the entire blog). Someone please, for god's sake, get the image out of my head!
The Gaelic family is adventurous when it comes to food. Deirdre adores Brussels sprouts. Finola has eaten venison, buffalo, and elk. I tried rattlesnake once, frog legs a couple of times, and alligator on several occasions. Yes, even Rocky Mountain Oysters. There is a beef liver, tongue and heart in my freezer waiting to be cooked up in a hearty dish. But there are limits.
Raw oysters never cross my lips anymore following an experience with a bad one many years ago. Mr. G and I had some bad sea urchin once, never again. And that Japanese fish that's poisonous? No thank you.
Now comes news of things that really turn the stomach. Especially two pieces of news this past week.
In a small town in New Zealand is an annual food festival that in past years has served up such "delicacies" as wasp larvae ice cream and deep-fried huhu grubs. This year the craze will be shots of strawberry-, chocolate-, or vanilla-flavored horse semen. Yes, you read that correctly. Horse baby gravy. Claims are that it tastes like a milkshake.
On the other end of the spectrum (in every literal sense) is news from England of a new ice cream flavor - Baby Gaga. Made with Madagascan vanilla pods and lemon zest, it's said to be very rich and creamy. Rich and creamy? You be the judge of that. It's made with free-range human breast milk! But this free-range human won't be volunteering to help produce or consume it. And I have better ideas for Madagascan vanilla pods.
There are just some things I draw the line at. Horse semen shots and breast-milk ice cream are two of them.
Third in my series of lists of the senses is smell. Mostly in memory of that sense which our family lost last week when we all developed head colds of varying degrees. (Cue the Dies Irae.) My first list was sight; the second list, sound.
Without further ado, I give you scents I want to experience before I die:
- That baby-smell on the top of a grandbaby's head
- Sweet-shrub wafting through my open bedroom window on a warm spring morning
- White Shoulders as I nuzzle in for a hug (my grandmother's signature)
- Chanel No. 5 as I nuzzle in for a hug (my mother's signature)
- Mrouzia in Marrakesh
- Rogan josh outside Lakshmana temple in Khajuraho
- Spruce and firs giving way to glaciers in Denali
- Varnish remover while refinishing an antique [fill in the blank] by myself
- Lavender fields in Provence
- Body oil with patchouli being massaged onto me while at a beach-front spa in the Caribbean
Coming up with scents to experience is quite difficult. Knowing what I want to do or see is easy; but how does one describe a new scent? Today's list was very challenging. That will be your challenge now -- what scents do you want to experience?
I should have gone back to the paid workforce years ago. In the eight days since I began working, I've lost three pounds. No exercising. No dieting. Just working.
My theory: There's no kitchen to walk through and nosh all day. There's no snack time for me when the kids get home from school. There's no drive-thru Mickey D's, either. Which was, is, and (hopefully not always) will be my downfall.
In actuality it may have been only a week since the last menu plan was posted. It feels like two weeks. In the intervening seven days, my first experience in the paid workforce in many years began; my boss was sworn in as a freshman Member of Congress; another congressman and a senator both called me by name and hugged me in front of my coworkers; and I met another congressman who went to high school with my brother-in-law. Additionally, my New Year’s Resolution of cutting back on fast food for lunch is intact. And finally, a congresswoman from Arizona was shot at an official public event which killed at least one of her staffers.
Welcome to the life of a public servant.
The only rub is actually preparing a nutritious supper for the children, Mr. Gaelic, and me. The plan that I so diligently worked on last weekend in preparation for the first week on the job fell to pieces on Wednesday. Maybe working 52 hours this week had something to do with it. Wednesday and Thursday evenings ended up not with supper but with falling into bed two hours before my usual bedtime.
Lunches on the other hand ended up being much healthier than my usual fast food drive-thru. Truth be told, the plans for sack lunches fell apart Sunday evening when they weren’t prepared ahead of time. Instead, the cafeteria in my building has a variety of vegetables sides that end up being afterthoughts for most folks.
Here is this week’s plan.
- Monday
- Breakfast: oatmeal
- Lunch: cafeteria meal
- Supper: uhhhh…
- Tuesday
- Breakfast: cereal
- Lunch: cafeteria meal
- Supper: hmmm…
- Wednesday
- Breakfast: soft boiled eggs, toast
- Lunch: cafeteria meal
- Supper: to be determined…
- Thursday
- Breakfast: cream of wheat
- Lunch: cafeteria meal
- Supper: no earthly idea…
- Friday
- Breakfast: cinnamon toast
- Lunch: cafeteria meal
- Supper: pint of ice cream or popcorn???
- Saturday
- Breakfast: sausage, eggs, grits, toast
- Lunch: tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwiches
- Supper: let’s just stand in front of the freezer until something comes to mind
- Sunday
- Breakfast: waffles, sausage
- Dinner: roast chicken, carrots, green beans
- Supper: can we have tomato soup and grilled cheese again???
For those of you who may have been snowed by my pretense of organization, you can see from the week’s menu that I plan to focus my organizational skills, and finite amount of brain energy, on getting my boss’s schedule under control. After that, I’ll be back to organize my family’s meals.
What are you making for supper tonight?
Reservations!
Ahhhhhhhhh..............
Now that my dirty little secret isn't so secret anymore, perhaps the menu plans will include lunch. My dirty little secret? Fast-food drive-thru for lunch. As a full-time mother for the last 15 years, I fell into the habit of eating fast food while out running errands. Eating in the car between stops meant more efficiency. But at the expense of my waistline, and maybe my health.
Starting an office job tomorrow means either taking my lunch or eating in the cafeteria. At least for the first week. Mr. Gaelic suggested getting away from the office for lunch. It's good to have a change of scenery.
So, for Laoch and Gail, here is an attempt at eating a clean lunch.
- Monday
- Breakfast: cream of wheat
- Lunch: ham and Swiss on sourdough, chips, apple, 2 chocolate pieces
- Supper: chef's surprise (Finola is still home from college and will cook)
- Tuesday
- Breakfast: cereal
- Lunch: turkey and provolone on spelt, chips, clementine, 2 chocolate pieces
- Supper: beef Stroganov (Deirdre's specialty since she will cook)
- Wednesday
- Breakfast: soft boiled eggs, toast
- Lunch: office reception (it's Swearing-In day for the 112th Congress)
- Supper: kidney beans, fried okra, kale
- Thursday
- Breakfast: oatmeal
- Lunch: ham and Swiss on spelt, chips, banana, 2 chocolate pieces
- Supper: vegetable soup, homemade bread (probably overly ambitious but we'll see)
- Friday
- Breakfast: cinnamon toast
- Lunch: turkey and provolone on sourdough, chips, apple, 2 chocolate pieces
- Supper: dinner out to celebrate the first week on the job
- Saturday
- Breakfast: sausage, eggs, grits, toast
- Lunch: leftover soup
- Supper: steak, baked potato
- Sunday
- Breakfast: waffles, sausage
- Dinner: chicken 'n' dumplin's, broccoli, carrots
- Supper: PB&J sandwiches, chips
I need to work on a side for my lunches. Easing back into making lunches means only thinking about the mains for now, which are still sandwiches at this uncreative point. The two chocolate pieces? Mr. Gaelic gave me two boxes of Godiva chocolates for Christmas. The boxes are still unopened. They will be my dessert in my sack lunch.
Truth be told, I have mixed emotions about my new job. I'm excited to be back in the political world of Capitol Hill. At the same time, I'm anxious about the logistics of latch-key kids, wholesome suppers, and running errands. Heaven help me.
Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ in his earthly life
shared our toil and hallowed our labor: Be present with
thy people where they work; make those who carry on
the industries and commerce of this land responsive to thy
will; and give to us all a pride in what we do, and a just
return for our labor; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who
liveth and reigneth with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, p. 208)
Existentialists, hedonists, skeptics, stoics, epicureans! Finola and Mr. Gaelic are talking philosophers as I'm thinking food. Funny that one of my favorite foodie websites is Epicurious.
Christmas Day is over, but the Christmas season has only just begun. And already the planning is underway for two more holidays quick on Christmas's heels. And just as with Christmas, both of the upcoming holidays have their own set Gaelic-family menu. The holidays? New Year's and Epiphany.
When the kids were young, I would cook a private restaurant-quality dinner for Mr. G and me to have after the kids went to bed. Now teenagers, they stay up later than we do. And get invited to New Year's Eve parties.
- Monday
- Breakfast: cream of wheat
- Supper: pinto beans, okra, rice pilaf
- Tuesday
- Breakfast: pancakes, sausage
- Supper: pork chops, mashed potatoes, green beans
- Wednesday
- Breakfast: soft boiled eggs, toast
- Supper: vegetable soup, homemade bread
- Thursday
- Breakfast: oatmeal
- Supper: tacos, refried beans (use leftover pintos)
- Friday
- Breakfast: cinnamon toast
- Supper: dinner out at New Year's Eve party (family friends so our kids know their kids)
- Saturday
- Brunch: friend's New Year's Day party
- Dinner: neighbor's New Year's Day party
- Supper: ham steak, black eyed peas, collards (traditional Southern New Year's Day feast)
- Sunday
- Breakfast: bacon, eggs, grits, toast
- Dinner: roast chicken, quinoa, pumpkin
Epiphany is next week. Another week to plan. Even though I already know what will be on the menu on the 6th. You, on the other hand, will have to check back next week to find out.
This will be a busy week in the Gaelic household. Finola returns from college late Tuesday night. There is a party at a neighbor's house on Christmas Eve afternoon from 3:00 to 5:00 for kids and adults. Deirdre and Maeve are acolyting at the 11:00 p.m. Christmas Eve service. That means that Saturday is Christmas.
For as long as I can remember Christmas Eve supper was always spaghetti. Probably because my mama didn't want to have to spend a whole lot of time in the kitchen if she was going to be cooking a big meal the next day. That tradition is being instilled in my children. There were exceptions to the spaghetti rule. For a while we would alternate hosting Christmas Eve supper with friends. Our years to host, I would give a nod to the wife's Italian heritage and make a pasta with seven types of seafood. Still the pasta from my childhood, but the more traditional Italian Christmas Eve flavor. On our off years, my donation would be a homemade panettone.
Here are this week's menus:
- Monday
- Breakfast: grapefruit, toast
- Supper: butternut squash soup (leftover from last week), fresh baked bread
- Tuesday
- Breakfast: cereal
- Supper: chili with assorted toppings, rice
- Wednesday
- Breakfast: bagels, creme cheese
- Supper: potluck (to clean out the fridge)
- Thursday
- Breakfast: oatmeal
- Supper: potluck (to finish cleaning out fridge) or delivered pizza
- Friday
- Breakfast: cinnamon toast
- Supper: spaghetti
- Saturday
- Breakfast: waffles, sausage links
- Dinner: standing rib roast, red wine sauce, horseradish sauce, Yorkshire pudding, mashed root vegetables, Brussels sprouts, congealed salad, steamed pudding with hard sauce
- Sunday
- Breakfast: cream of wheat
- Supper: shepherd's pie (use leftover root vegetables as topping)
Christmas dinner may sound like a lot of work. It's the same menu from year to year. After 20 years of cooking holiday meals by myself, by this time I can do it in my sleep. Sort of like every other holiday with their own constant but individual menus.
Almost 200 pounds! That's how much meat was stuffed into the freezer this past week. In the long saga of the meat co-op, the last possible pick-up time until next spring was last Wednesday. My order included a quarter of a cow and a half of a hog.
In reorganizing the freezer, there was a treasure trove of some of the richest homemade stocks you've ever laid eyes on. They lay forgotten underneath more recent additions of puppy pops (doggie ice cream), frozen yogurt, and Phish Food. Part of the reorganization included making a detailed list of everything in the freezer and the numbers of same items.
With the discovery of liquid gold, this week will see more soups on the menu. Even though stock freezes well, it should not sit at the bottom of the freezer never to see the bottom of a soup pot. And with that, I give you this week's menus.
- Monday
- Breakfast: bagels, cream cheese
- Supper: peanut soup, millet bread
- Tuesday
- Breakfast: cereal
- Supper: pinto beans, corn pudding, fried okra, cornbread
- Wednesday
- Breakfast: cereal (again since Mr. Gaelic is catching an early flight to Chicago for business)
- Supper: butternut squash soup with bleu cheese, fresh baked bread
- Thursday
- Breakfast: cream of wheat
- Supper: potluck
- Friday
- Breakfast: grapefruit, toast
- Supper: date night (both girls are babysitting)
- Saturday
- Breakfast: bacon, eggs, grits, toast
- Supper: pizza for girls, Winter Solstice Party with Boat Burning for Mr. G and I (yes, a real Viking tradition)
- Sunday
- Breakfast: pancakes, sausage links
- Dinner: pork chops, mashed potatoes, green beans
Our friends, who are Jewish, are having their annual Winter Solstice Party where they burn a boat, just like the husband's ancestors. Jewish Vikings??? No. He converted to Judaism for his wife.
A day late and a menu plan short; or, better late than never. My plan of getting the weekly menu plan done yesterday went up in smoke on Saturday night when I received an email requesting an interview.
I am the cavalry. I'm the one who gets called up to the front when the financial need arises. The need arose when Finola got into such a prestigious private college. College was in our budget plans. But we just need a little extra for the private school part.
My job search had not been going very well for several months. It's very difficult to get to the interview stage when online applications sort potential candidates based on certain words or phrases used in the answers. It's like a guessing game to figure out what the computers might be looking for.
Finding a job is always about who you know. Mr. Gaelic's colleague (Mr. A) passed along a copy of my resume to the son-in-law (Mr. B) of the colleague's (Mr. A's) former boss who passed it along to the chief of staff (Mr. C) of the man (Mr. D) I want to work for. Since I have been a full-time mother for the past 13+ years, I needed to find out what has changed in my field in the meantime as well as find out a bit about Mr. D so that I know what he's looking for in an employee. After church yesterday, the afternoon was spent researching all sorts of information and biographical sketches. Never go to an interview unprepared.
That's my excuse for not getting my menu plan posted on a Sunday as I have in the past.
- Monday
- Breakfast: grapefruit, toast
- Supper: potluck (where did all that food come from?)
- Tuesday
- Breakfast: cereal
- Supper: meatloaf, mashed potatoes, broccoli
- Wednesday
- Breakfast: oatmeal
- Supper: steak, baked potatoes (meat co-op delivery day!)
- Thursday
- Breakfast: cinnamon toast
- Supper: baked beans, dirty rice, fried okra, cornbread
- Friday
- Breakfast: cream of wheat
- Supper: cedar-plank salmon, roasted root vegetables, lentil salad
- Saturday
- Breakfast: cereal (have to be at church at 7:30 for meal delivery at a retirement home)
- Supper: pizza for girls, eat out with Mr. Gaelic (date night)
- Sunday
- Breakfast: bacon, eggs, grits, toast
- Dinner: roast chicken, green peas, mashed acorn squash, dinner rolls
Wow! I didn't realize just how busy this coming Saturday is until now. 7:30 a.m. meal delivery (similar to Meals on Wheels), 9:30 Deirdre's Girl Scout troop cleanup (at a different retirement home), also at 9:30 Deirdre's Girl Scout home-baked cookie drop-off (as a fund-raiser but not the official boxed Girl Scout cookies yet - those are being sold by our troops beginning December 22nd), 11:00 local charity pick-up of our old mattress and box spring (same group as is organizing the early morning meal delivery), 6:00 p.m. Deirdre to babysit, and finally Time To Be Determined date with Mr. Gaelic (whom I haven't seen much of lately due to his travelling on business).
Whew! I'm tired just typing that. Good thing it's potluck tonight and I don't have to think about cooking.
There was much in the media this past week about Thanksgiving and how the Pilgrims and Indians didn't overeat and then go shopping. Apparently, during those times people were a bit more conservative with their stores of food, wanting to make the harvest last through the cold winter months. So it's apropos that today is the first day of Advent. A time to scale back in preparation for the Christmas season.
The first week after Thanksgiving is also a time to finish off the turkey. When you order one from the meat co-op you order a weight range. This year's turkey was on the upper end of the range. Lots and lots of leftovers.
- Monday
- Breakfast: cereal (Mr. Gaelic leaves for a business trip)
- Supper: creamed spinach, corn pudding, pinto beans
- Tuesday
- Breakfast: oatmeal
- Supper: turkey pot pie
- Wednesday
- Breakfast: cinnamon toast
- Supper: turkey barley soup
- Thursday
- Breakfast: cream of wheat
- Supper: baked mac and cheese, broccoli, honeyed pumpkin
- Friday
- Breakfast: soft-boiled eggs, toast
- Supper: pizza for girls, Mr. Gaelic and I are headed to a scotch tasting with heavy hors d'oeuvres
- Saturday
- Breakfast: waffles, bacon
- Supper: tuna casserole, salad
- Sunday
- Breakfast: sausage gravy, homemade biscuits
- Dinner: hot turkey salad, potatoes, green beans
It cannot be December already. Just where did the year go? Time for another holiday soon. Time to pull out the cookbooks and see what can be done ahead of time. Maybe it's time to dust off my mama's fruitcake recipe. Lots of planning and decisions coming up. Stay tuned to see what it'll be.
A couple of weeks ago I kvetched about missing the deadline for the last meat co-op delivery. You can't keep a good woman meatless. Incensed about forgetting to hit the checkout button on my order, I emailed the farmer's wife to ask if there were any way to buy from a different delivery location. However, driving all the way to the farm, about two hours away, was not my preferred pick-up destination.
If you've kept up with the organic, non-GMO, local, free-range debate in books and movies over the past few years, you would know the farmer. The products he sells -- beef, pork, chicken, turkey, eggs, and sometimes rabbit, lamb, duck, and duck eggs -- are all free-range. After seeing the farmer prominently in one of the food debate movies and discovering just how close the farm is, my research turned up several co-op delivery sites in my neck of the woods.
Meat products are as seasonal as vegetables and fruit. Chicken lay more eggs when there's more sunlight in the summer before slacking off to almost none in the winter. Cows and pigs and sheep give birth in the spring in the northern hemisphere. If you want to have suckling pig or a leg of lamb for a spring holiday and expect to buy it a week before the holiday, chances are it's from Australia or New Zealand where it would be autumn and the piglet or lamb would be big enough for slaughter. If you want local piglet or lamb, you'll need to freeze it until the spring.
The farmer's wife wrote back allowing me to pick up at a different delivery site. Joy! Elation! And the delivery date isn't until the second week of December! That means that the freezer will have been emptied a bit more with all the Thanksgiving dishes having been eaten yesterday.
Good thing. Since this is the absolute last delivery until late spring next year, I'll need to stock up. My order included:
1/4 cow (approximately 110 lbs. of meat)
1/2 pig (approximately 100 lbs. of meat)
plus,
2 Filet mignons
5 Delmonico steaks
10 lbs. ground beef
That 1/4 cow and 1/2 pig means a quarter of the cow and a half of the pig. You can order a whole animal if you want, but we don't have that much freezer space.
My only regret is that the cuts won't include a standing rib roast for Christmas or a ham shank for New Year's. He didn't have any lamb available either. Maybe the other farmer who shows up at the farmers' market has a leg of lamb to stick in the freezer for Easter.
The one thing about holidays from my childhood home that I never liked was back-to-back meals. Mama served turkey for Thanksgiving and again for Christmas, and ham for New Year's Day and again for Easter. In my house, the now tradition is turkey and dressing for Thanksgiving, beef rib roast and Yorkshire pudding for Christmas, ham, collards, and black-eyed peas for New Year's Day, and lamb and asparagus for Easter. Oh, and pancakes on Shrove Tuesday which needs bacon or sausage as an accompaniment.
Darn it! I didn't order any bacon or sausage. Back to the order form!
No matter how much prep work has been done in the preceeding weeks, the three days before Thanksgiving always make me feel like the White Rabbit. "I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date."
So today's blog will be short and to the point so that I can get back to the kitchen.
- Monday
- Breakfast: bran muffins
- Supper: vegetable soup (great way to use up what may still be lurking in the veggie crisper), homemade bread
- Tuesday
- Breakfast: cereal (as usual on Tuesday)
- Supper: baked ziti, salad
- Wednesday
- Breakfast: bagels with cream cheese
- Supper: eat out at Finola's favorite Indian restaurant (she returns from college Tuesday evening)
- Thursday/Thanksgiving
- Breakfast: egg, cheese, sausage and grits casserole
- Dinner: turkey, dressing (NOT stuffing since I was raised in the South), giblet gravy, cranberry relish, sweet potato casserole, Brussels sprouts, cherry congealed salad (because this is really 1950 after all), homemade dinner rolls, pumpkin cheesecake (It's listed as dinner not supper because it'll be served mid-afternoon.)
- Friday
- Breakfast: coffee (gotta make the Black Friday sales)
- Supper: hot turkey salad casserole (sounds odd but it's my mom's recipe), green salad
- Saturday
- Breakfast: Krispy Kreme doughnuts (hot, now!)
- Supper: leftovers from Thanksgiving
- Sunday
- Breakfast: bacon, eggs, grits, toast
- Dinner: chicken 'n' dumplin's, carrots, green beans
Back to the apron.
Gail asked how I do my menu planning. It all started when I was a youngster. My mother didn’t read regular books. No dime-store romances, no New York Times bestsellers, no Book of the Month Club selection. No, she read cookbooks in the evening. And she loved to throw parties of all kinds, dinner parties, cocktail parties, open house buffets, cookouts, picnics, coffees, breakfasts, you name it, she threw it.
She taught me how to shop the ads. Take the grocery store weekly circulars and find the loss-leaders. Those are the items that are deeply discounted to get people into the store. Like the 99¢ per pound chicken legs or the 49¢ per pound baking potatoes. Then build a meal around chicken legs and potatoes. See what else is on sale, rinse, repeat.
Going organic has put a damper on shopping the ads. But it’s still helpful to have an idea about what to cook for supper on any given night. Now the formula is more along the lines of particular types of dishes on certain nights.
Ever since finding the Meat-Free Monday movement, Monday’s suppers hearken back to my childhood with a plate of three Southern-style veggie dishes and maybe a cornbread. Anything as long as it’s all vegetarian, but not vegan. That’s too foreign for my household.
The rest of the week consists of one night of a soup, one night of a nice meat-centric meal, one night of seafood, and one night of leftovers to clean out the refrigerator for the next week’s groceries. Some things get repeated during the week. Maybe it’s the meat-plus-two; maybe it’s the all-veggie meal.
Once the Crockpot has passed inspection, perhaps on nights when there is carpool duty, supper might be slow-simmered. My oven has a delay start and a cooking timer. There are nights when the meatloaf is placed in the oven with a delayed start time ensuring that it’ll be ready to come out right at supper time after the last extracurricular activity.
If you want to get started on menu planning, make a list of the things you cook regularly. Then rotate them throughout the month. There might be spaghetti, roast chicken, tacos, broiled fish, sloppy Joes, tuna casserole, meatloaf, chili, chicken tetrazzini, you get the idea. Fill in with some lighter meals such as warm winter soups or light chilled summer soups. Or something quick and fast like sandwiches and a can of tomato soup.
Use either method. The rotation plan is my default plan since I don’t shop the ads like my mother did. It’s hard to shop the ads when most of our food comes from the organic meat co-op or the farmers’ market. For that, you have to think on your feet about what’s fresh and what you can make with those. Or use the shop-the-ads plan basing your menus on what’s on sale at your grocery store. Here’s a hint. When I used to shop the ads, I didn’t limit myself to one store. There were three stores in a close radius whose ads I would shop.
Regardless of your method, have fun with your meals. And eat with someone else as often as you can.
If you've ever been to Five Guys Burgers & Fries, you know that they serve roasted peanuts from a box while you wait for your order. I treated the kids to lunch recently at our local Five Guys. We got a serving of peanuts to shell at the table. After finishing our hamburgers, there were still some peanuts on our table. Just scoop them into the bag with the leftover fries.
They're fun to snack on. But it gave me a hankering for boiled peanuts. Those slimy, squishy, good-when-hot-but-yuck-when-not snacks. Most often they're found at roadside stands in the American rural South. They are definitely an acquired taste.
Yes, it's an established fact that I'm weird. Just deal with it. In other foodie news, here's this week's menu plan.
- Monday
- Breakfast: banana bread
- Supper: take-out/delivery (afternoon teacher conferences + evening ballet class = no time to cook [slow cooker on the blink])
- Tuesday
- Breakfast: cereal
- Supper: meatloaf, mashed potatoes, carrots (save some potatoes for Friday)
- Wednesday
- Breakfast: oatmeal
- Supper: baked eggs, salad, homemade bread
- Thursday
- Breakfast: blueberry muffins
- Supper: baked mac and cheese, creamed spinach, beets in orange sauce
- Friday
- Breakfast: soft-boiled eggs, toast
- Supper: butternut squash soup, homemade potato bread (use left-over potatoes)
- Saturday
- Breakfast: pancakes, sausage
- Supper: pizza for girls, Mr. Gaelic and I are headed to a party for our friends' daughter who is in graduate school in London and will be home for the holidays
- Sunday
- Breakfast: bacon, eggs, grits, toast
- Dinner: potluck (need to clean out the fridge and freezer in anticipation of Thanksgiving)
Thanksgiving? Already? That means that Christmas is 41 days from today! Didn't we just celebrate Hallowe'en? Ack!
Please don't send me boiled peanuts for Christmas. They're best eaten hot and fresh. Just like Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts. But that's another blog entirely.
