Adulthood is tricky and other obvious things

The sky is blue! 

This may seem like a given to you...but it's not so normal this time of year out here. So, I celebrate. This day last year, Hurricane Sandy whacked into the Northeast, leaving many friends and loved ones in a bad spot. Here in Seattle we got a bit of a gift out of it - my aunt and uncle ended up extending their visit with us as they couldn't get a flight home. Not so fun for them but we loved having them, and that's what I'll choose to focus on - I've spent enough time on various blogs climbing upon my government-response-after-disasters soapbox. And this is a happy place! With food! 

In honor of the region of my roots, this week's menu...well, it has nothing to do with Sandy. Unless you consider some seafood. It does, however, include a recipe from my friend Johnny from New Jersey, so we'll count that. Unfortunately I do not have a new produce adventure to report on: a late night Saturday led to missing the Farmer's Market Sunday, so no new acquisitions. I still have last week's emergency acorn squash, though, so am carrying that through with a promise to do better next week. I'm sticking with the goal of menu planning, though, so here's this week's menu. 

• Monday: pan-seared local salmon & acorn squash. We stocked up on sockeye when it was coming in fresh over the summer, so this is a "reach into the freezer for a fast entree", and the aforementioned semi-new produce. 
• Tuesday: Johnny's slow cooker split pea soup & homemade corn bread. Johnny is a guy with a busy and stressful job, and the recipe he shared seems easy and well-suited for that kind of life. EPF teaches Tuesday nights and I'll be out voluworking (why didn't spellcheck catch what seems like a clearly made up word combining volunteering and working?) all afternoon, so this seems like something that will be just right for a late dinner. The cornbread is something I haven't made in a long time - and never the recipe I'm eyeing - but seemed like it would go well with this. 
• Wednesday: Individual Pot Roasts. Another new recipe, this is a dutch oven thing - love me some one-pot cooking. 
• Thursday: Leftover night! Assuming the weather cooperates we'll be trick or treating with our friends and their sweet little boy, so leftovers will be quick and easy - and we're going to run out of plastic containers if we don't clean out the fridge soon anyway.
• Friday: Baked Eggplant Parmesan. I'm trying a new recipe that calls this "healthy" and "easy". We'll see if it is either. 

And that's the plan! Last week, while a success in terms of planning, was also kind of a tip toe into this plan, with only two nights of real cooking - only one of which was "new". This week is a little more ambitious, although not hugely. Hopefully these will all turns out to be as not-enormously-complicated as I hope. 

Results to follow, friends...

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, 
and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth 
seeking the successive autumns."

-George Eliot

Planning is for Adults

Tonight begins Project: Meg Cooks Like a Grown-up. The menu: slow cooker carnitas & delicata squash. The inadvertant theme: "quick" is in the...mind of the time-challenged. While both of these things involved minimal effort - and one was in a Crock-Pot, the modern originator of "the machine cooks it for you" - they both involved forethought and quite a lot of time. The Crock-Pot obviously does, although the assembly is about 10-15 minutes, tops. But if you're like me and can barely get out the door in time what with the clothing putting on and the coffee making and the whatnot, well, then, make it on a weekend. Being of the non-working variety, this was a Monday attempt for me. The delicata is also not very labor intensive, but does take about 30 minutes and needs tending, so can't really be put in and then left alone for 30 minutes. But once it's in, you can do the prep for the carnitas toppings and shred the meat, so it works out.

First up, carnitas. I might be the only person out there who hasn't made carnitas yet, so this seemed like a good thing to get in the repertoire. I mostly followed one recipe...but tweaked it based on another and then added a random fridge leftover. So, the end result is below (which shortcuts noted where possible), and aside from a deliciously fragrant house it was also super tasty. Not overwhelming but just snappy enough to perk up the evening. We did feel it needed a little kick, so the hot sauce was employed - but that can be optional. We added chopped avocado, a little sour cream and some flour tortillas, and it was creamy and tangy deliciousness. (The avocado was of course hard as a rock...October in the PacNW isn't exactly their time. It spent the afternoon snuggling with an apple in the Paper Bag Hotel, and the results were workable.) The original recipe suggested toppings of diced green chiles and carmelized onions. Neither of us is really into fiery hot food, so I scratched the chiles, and I wasn't feeling onions today but may try them out another time. 

Getting back in the groove

It's time to wake this thing back up. It's time for cold (permanently foggy) days and fireplaces. It's time to refocus from the depressing cesspool of our country's "government" to food, family, friends, festivities. It's Time To Cook.

It was a summer of minimal cooking - life was busy, EPF and I moved, and, well, it was summer, when a lack of both a/c and a grill means lots of salads and sushi. What with my patio garden doing really truly terribly, my domestic inspiration level was low, low, looooow. But now that we're sharing a home and eating together, there is some actual planning that needs to happen for us to eat like normal people (read: not takeout every night, which we could easily slip into with the wealth of options in this neighborhood). So: while I'm without garden for now (of the outdoor plants, only the rosemary and now-struggling sage made the move - the others went to the Garden Intake Shelter, aka my next door neighbors' patio), I do need menu planning motivation and this blog is going to be it! Because I said so! And so it is! (Do I sound fired up yet? I'm still working on the coffee.)

This week I'm also embarking on a new low-grade project: each week I'm attempting a new, ideally seasonal, produce that I haven't messed with previously (or at least don't do on a regular basis). I feel like incorporating fresh produce outside of the summer is challenging, but I know it can be done, so will now shame myself into doing so. This week, squash. I acquired delicata and acorn at the farmer's market yesterday, and am starting with delicata since I've never made it. (Acorn I have made, so it's in case of crisis - this is the first week, after all)

The week's plan:

• Monday: Slow cooker carnitas & roasted delicata squash. This is a double experiment as I've never made carnitas either, but nothing in the slow cooker is that complex - so how hard can it be? I'm combining a couple recipes - we'll see how it goes.
• Tuesday: Roast chicken thighs with carrot-fennel soup (yay for carrot and fennel season!)
• Wednesday: (nothing: we have dinner plans, so a nicely timed break)
• Thursday: Roast chicken a la EPF. Somehow I have reached the distinguished age of...uh...over 28 without mastering the art of roast chicken (intact, that is - I can handle pieces - see Tuesday). I can make one, but it won't be amazing. EPF, on the other hand, creates a masterpiece, so he is in charge of this one. If the acorn squash is still around, it may go with this. TBD.
• Friday: Leftover red sauce & pasta. It's Friday, people. C'mon. 

Lots of white meat, but then again we've been eating a lot of lamb and bacon lately so it's probably a good thing to err away from the highest possible cholesterol levels for a bit, no?

"Ask not what you can do for your country. 
Ask what's for lunch."
-Orson Wells