This summer my goals were to go to the beach (we made it two or three times), go to the pool (we went a lot), and learn to make a really good hamburger (turns out the answer is fry, don’t grill).
1) I’m a little concerned about the nature of Baguette’s relationship with Bert from Sesame Street. She keeps kissing him and then feeding him to her dragon.
2) While I think she has a point about the animation style, based on her criticism of the plot and themes, I’m going to assume that Mayim Bialik has not actually seen “Frozen.”
3) Speaking of “Frozen,” there are lots of ways to interpret that movie. Personally, I see it as a sharp criticism of helicopter parenting.
4) We went to visit my dad and stepmom this weekend, and on the drive back, Baguette let us sing with her. While we have found the Busy Beavers “Color Songs Collection Volume 1” to be maddening, we are delighted that she was willing for us to join in–even choosing which colors she wanted us to sing about.
5) This fall, I really want to get better at meal planning, and I want to use the slow-cooker more. Which means I probably ought to clean off the kitchen counter. Hey, time for a Leaf Bag List. Maybe I’ll get to that soon.
Recently, some of my friends have said, “You really seem to have this meal-planning thing down. What’s your secret?”
I do not have the meal-planning thing down. My secret is that I have a child who is slightly older than their child.
I think there are a lot of us in this boat. We think, “That person over there is doing this much better than I am.” And the truth is, they’re just working with different circumstances.
One of my college friends has a daughter about two months older than Baguette. She also has an older child and a stepchild. And when her daughter was a baby, every night this friend would post on Facebook about some amazing meal she was making her family for dinner.
Now, I know her. She wasn’t doing this to brag about how much better she was at parenting. She was doing it to show that it could be done–that often when you feel overwhelmed, it’s in your head. She wasn’t boasting, she was demonstrating.
But what I couldn’t figure out was this: how was she managing it? Like me, she had a full-time job outside of the home. Like me, she had an infant. Unlike me, she had two other children. So how was she pulling off this amazing feat?
As it turns out, she has a shorter commute. Like, a lot shorter. Mine is an hour each way. Hers is more like 15 minutes.
See what I mean? Different circumstances.
And my own circumstances have changed. Looking back, I’m not really sure what I ate when Baguette was a baby. I cooked for her, but I don’t remember what I made for myself. After a while, I found that I could use the crock pot on the weekends to make a big batch of something. That counted as cooking.
I no longer use the slow cooker for oatmeal, though.
More recently, I’ve been able to use the stove a little. Last night I made shrimp with bell peppers and zucchini in Red Thai Curry Sauce, served over quinoa. I’m having leftovers for lunch.
I have no idea what’s for dinner tonight.
Again, I think there are a lot of us in this boat. So I’m starting an occasional series called “Mom-Friendly Meals.” I’m going to write about what I cook, how I choose recipes, what tools I use, how I find ingredients, and anything else that comes to mind. You can follow me on Twitter at @tragicsandwich; I’ll be using the hashtag #momfriendlymeals for these posts.
One thing to keep in mind: These are mom-friendly recipes. At our house, we all eat different things. Baguette is going through a picky stage, and while we’re trying to move her through that, I’m not going to pretend that she ate the Thai curry with me. And Mr. Sandwich has his own palate, and tends to do his own cooking. So our kitchen is very busy, but we’ve finally started eating together as a family.
Now we just have to clean off the rest of the kitchen table.
I want to do it. I just have a lot of trouble finding the time to sit down and think about it.
Fortunately, last night we had friends over for dinner (afterward I realized that this was the first playdate we’ve hosted, and it went pretty well overall); we made pulled pork sandwiches with cole slaw, Ranch Style Beans, mashed potatoes, and roasted asparagus.
And when I say “made,” I mean that the only things we actually made ourselves were the potatoes and asparagus. Everything else came straight from the store or was assembled.
But we have lots of leftovers (except for asparagus), so there are a few meals there.
Really, I think we’ll be pretty set as long as I make one more dish today. So should I clear out some space in the freezer by making meatball and tortellini soup? Or should I have something hearty but light and make more curried lentils and brown rice?
As I get back into cooking, I’m struck by what tools make the process easy for me. Here are a few things I’ve been relying on lately.
Slow-cooker
I use this at least once a week. While I can’t count on having time to prepare a multi-course meal, I can usually find time to put ingredients into the slow-cooker and walk away. On Sundays I’ll make a batch of steel-cut oats with almond milk, although the fruits vary from week to week. I take this to work, reheat, and add walnuts for an easy, affordable, healthy breakfast. The one thing I’d change? My slow-cooker doesn’t have a timer function.
Electric kettle
I grew up with stovetop whistling tea kettles, and kept using them for most of my adult life (so far). But a few years ago I got a countertop electric kettle, and I like it so much better. It heats up faster and doesn’t take up a burner on the stove.
Blender
I don’t use this a lot–but Mr. Sandwich doesn’t care for chunky tomatoes, so the blender ensures that sauces are smooth. I also like the immersion blender my brother and sister-in-law gave me a few years ago; while I started using it to make Baguette’s baby food, it’s terrific for blended soups. It doesn’t fill all needs–I could probably use a Cuisinart, but right now I’m not sure where I’d store it in between uses. I’ll get one when I figure that out.
Trader Joe’s Pop-Up Sponges
Cleaning up is part of the cooking process, after all. They last better than mass-market sponges and take longer to get smelly, and they just feel better in my hand. I started buying this type of sponge from Williams-Sonoma, but the ones at Trader Joe’s are much, much cheaper. And apparently they’re compostable, too.
What about you? What are your favorite kitchen appliances and tools?
Nearly a year ago, I was inspired by a post by Oil and Garlic to write about my balance. So, where do we stand now?
1. What’s your work schedule?
I still drop Baguette off at 7 so I can be at work at (or around) 8, and I still work until 5 and am home a little after 6. All of this is likely to change on Friday, however, because the Rampture is coming–and that means all bets are off. I have no idea what my commute will be like for the next year, except that I know it won’t be good.
2. How do you handle childcare?
We still love Baguette’s day care. Mr. Sandwich’s parents come over to help around the house, but are less likely to babysit on weekend evenings; they have their own busy schedules, and it’s a lot harder to keep up with a toddler than it was to monitor an infant. However, one of her favorite teachers left the day care (not for reasons that concern us), and we’ve had her over for a get-reacquainted evening so that she can sit for us on occasion.
3. What do you find best about your current set-up?
It works, but just barely. Because of our jobs and commutes, we just don’t have enough time with her on workday evenings. We get home, go for a walk, eat dinner, give her a bath (while the other person fixes lunches for the next day), play a little, and go to bed. There just isn’t a lot of leeway in that schedule. But at least we have a routine.
4. What advice would you give to other moms about the juggle?
It doesn’t last forever–at least, not in this form. For a long time, I barely cooked at all. Now, I can manage to make a big batch of food in the slow cooker on Sundays, and that means lunches for several days that week. But being able to do that, which previously I could not, tells me that some day I will be able to cook meals with more than one dish.
5. Do you think the juggle is harder for women than for men?
Yes. There are no Daddy Wars, not even in the media.
I’ve been doing a lot of cooking over the past week, in spite of (because of?) being sick. I made homemade chicken soup, although I used boxed vegetable stock, and I made slow-cooker BBQ pork, although it also relied on a store-bought ingredient–the BBQ sauce. (Big fan of KC Masterpiece, BTW)
Last night was our usual grilled salmon–marinated briefly in Worcestershire sauce and topped with Old Bay or the generic equivalent–cheesy mashed potato casserole, and broccoli.
Tonight will be a bit of a cop-out, because although I want to cook, I’m still getting over this sinus infection and couldn’t think of anything I specifically wanted to make after getting home from work. Therefore we will be having spaghetti, with our usual array of jarred sauces.
I’d like to use the slow-cooker more during the week, but mine runs hot, which would result in burned dinner by the time we got home. People have suggested leaving it on a timer, but I keep hearing horror stories about houses burning down because of slow-cookers. And why would it be good to leave the food sitting out for several hours before the timer kicks on? I guess it would be less bad this time of year than in the summer, but it doesn’t seem like a great plan.
Oh well. At least there’s spaghetti and jarred sauce.
