Slowly but surely life, and my palate along with it, is getting back to normal.
You may recall that I used to post recipes on this blog. Food and cooking are usually cornerstones of our life as a family, central to our day-to-day existence, and therefore featured here as one of my favorite things to gab about. But for the last few months, we've been in a total cooking rut and serious dry spell. The reasons for this?
1) Gut churning, evil, carsickness-like, twenty-four-hour-a-day morning sickness for the better part of February, March and April. Food was merely a necessity and something to dabble in as an antiemetic. I had not much more to share in the culinary realm than plates of buttered toast, bowls of ice cold cereal, and a dangerous relationship with the frozen pizza section of Whole Foods.
2) The husband has been on a work travel bender for the last couple months. I wish I was the kind of woman who took solo evenings as an occasion to lightly sear a salmon filet and gently serve it on a bed of greens to be enjoyed outside while thinking deep thoughts, but in this particular stage of my life, especially with the aforementioned nausea situation, I am not. Currently, when the cat is away, this mouse says hello, Bravo TV and hello frozen pizza section of Whole Foods.
3) Moving is not conducive to great food. Moving is conducive to exhaustion induced take-out orders, eating a can of pinto beans for dinner because you refuse to pack it, and to frequenting the frozen pizza section of Whole Foods.
It has been a pizza-fueled slog.
Now we're here. Now I'm in my second trimester and feeling not quite so green. And now we have a beautiful kitchen to enjoy and a brief lull in the husband's travel. Now I am ready to get my cook on! But. I am feeling a bit out of practice, and somewhat uninspired. The farmers market isn't going off quiet yet to spark my creativity with its bounty, and my palette has been on this carb-and-dairy spree for so long, it doesn't quite know how to regain its footing. Also, a new season, new kitchen, and new life call for new recipes. I'm ready to say hasta to tofu tikka masala and the rest of my usual repertoire for awhile and turn a new page into some new cuisines.
For me, the best way to ignite a spark of inspiration and get out of one of these cooking ruts is to look to beautiful food authors and artists and see what they're into: an episode of the Barefoot Contessa, an afternoon sipping tea and pouring through cookbooks, or a journey through the food blog world usually does the trick. With that in mind, I wanted to share one food blog gem I recently found through a feature on Momfilter. Mimi Thorisson's blog, Manger, chronicles her life raising six children on a farm in the French countryside. She grew up in Hong Kong, Singapore and Paris before landing in Médoc, France, and her husband is Icelandic, so needless to say, their family menus are rather eclectic. The richness and simplicity of the French dishes appeal to my current preggo palette, and an Asian twist always goes over well in this house. This isn't a blog I had stumbled upon in the mainstream food blog world before... it's a bit of a hidden jewel, so I hope you'll check it out and be as inspired as I was! Here are some faves I've bookmarked from the beautiful blog Manger...
Yum. Consider me inspired.
What's inspiring you in the kitchen these days?
ps -- Check out Mimi herself...we should all be so chic at the market this summer...
How do those French ladies do it?
Hmm. Her food looks delicious and she looks divine at the market, kid wrangling and shopping while looking tres chic!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear your pregnancy has moved past the blahs! Hopefully the summer will fly by for you with lots of cool weather.
Glad to hear that you're feeling more like yourself. I remember the nausea, and it's no joke.
ReplyDeleteAnd, thanks again for the very kind email you sent a few months ago. We're here in Boston now! Best of luck with your own transition--your new hometown sounds really lovely.
Thank you, both!
ReplyDeleteMay - I hope you are settling in well and found a town that's a great match for you!