Kitchen Dragons

When it comes to cooking meals, I have plenty of experience. I can operate utensils and appliances, read a recipe, and whip out some [usually] yummy, good-for-you food. But when I started researching how to plan my menus, I felt like I was stepping past the known world into "Here there be dragons" territory.

I got a good deal of spontaneity from the genetics of my former generation...and you might not automatically think it, since I'm sort of introverted, and not always bouncing off this way and that way. I just find that for questions such as "What should I cook for dinner today?" or "What should I wear this morning?" I rely very heavily whatever mood I'm in, and I like to have a variety available.

So plans which assign every day of the week a certain meal which is repeated the next week on that day really don't appeal to me, because I get bored just thinking about repeating the same seven or eight meals all the time. (Plus wondering, "How do I know I'm going to want to eat that on that day?")

My husband loves variety even more than I do, so I knew that this way of menu planning wasn't going to end up being our cup of tea. I knew that if I wasn't careful, I'd fall into the slump of having a vague idea in my head and then scrambling every afternoon to make something which includes only the ingredients I have available without hours of preparation.

I also knew that to change the course of my natural habits, I had to do it now, before God sends children our way and makes changing extremely difficult.

It has had me baffled for a while, but I think I've got something promising, and I'm so excited to try it out. Instead of Minestrone-and-Meatball Monday, Chicken-and-Rice-with-corn-on-the-cob Tuesday, etc. I want to have something more like, "Soup on Monday, Rice dish on Tuesday, Pasta on Wednesday, and so on.

It gives me a weekly outline which focuses my choices, but each category is broad enough to fit many different moods, and give me endless variations and new recipes to learn.

A Fall Favorite

It is finally November! I love how Fall blew in so suddenly...as if she had forgotten and the new month startled her into the proper routine. The air has a crisp chill, scarves are coming out, Thanksgiving will be upon us, and so will Christmas. All of this fills me with joy every single year. So, in celebration, another Christopher Morley Poem. Three cheers and a mug of cider to Fall!

Burning Leaves, November

These are the folios of April,

All the library of spring,

Missals gilt and rubricated

With the frost's illumining.

Ruthless, we destroy these treasures,

Set the torch with hand profane--

Gone, like Alexandrian vellums,

Like the books of burnt Louvain!

Yet these classics are immortal:

O collectors, have no fear,

For the publisher will issue

New editions every year.

~CM~

(Image credit: www.morguefile.com)