Long while, and Baby's growing

No, I haven't been starving myself all this time, and yes, I have been cooking quite a bit. The end of the day seems like it just disappears - I get dinner rolling along, feed Baby (who hits 3 months next week!), and have dinner - and before I know it, I'm exhausted, and it's time to hit the sack. But, here and there, I do think about this blog, and I try to keep it up, taking mental notes of what has and has not worked for me during this postpartum time.

Now that we have Baby on a napping schedule (somewhat) during the day, it affords me some scheduled time to prep for dinner, since twilight seems to be her cranky hour. I will usually start dinner in the morning during her morning nap, taking out whatever meat I'm going to cook in the evening from the freezer to let it defrost, and, at times, I'll also go ahead and season or marinate it so that by dinner time, it already has some flavor and doesn't need additional seasoning before getting cooked. Any rice, I also prep at this time, throw it into the steamer, and set it on timer to be ready by evening. Mid-afternoon, I'll usually prep the accompanying vegetables, whether it be just rinsing them or cutting them. And then, by her cranky hour, I have more time to focus on her, and I have to worry less about having to prep and entertain.

So, with that said, we did have our good friends Melissa and Scott (along with their little Baby) over for dinner the other evening. Overall, the menu was simple, since I didn't do much sauce prep. I had cubed up some pork tenderloin, seasoned with cumin/coriander/s/p/cloves, and I made a tagine dish. Heated up some oil (trick with the Le Crueset iron tagine I have is to just heat everything on low, and raise the temperature only after adding the liquid to bring it to a simmer before returning it to low) along with onions and garlic, stirred until fragrant. To the heated pan I then added chopped carrots and bell peppers. I then added the pork, stirring until lightly browned. I added some sun-dried tomatoes, dried dates, and raisins, along with additional spices - s/p, paprika, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, red pepper, cloves, and fenugreek. I added some water to just covering, put on the lid, and let it simmer for about 4 hours.

It's basically a Moroccan slow-cooker. And outside of my heavy hand with the salt, the dish came out great. On the sides, I blanched some asparagus, and we also had some mixed rice (brown basmati, red jasmine, and barley). We also started with a salad, pictured to the right here, though fancier than what I plated that evening. This was the left-over parts, that I decided to stack - the composing parts were golden beet, apricot, cucumber, and daikon. The berries - blackberries - were my addition the day after our dinner, and this stack I had for lunch. The sauce on top is tatziki,
which I purchased pre-made from our local grocery store. I really have to admit, this was an amazing stack salad. The tatziki blended wonderfully with the apricot and beets, its tartness pairing perfectly with the apricot's and beet's sweetness. The cucumbers were recalled in the tatziki, and the daikon provided just the right amount of bite to the flavors. When I added the blackberries, it made the salad even better - just a bit more sweetness to set off the tartness of the yogurt. Melissa commented that it looked amazing... but admittedly, everything is made easier with a mandoline.

And speaking of which - the mandoline I use is a ceramic one by Kyocera. I've only had it about 9 months, but it's been a great help in the kitchen. I haven't any complaints about it yet, and this is the first ceramic blade I've ever used... we shall see how the ceramic lasts.

To close out our dinner, our dear friends brought fantastic chocolate chip pound cake from Whole Foods, along with some strawberries. I made a mix of marscapone with heavy cream and sugar, and voila - we had ourselves a fabulous strawberry pound cake. The chocolate chips were just the right touch to the dessert, and they mixed wonderfully with the strawberries. So long as strawberry season is in place, this will now be my go-to dessert.

I've still be following my regimen of serving most of my meats simply, with salt and pepper, and serving sides of steamed vegetables. Now that it's summer, vegetables are quite abundant, and I'm excited about the burst of flavors for each of our meals. You know, come to think of it... most of the meals I describe are our dinners. Daytime meals are mostly simple - sometimes, it's leftovers; other times, it's a simple sandwich on croissant or fresh bread from our local bakery. And I really can't emphasize quite enough what a difference fresh foods make for a quick meal - I can have a simple sandwich, or I can have a sandwich dressed up with some fresh greens, or cucumbers, or peppers. Fruits, particularly now, make for the perfect finisher for any meal, particularly my lunches... I'm still working on tempering my sweet tooth since pregnancy.

Granted, I do have a ready stash of pre-made frozen meals in the freezer, but most times, I do bring out the fresh foods to enjoy. The frozen pre-made things, they can get stale, and the flavor dimishes so quickly... and there is nothing that upsets my palate more than foods without true flavor. So while it may seem like it's more trouble to make something from scratch, when the garden is abundant, it's actually less trouble - less seasoning needed, less covering needed, no sauces. It's high time to celebrate the return of freshness in the season.