Monday, April 4, 2011

Meal Plan #11: The Calm Before the Storm

At the end of this week, my kitchen will have undergone the first steps of deconstruction, beginning our renovation. I'm torn between wanting to get in a few last minute new recipes, and accepting that I might have to ease off on the cooking for the next six weeks or so (ACK!! That's a long time!!). One important thing I realized is that I have three large bags of beef bones in my freezer, waiting to be turned into stock. I kept forgetting about them, but now I've realized that if I don't make stock this week, they will be sitting in my freezer until the kitchen gets put back together in June, at which point it will be summer (at least in theory), and I will be loathe to have my stove on simmer for eight hours at a time. So. I will be making beef stock tomorrow. The resulting stock, stored in my freezer, will be far more useful in a pinch than a bag of bones.

So. Meal Plan.

Monday
Lamb ribs in honey and wine
Tabbouleh, with extra vegetables (green peppers, cucumber, tomatoes, red onion)

Tuesday (beef stock day/yoga)
Soba noodles with ginger sauce (also uses a couple of eggs from my glut of farm eggs thanks to my aunt. Brunch was great for using up eggs.)

Wednesday (preschool board meeting...)
Mexican polenta-stuffed peppers from Moosewood's Simple Suppers

Thursday
Moosemeat sausage patties (that's right. Moose meat. I often end up with somewhat unusual things in my freezer, and wild game is one of my favourites)
Autumn vegetable, barley and wild rice pilaf (both the sausage patties and the pilaf are from Anita Stewart's The Flavours of Canada, a gorgeous cookbook that I discovered years ago while on a juice fast. My husband, who was also fasting, and I purchased the book and sat mesmerized, flipping through the pages, blurting out the names of recipes like some kind of prayer for healing: "Onion Soup a la Blanche de Chambly!!"; "Pan-seared Arctic Char with Golden Oat and Cheddar Cheese Risotto and Balsam Fir Browned Butter!!!" I've made both, by the way, and they are FANTASTIC). Incidentally, my favourite beef stock recipe comes from this book, too!
Green salad

Friday
Not sure...plans will be made once I have more information on the arrival of my demolition crew. Family will be showing up to help with knocking out walls, installing water heater, and so on. I will be in the process of hauling all of the cookbooks, currently shelved on those walls, into the basement, where they will have to reside until their new home is ready. Trying not to think about the level of inconvenience. The final result will be so so so worth it.

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