Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A Return to Normalcy - with two quick recipes

Twelve weeks and six days into my pregnancy, I'm slowly starting to feel normal again. So, when I picked up my late fall CSA share this afternoon, I was not only happy to see the abundance of vegetables, I also had the energy to cook some of them.

This week the share included:

Potatoes
Carrots
Parsnips
Turnips
Celeriac
Radishes
Kohlrabi
Onions
Leeks
Lettuce
Spinach
Apples

For dinner (along with some Italian bread) we had:

Eggs and Spinach

Spinach, washed with stems removed
Garlic, chopped
Eggs, 4 beaten with salt, pepper, and a splash of milk

Cook the spinach in a small saucepan. Saute the garlic in some olive oil in a small frying pan. Add the spinach. Pour the eggs on top. You can cook this fritata style letting the bottom brown and leaving the top runny, or you can mix the whole concotion until the eggs are cooked through. Serve with pecorino for grating.

Carrot, Apple, Kohlrabi Salad

Carrots, 4 medium
Kohlrabi, 3 small or one large
Apple

Grate the first two and chop the apple. Dress with mayo, mustard, salt, and pepper. The quantities really are personal. I tend to be light-handed with both mayo and mustard.


That's it. It's an easy, fresh dinner using local vegetables in December, and unlike many dinners that I have made in the past seven nausea-ridden weeks, I actually enjoyed every bite.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

The Pregnant Locavore

In general I pride myself on being a bit of a locavore, at least as far as fruit and vegetables are concerned. During the past few years, I haven't bought any fruit or veg from the grocery store from late June through the fall. One year we made it all the way through Christmas. This summer I had a CSA share and visited the markets in Boston once a week. No grocery store for me! My plan was to continue this through to Christmas again. I signed up for a late fall CSA share and was very excited to see the Dewey Square market extended into December. Then I got pregnant, tired, and nauseous. All summer long I loved finding new recipes to go with the veg I got in my share. We tried and enjoyed everything, and I carefully preserved what we couldn't eat. Now, I have no appetite for culinary adventure, and no extra energy for running into town for that certain vegetable for that new recipe that I'm dying to try. Plus, what I'm in the mood to eat changes day to day. So tonight the pregnant locavore is making pasta fazool with canned tomatoes and beans and a tossed salad made almost entirely of grocery store vegetables. Oh, well. There's always next year.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Alessia at 1

Today my baby girl turns 1. It's hard to believe. A year ago she could only see shadows, she couldn't hold up her head or straighten her limbs, she didn't know how to smile or giggle, she had those strange black newborn poops. Now she cruises all over the house, laughs when tickled, picks books off the shelf and brings them to me, and screams in protest when something is taken away from her. She's the worst napper ever and still has no real interest in solids. She's one of the most social creatures I've ever seen. She flirts with old ladies, small children, burly men covered in tattoos, entire families of tourists, and old drunks. She doesn't last more than a half hour in a car, but can go hours on the subway and bus. She kicks all the time - in the stroller, while having a diaper changed, in the tub, when happy, and when frustrated and angry. She loves a good strong breeze in her face and in her hair, which she has in abundance, and I still can't bring myself to cut. She lights up when her dadda enters a room and adores the very sound of her kitty walking down our old creaky stairs.

Today I've been a mom for a whole year. I've learned to roll with the punches more, not care if chores don't get done as planned, and take advantage of odd momenta to play and go for walks. I love being a stay-at-home mom. I get to see every little thing as it unfolds, like when she spent a week very deliberately practicing holding two things in one hand. We make our own schedules and get to take our lunch outside whenever we please. I love seeing my husband be a dad, and my daughter lighting up when her dad comes home at the end of each day. I'm more tired than I would like, especially since I'm currently pregnant again, but I'm also happier than I've ever been.