a week of meals
meal plan for the second full week of feb. 2024
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Good morning, friends. How has your week been? Here it is chilly, James and I have already mixed up our Saturday cake and put it in the oven, and we have plans to head out to the farmer’s market and library before visiting family to share said cake and conversation. The month marches on and more blossoms have been unfurling here and there. It started with a smattering of almond blossoms last week, a beautiful frothy white contrast to the grey sky and dark dormant branches. Then, out on a run in which I was caught in the rain, I saw a saucer magnolia beginning to open, purply pink, gently waving in the wind. I stood there in the rain and looked at it, this brave little bit of blossom opening generously, bravely, in spite of the storm, and thought of Mary Oliver’s poem, Mysteries, Yes: “Let me keep company always with those who say / "Look!" and laugh in astonishment, / and bow their heads”. I never want to be immune to feeling reverential joy for these small things. These little pockets of joy, noticing them- this is what makes life beautiful, and good, and satisfying.
This week in books, I finished So Late in the Day, a curated selection of three short stories by Irish author Claire Keegan. Hm. I’m still digesting them and what I think, which is funny because the book is so slim and the stories very short. She writes so compactly, though, and there is so much to think about. The prose, as usual, is exceptional, intense. All three are “stories of women and men”, exploring the different lenses with which each views the world, and how misogny can lurk and emerge unexpectedly. My favorite was the second story, “The Long and Painful Death”- but all three gave me the sort of uncomfortable feeling particular to a woman walking down a dark street alone, with the cat sense that someone is following, or watching. I’ve also just yesterday finished Rebecca May Johnson’s Small Fires, which explores the pleasures of cooking, why we cook, and cooking as a revolutionary act- so smart and interesting. In poetry: W.S. Merwin’s The Shadow of Sirius and Jane Hirschfield’s The Lives of the Heart. What are you reading?
This week in food we’ve got nachos, tacos, cruciferous veg, a few good salads, and two hearty soups with pulses and greens + a marmalade cake and fruit buns for sweetness. I hope you can find a little inspiration here for cooking this week- it is always fun to share what we’re making and hear what you are making, too.
weekend prep: soak+cook black beans; cut up cauliflower for roasting; shred cabbage for slaw; make soy dressing for Tuesday’s salad.
Sunday: nachos with refried black beans, chipotle cashew cream, guacamole, mango salsa, pickled jalapeños
Monday: roasted cauliflower and (leftover) black bean tacos with red cabbage slaw and navel orange avocado salsa (like the persimmon salsa but sub orange)
Tuesday: baby bok choy and avocado salad with cashews; adding seared tofu and side of rice or maybe peanut noodles
Wednesday: pasta puttanesca; fennel and grapefruit salad
Thursday: lentil, tomato, and chard soup- screenshot of rough recipe below + sourdough
Friday: pizza night; one tomato and mozz, one broccolini and red onion- something like this + our usual shredded cabbage and kale salad with vinaigrette, dried tart cherries, apples, toasted hazelnuts, a smattering of feta
Saturday: David Tanis’ kale, squash, and bean soup
bake: marmalade cake; going to go off Nigel Slater’s recipe
midweek treat: sourdough spiced fruit buns- recipe can be found here; scroll down to the “baking” section. excellent split and spread with butter and/or marmalade
cocktail: jamaica margaritas (I’ve typed up a recipe in a pdf below for paid subscribers)
breakfasts: porridge sourdough well toasted and spread with generous almond butter and blackberry jam we made in summer + a very frothy matcha latte. For weekend, spelt overnight yeasted waffles
Leaving you with one of my favorite love poems, it is so small and simple, yet it contains multitudes. There’s the romance and there’s the fact that Merwin wrote it shortly after the death of his wife. It never fails to make me tear up in the best way. Life is short, friends- savor it all. Have a wonderful week. xx A
