Fresh Tart

Do you plan your meals for the week? I sort of do - all things in moderation, you know, including being organized - but am always quite glad when I consistently pull it off. I have a couple of basic, pre-typed grocery lists on Word, organized by food category and store lay-out (I shop primarily at two different stores depending on what I need). They make getting organized much faster, definitely. I just highlight the items I need, scribble in the extras, and go. I'm definitely more purposeful in the fall and winter - no CSA veggie share to innovate around, for one. And less go-with-the-flow time as well - the busier and more scheduled things get, the more organized one needs to be, we all know that. And if you want to eat relatively quick, tasty meals...

...and healthy meals as well, then planning ahead is the way to go. Let's face it, we've all bought random fruits and vegetables only to have them shrivel and weep (literally!) from neglect. I eat my daily 5-9 (servings of fruits and veggies) most consistently when I plan to eat them. Sure I keep lettuce and spinach on hand for quick salads. Always have onions, carrots, and potatoes in the pantry. But perishables like broccoli, pea pods, mushrooms, artichokes et al come with a plan, man, so they get eaten by me (and not the bacteria in the trash).

I love the concept of cooking on Sunday to carry me through part of the week, although I don't really pull it off - do you? While I obviously love to dig in and do some serious cooking, most days our meals are pretty simple, kid-friendly fare - lean protein, fruit/vegetables, grain (preferably whole grain; I love whole grain anything - the rest of the fam, not so much). Shrimp sauteed with garlic and broccoli, rice. Grilled steak, egg noodles, pea pods. Grilled chicken, peppers, onions, tortillas. Even last night, when it was just John and me, it was just sauteed vegetables, simmered with some clam juice and wine, with a piece of fish thrown on top to steam, over whole-wheat couscous (which takes 5 minutes - literally 5 minutes - to prepare). Thirty minutes in all from chopping block to stomach, done. Make some extra, eat the leftovers for lunch the next day, and there, you ate your veggies.

Good job!

Moderate it: I don't know about you, but I eat better - in every way - when I plan meals and shop ahead. We eat out less, I eat more fresh foods, I cook healthier fare, I even eat healthier snacks when I know what I'm doing ahead of time. Basically, no down-side, because even while it takes a bit of effort up front to figure out what to make and put a list together, you save lots of time and energy come meal-time, totally worth it.

Well, it was all downhill from there... I lost last week to a nasty cold and cough, but I'm back in fighting form this week. Whew. Despite feeling under the weather I enjoyed a couple of good meals, at week's end, starting on Friday night with Debbie and Stu The Wine Genius Williams and Rudy Maxa and Ana Scofield. Debbie set us up at Tim McKee's (La Belle Vie, Solera) new venture, Barrio, a tequila bar serving delicious Latin American (emphasis on Mexican) tapas. And delicious tequila! Hey, without a doubt Barrio is loud and crowded, more bar than restaurant (per the name), but it was a blast to scope out something new and as you might have gleaned from past posts, I am a sucker for south-of-the-border fare, BIG time. I scarfed down two crispy-spicy potato-chorizo tacos, shrimps grilled on skewers of sugar cane, and tasted scallop ceviche, guacamole, tequila-cured salmon (seriously good), and tender crab empanadas. Everything was delicious.

In typical fashion, I paid very little attention to where we were going ahead of time (Team Napa is always fun!) and had already planned and shopped for Saturday's dinner to celebrate my stepmom Susanna being in town. My menu? Uh, Latin American tapas. Well, not exactly, but pretty close. So for the second night in a row we dug into guacamole, spicy shrimps, carnitas rolled in corn tortillas with pickled onions, spicy pinto beans,rice, and grilled green peppers and onions. I even put together a cold, creamy tres leches cake, dangerously good.

After being couped up in the house all last week, I'm chomping at the bit - fresh fall air, here I come. After pretty heavy fare over the weekend, I'm feeling weighed down - sauteed halibut with aromatic vegetables, here I come.

Happy Birthday David! Happy Birthday Jen! And oh, Happy Anniversary John and Stephanie!

Moderate it: give it away. I've said it before, and it is a good trick - when leftovers loom large, offer takeaways for your guests. And at the tapas bar? Order lightly, since in my experience the table orders significantly more food at tapas-style restaurants than entrees at a traditional restaurant. Little bites of this and that, usually pretty rich fare, add up FAST. And oh, if the restaurant doesn't have valet parking - and Barrio does not - wear much more comfortable shoes than I did... blisters, baby, ouch.

Out and about, despite my stupid-Madison cold (cough, cough) and pouring rain. Lunch today at YUM! Bakery with Polly, soooo tasty. Chicken soup for the throat and the soul. With a couple of matzo balls to boot, as well as a split of coconut cake and a cup of hot tea. Oooh, all so YUMmy and good...

And tonight, to Cave Vin with John. Warm and cozy and candlelit, with perfectly executed brasserie fare. I opened with silky butternut squash soup, garnished with pieces of roasted parsnip; John opted for gooey, beefy French onion soup. For my main I tucked into lovely roasted chicken, served with pan juices, roasted asparagus, and the friggin' killerest pommes frites on the planet - skinny, searing hot, just-crisp, and showered with salt and crushed garlic. Right. On. Baby. John had crusty-rosy pork tenderloin with some fabulously glazy-glace reduction that I was way too obsessed with my pommes frites to even taste. Sorry. We split a hearty Chateauneuf du Pape (go for the good stuff, half-priced on Monday nights) and rolled out happy and full.

Not a bad way to start the week. Unless it's all down-hill from here...?

Moderate it: I really wanted the butternut squash ravioli, with sage butter - I've had it in past years, in the fall, and it's always fantastic. However...very rich. So I chose the roast chicken with frites (!!!) instead, so I could snag a fewwithout feeling like I'd gone completely over-the-top. All good.

On Wisconsin! Or, not so much, since I've been back for a week already, and the Badgers are 0-3 in the Big Ten as of last night. Ouch. But no matter, the real reason for last weekend's trip was to get together with my long-time friends Cami and Michelle, and the three of us had a BLAST. Beautiful weather, lots of walking, drinks on the Terrace, Saturday morning Farmer's Market, dinner at Kabul, beer at the KK, and a real-deal Badger tailgate party (grilled brats with all the fixin's!) more than made up for a sorry football game. We had low expectations for the game anyhow - the fabulous Wisconsin Marching Band had been suspended from playing last weekend. Boooooooo! Camp Randall without the band? Pfffft, nothin'. Oh, the student section managed a few raunchy cheers on their own, but the pom squad had no drums to shake it to, half-time was completely silent, and at the end of the game, everyone just...left. No 5th quarter = no fun.

As is typical for me, a few nights of less than adequate sleep (and more than adequate beer) means getting sick. I knew I'd blown it by Sunday night - sore throat, raspy voice, here we go. I did my best to fight it off this week, but here I sit, coughing and sniffling, damn those Badgers! (But totally worth it!)

I even rallied to put on a bit of a feast Thursday night as we loosely celebrated Yom Kippur. John doesn't fast, and I'm not Jewish, but no matter - we invited Jewthran Suz and her family, and Stacey, Cooper, and Bowen as well, and had a lovely meal in honor of the most important of Jewish holidays. I made matzo ball soup with very rich chicken broth, beef brisket with gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, and challah. Suz made a caramel apple pie and a pumpkin pie for dessert, both to die for. It was a school night, plus we had little Coop, so we ate early (and heartily, uff), and toddled off to bed by 10:00. L'chaim!

This weekend, keeping things pretty low key. Tortilla soup for dinner last night - its spicy garlicky-ness cleared the sinuses quite nicely. Wish I had some of that matzo ball soup for today, oooh, but no, it's all gone. Sniff. I still have a spot of delicious, beefy gravy left from Thursday's meal, however; I'll have to innovate around that so it doesn't go to waste. Perhaps something a la stroganoff - whisk in a bit of sour cream, serve over sauteed steak and mushrooms, I can picture it. Yeah, I can picture it quite clearly, in fact. I'm off to the store...