Meals & Moods is arriving a day late this week because yesterday belonged to my latest Basket Case Essay, which I felt should wait until after Father’s Day weekend.
It’s a fun one. You can find it here:
The New Snobs: Good Taste Has Become Exhausting
I’m in an unexpectedly good mood today.
This is surprising because I’ve been sleeping badly. Somewhere around three in the morning my to-do list begins filing formal complaints, accompanied by the ghost of my five o’clock Oban, which insists on revisiting every unfinished thought. Sundays are the worst offenders.
But today I managed to clear the decks early, Nanny Angie has spirited the children away, and I’m curled up at home in head-to-toe linen, with a long, icy glass of sun tea that I left steeping on the porch over the weekend. (Our current family favorite is Celestial Seasonings Wild Berry.) It’s raining. There are cookbooks stacked beside me. The house is quiet except for the patter on the windows. There is, frankly, nowhere else I’d rather be than writing out a meal plan.
I always find meal planning oddly hopeful. However chaotic the week ahead may become, on paper at least everyone is well fed, vegetables are consumed voluntarily, and I’m feeling jazzed to try out new lunchbox ideas.
My little brother Alex and his wife, Lisa, came to stay over the weekend, which was such a joy. They’re expecting their first baby in September.
There’s nothing quite like helping your younger brother load his car with tiny baby clothes, a Charlie Crane rocker, several muslin blankets whose purpose no one fully understands, and several bags of miscellaneous infant equipment, while watching the look of dawning panic cross his face. Older sisters deserve this moment.
I remember those long months before Louise was born—that curious stretch of life where everyone tells you everything is about to change, but no one can quite explain how.
Naturally, at three o’clock this morning I also remembered all the things I meant to tell Alex and Lisa but forgot in the bustle of the weekend.
Most importantly: Lisa and Alex, if you’re reading this, you’re going to be terrifically good-humored parents, and judging by the truly heroic spreadsheet you’ve already produced, intensely organized ones. Organization is at least half of parenting. The other half is patience and not flinching when chocolate is rubbed all over your curtains—not something I’ve personally mastered.
Also—and this is unforgivable—I somehow failed to take a single good portrait of you on the cusp of parenthood. But camera out come September.
On to meals. . .
The cookbooks that knocked my socks of this week are the following:
Joshua McFadden’s Grains for Every Season: Rethinking Our Way with Grains (Six Seasons). I don’t know why I haven’t paid more attention to this one in the past. I might have to make every recipe, starting with the lightly curried lamb, cabbage and barley soup and peanut butter cookies, both listed below.
The Picnic: Recipes and Inspiration from Blanket to Blanket: This is slim and pretty little cookbook, by Jen Stevenson and Marnie Hanel, who was at Vanity Fair when I was there. Clever ideas for elegant picnic food that could work in camp lunchboxes as well. I notice this is a series and includes an intriguing Campout Cookbook, I might give to Louise for her birthday to accompany our Glamping trip at Cedar Point, which I highly recommend if you’re local.
The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook by Christopher Kimball - I use this cookbook all the time for old-fashioned, country style cooking. Here below you can find the recipe I adapted for his strawberry shortcake recipe, which I make every year for Father’s Day.
Meals & Moods
Monday — Rain on the Roof
Mood: Happiest at home
Kids: Taco night—nothing fancy. Extra cheese, avocado and tomato.
Grownups: Chicken thighs roasted over lemony rice with toasted almonds, grilled zucchini, a salad with pistachios and plums, and perhaps another glass of sun tea while listening to the rain.
Tuesday — Another Rainy Day
Mood: Soup weather masquerading as June.
Kids: Bacon-wrapped chicken skewers, zucchini fries, rice.
Grownups: Lightly curried lamb, cabbage and barley soup, kale salad, and peanut butter cookies all via Joshua McFadden. His grain cookbook continues to make me want to reorganize my pantry and become the sort of woman who casually has three kinds of farro.
Wednesday — Garden Recovery Operations
Mood: Deadheading, weeding and wondering why everything grows except the plants you actually planted.
Kids: Breaded fish and creamy polenta, cucumber and fennel salad.
Parents: Date night. No cooking. No dishes. Good conversation, if we can remember how.
Thursday — Jack Graduates Pre-K
Mood: Equal parts proud and bewildered. Kindergarten already?
Family: Pork tenderloin with salsa verde, peas from the garden, carrot salad with peanuts and raisins.
Friday — School’s Out
Mood: The first delicious day of summer freedom.
Family: Couscous with English peas, apricots and lamb meatballs.
Dessert: Angel food cake with celebratory sprinkles.
Saturday — Beach Day
Mood: Towels, sandy feet, sunscreen on absolutely everything.
Cherries for everyone.
Kids: Annie’s Macaroni and cheese, carrot sticks, cucumbers sliced.
Parents: Off to a party while someone else worries about dinner.
Sunday — Birthday Party Marathon
Mood: Cake before noon.
Family: Grilled cherrystone clams, Nat Miller’s catch of the day, roasted radishes with dates, apples and sautéed radish tops, eaten outdoors if the weather behaves itself.
Have a wonderful week, everyone. May your gardens forgive you, your children sleep late at least once, and your dinner plan require only one trip to the grocery store.
Strawberry Shortcake via The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook
Ingredients
Fruit:
4 cups fresh strawberries
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon lemon zest, minced
Biscuits:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
7 tablespoons butter, chilled in freezer 30 minutes, cut into small cubes
1 egg yoke
3/4 cup buttermilk
Whipped cream:
1½ cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. For the fruit, mix berries, sugar, and lemon zest and let stand at room temperature for 45 minutes. Chill.
2. Place the bowl of an electric mixer in the freezer or refrigerator along with a whisk or beaters from an electric mixer.
3. For the biscuits, heat oven to 425 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together the first 5 ingredients of the recipe (four through sugar. Using your fingertips, work the butter into the flour mixture until the flour is the texture of coarse meal.
4. Whisk the egg yolk into the buttermilk with a fork. Gradually add the buttermilk to the flour mixture, mixing with a rubber spatula. When mixture starts to hold together, press the dough with the side of the spatula. (Note that you may use a little more or less than the ¾ cup buttermilk called for in this recipe.)
5. Turn onto a floured surface and roll out dough very gently to a thickness of ½ unch. Cut out rounds with a biscuit cutter (use a 2½-inch cutter to serve 2 biscuits per person) place them on a cookie sheet, and bake in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes, turning sheet after 5 minutes in oven. Remove from oven.
6. For the whipped cream, whip cream with the sugar and vanilla using chilled bowl and beaters.
7. Serve the fruit with 2 biscuits per person, or one cut in half, depending on what size you make them, and whipped cream.
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These meal plans (and moods) are inspiration & much appreciated !
Especially loved this post! Happy Week and Weekend to all 🫶
ps Congratulation to your little brother Alex and his wife Lisa, expecting their first baby🍼