This Week for Dinner – Weekly Meal Plans, Dinner Ideas, Recipes and More!: musings

Category: musings

Friday, November 25

I am thankful

“She said she usually cried at least once each day not because she was sad, but because the world was so beautiful & life was so short.” Brian Andreas, Storypeople

This Thanksgiving Nate and I have been feeling especially grateful. I feel like I need to get it down on paper, to take a moment and reflect on what exactly it is we are thankful for.

I am thankful.

For Owen. I haven’t talked much about Owen’s birth here on the blog, and I still won’t go into all the gory details, but it was scary. We ended up with a prolapsed cord and from the time they discovered the problem to when Owen was out was only six minutes, six sad and harrowing minutes. Over the days following the c-section, various doctors and nurses would say things in reference to the surgery, comments that slowly made us realize just how grave the situation had been. I have shed many tears reflecting on the experience, but the one thing that keeps me together is the gratitude. The overwhelming gratitude I feel when I look at my healthy, happy baby boy. Every second we have with him is truly a blessing.

My friend Kami recently experienced a c-section eerily similar to mine. Only there was one glaring difference…while I was 41 weeks pregnant and ended up with a healthy baby, sweet Kami was only 26 weeks along. Her baby girl Afton only weighed 15 ounces. And Afton only experienced one week on this earth. There were far too many “onlys” for Afton and her family. Their experience is simply heartbreaking. And while my heart has broken a thousand times over for Kami, I also feel grateful for her wonderful example of faith and hope. It is truly amazing.

I am thankful.

For every moment I have with my three children and my husband. A friend of mine just found out her 20-month old has leukemia. The prognosis is good. But it’s still hard and scary. Last night when I was talking with Angela, we were reflecting on how you never expect life to change so drastically, for these kinds of things to happen to you. When she took her daughter to the doctor for a fever, she never would have thought they’d be heading to the hospital for weeks of chemo. Life takes turns – sometimes good, sometimes not-so-good. Which is why I’m feeling so grateful this week. Grateful for each moment we have together because, as Brian Andreas put it so beautifully, the world is so beautiful and life is so short.

I am thankful.

For family who sacrificed time, money and sleep to come help us after Owen’s birth. For friends, who brought us countless dinners and helped out with the girls in countless ways. I have been continuously awed over the last two months at how people step up in times of need. It’s amazing. I learned to accept service, to admit that I couldn’t do it all, to ask for help over and over again. And the love we’ve felt as a result of needing that help has been overwhelming. I am thankful that we will be able to provide that same love and support for others in need when the time comes.

I am thankful.

Posted by Jane Maynard at 12:10 pm 19 Comments
Categories: holidays, musings
Sunday, November 13

Week 251 Menu

Okay, non-sports fans. Bear with me. This little story ends in food and family, I promise! Stanford played Oregon last night. If you follow sports, you know what that means. If you don’t, just know that the Stanford football team has been doing phenomenally this year and this was a very important game. Sadly, I couldn’t swing actually going to the game with Nate…Owen is just too little to go and his feeding schedule is still too demanding. So, alas, I was “stuck” at home with the kids. Well…Stanford lost. It was beyond disappointing. We also had extra tickets that we sold online…StubHub ended up charging us a 30%+ error fee on top of their 15% commission for an error that their system made (customer service finally solved the issue today, thank GOODNESS). Anyway, seems like I would have been pretty bummed as I went to bed last night, no?

On the contrary! The girls and I ordered pizza and ate dinner watching the game. Of course, they only watched about 20 minutes or so, but we had so much fun sitting on the floor together, talking about Stanford football, eating greasy pizza. At one point the girls told me that yes, they are rooting for Stanford but the Oregon duck is still pretty funny. They were just so cute and we had such a lovely time together. Plus, on top of all that cuteness, I got to cuddle with Owen on the couch all night. Then this morning when Cate got out of bed she asked, “Who won the game?” When I said that, sadly, Oregon had, she cheerily replied, “Well, Stanford can just play some more and get even better and be the best again one day.” All in all it ended up being a very happy weekend if you ask me.

This week my menu is all about eating food we have stashed in the freezer…

MONDAY:
- Orange chicken (from Costco freezer section) with rice
- Postickers

TUESDAY:
- Beef stew (from freezer)
- Yummy bread

WEDNESDAY:
- One of the Dream Dinners that I have in the freezer

THURSDAY:
- Leftovers

FRIDAY:
- Eat out

SATURDAY:
- Lasagna (from freezer)

SUNDAY:
- Waffles
- Smoothies

Okey dokey pokies! Bring on the menus! And, despite yesterday’s defeat, GO STANFORD!

Posted by Jane Maynard at 11:04 am 43 Comments
Categories: musings, weekly menus
Tuesday, September 27

Owen is here!

Just wanted to put a quick post up and let you know that Baby Boy Maynard has arrived! AND he has a name…Owen!

I was scheduled for an induction, but ended up going into labor on my own a few hours earlier. Unfortunately there were some complications and we ended up having a very fast emergency c-section, but both Owen and I are doing very well now and we go home tomorrow!

Thank you ALL for your baby name ideas, well wishes and support! Off to snuggle with my son…

Posted by Jane Maynard at 1:21 pm 78 Comments
Categories: musings, Pregnancy and Babies
Sunday, September 11

Week 242 Menu…and Remembering

Ten years ago today Nate and I had just moved to California, far from our families in New Jersey and New England. One morning the phone rang, waking us up. It was my grandfather, telling me there was a hole in one of the World Trade Center buildings and that my dad was in the city and my mom hadn’t heard from him. Of course we immediately turned on the television, called my mom and watched the events unfold. My dad was at a meeting in the Chrysler building. When he heard that a second plane had hit the towers, he left immediately and luckily was able to catch one of the last (if not the last) trains back to New Jersey. He said when he got down to street level, he looked down 5th avenue and could see the towers smoking. By the time he crossed the block to 6th, all he could see was smoke. We didn’t hear from him for hours, but thankfully he was safe, which we were pretty sure of all morning since he was supposed to be mid-town. I’ll never forget feeling beyond grateful for his safety. And I’ll never forget feeling stunned for days, but especially that day, that night, thinking about the families who hadn’t yet heard from their loved ones. Or had heard from them, only to say goodbye.

I know we all remember that day clearly. And we all feel connected to those events in different ways and that those events unite us. Today, as I beging the 40th week of my pregnancy, we are spending our day together as a family. We’re going to have a picnic in a Redwood forest. And I’m not going to tell my girls what happened 10 years ago. That time will come later. I’m just going to enjoy every moment I have with my loved ones and remember how precious our time together is. For me, that is the best way to honor 9/11.

Simple menu this week…

MONDAY:
- Chicken Piccata (even though I don’t feel like cooking, I think I might go for this…really craving something with mashed potatoes right now)
- Mashed potatoes

TUESDAY:
- Tortellini
- Fresh veggies from CSA

WEDNESDAY:
- English Muffin Pizzas

THURSDAY:
- Leftovers

FRIDAY:
- Eat Out

SATURDAY:
- Either hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill…or Eat Out again.

SUNDAY:
- My Due Date!
- Breakfast for dinner

If you have a menu for the week, please share! We’re getting to the point where I’m depending on you all to inspire one another, since I’m pretty much useless.

Hug your loved ones extra hard today.

Posted by Jane Maynard at 9:50 am 46 Comments
Categories: musings, weekly menus
Thursday, September 1

On Forks, English Muffins and Putting Your Foot in Your Mouth with Your Mother-in-Law

You know how English muffin packages say they are ‘fork split’?

To Nate this means that you should use a fork to pry open your English muffin, maintaining the previously applied fork-split texture.

To me this means that they already used a fork to split your muffin and you just use your hands to break it apart, thus retaining the nook-and-cranny texture that the fork split causes.

And this is a point upon which we will never agree.

Here is why I’m against opening your English muffin with a fork. The fork now needs to be washed. More dishes. (Yes, I know it’s just a fork…but it’s the principle of the thing.) And using a fork to open it makes more crumbs. Basically, just using my hands and opening the muffin over the sink saves me a bit of extra cleaning. But Nate insists on using a fork. I know. We have some serious marital problems.

The last time Nate’s parents were in town, for some reason I brought this whole thing up with my {completely amazing} mother-in-law, Pat, and complained about the extra fork usage and messy crumbs. She laughed and said, “I use a fork to open them. Like mother, like son.” Thankfully this did not destroy our relationship. I told you she was amazing.

SOOOOO…I’m curious, how do you open your English muffins? (Remember, I control the giveaways…if you want more, best to go with the “correct” answer. Just kidding. Mostly.)

Posted by Jane Maynard at 12:19 pm 45 Comments
Categories: musings, the goods
Thursday, August 11

On food and having babies

Photo taken by my sister Anne when Cate was about 1 week old

My body does not like being pregnant. It’s a fact. It happens every time. And yet, here we are, working on baby number 3. Sometimes wondering why we are working on baby number 3 (just kidding!), yet always beyond happy that we are.

As you may have noticed, one of the biggest impacts that pregnancy has on my life is in my relationship to food. For the first half of my pregnancy, I can barely keep any food down with the help of medication. It’s a constant struggle to keep myself, and my baby, nourished. Then, once the crazy nausea and vomiting have dissipated, the constant acid reflux controls what I do (or do not) eat or drink right up until the baby is born. My current food predicament? Nothing sounds good to me. Yes, I’m starving, but I have no zest for food. Except chocolate lava cakes. There is always zest for chocolate lava cakes.

The thing is, food is essential and central to the experience of life. Especially my life. I’m a mother, constantly needing to feed two (and a half) little people. I’m a food blogger, constantly wanting to write about food. And, at the most basic level, I’m human, needing food to survive. So when the relationship I have with food is so wrought with problems, it really does affect everything. It’s beyond frustrating.

I want to complain. And often I do. And I invariably feel guilty about the complaining, despite caring friends and family telling me I have every right to complain, that I should get it all out without feeling guilty. And even though sometimes (okay, maybe more than sometimes) you can find me whining about my latest pregnancy-induced ailment, I truly am so grateful to be growing this little life inside of me. And whenever I do feel like I’ve hit rock bottom…too sick or in pain to move, to be a mother, to be a wife, and feeling depressed as a result of all of that…I remind myself of that gratitude. Grateful that I am in this position to begin with and that, despite the crumminess, in reality everything is healthy and wonderful and the end result will be breathtaking.

I also can’t help but think of many of my friends. My single friends who wish so much they were married and having babies of their own. My married friends who never could get pregnant or who struggled for years to conceive, with month after month of heartbreak defining the process. My friends who are parents but for various reasons cannot have more children and constantly feel a small hole in their life where that child they thought they would have should be. I love these friends dearly and I hope that I have been able to keep my shallow complaints about sciatica and heartburn to a minimum in their presence.

I very recently had the most precious moment with our little Anna, who is now three years old. As the pregnancy progresses and she gets a little older, her interest in her baby brother increases. It’s so sweet to see the evolution. Two days ago she was gently feeling my belly, trying to see if she could feel the baby. He wasn’t moving, but there was a bump that she said she could feel. I am never quite sure if she really gets what’s going on, but I love that she tells me she does.

After a few seconds, she laid her little head to my belly and said, “I can hear his dreams.”

She’s three and you can’t always understand everything she says. I wasn’t entirely sure she had really said the word dreams, so I asked, “You can hear the baby dreaming?”

When she answered that, yes, she could, I asked her what he was dreaming about.

“He’s dreaming about us.”

And at that moment all of the struggles didn’t matter. All I could feel was love and gratitude. For my supportive husband. For my friends who, no matter their own circumstances, are truly and wholly happy for me. For my beautiful daughters anticipating the arrival of their little brother. And for this person moving around inside of me who, before I know it, will be grown up and having babies of his own. And so I take my iron pills, throw a pillow between my legs and eat my dinner that doesn’t really taste that great. Because life is good and I’m lucky I get to experience it.

Posted by Jane Maynard at 11:00 am 38 Comments
Categories: kids, musings, Pregnancy and Babies
Sunday, June 12

Menu 229 Menu…and a few thoughts on eating locally

Each week I like to have a photo for the weekly menu post, and I think for the summer I’m beginning to develop a theme – my CSA produce! It’s kind of fun sharing the various things that are in season in our neck of the woods, so I hope you don’t mind! This week we received a cantaloupe. It came from somewhere a little further south of where most of our CSA farms are located, but still relatively local.

Have you ever read Under the Tuscan Sun? The thing that stayed with me the most from that book was realizing how out of touch I am with what foods are in season when. Throughout the book (a memoir about an American woman buying a home in Tuscany), the author visits Tuscany in the summertime. So much of the writing is about the food she cooks and eats during those summers. Then, at the end of the book, she and her family have their first Christmas in their newly renovated home. When the author heads to the market, she is stunned to discover that none of the foods she was expecting to see are available. It was winter and the assortment was quite different. She learned to embrace this way of eating, a way that was more in touch with the earth. That’s how I’ve felt being part of a CSA…I’m finally learning when food actually grows and planning our meals around that, rather than just heading to the store and getting whatever I want whenever I want, which oftentimes results in eating out-of-season produce or food that has traveled a bazillion miles at great environmental cost. Not to say we didn’t pick up a watermelon from Mexico last week, but at least when I bought that watermelon I was actually aware of where it came from…i.e. really far away from my kitchen!

And now, this week’s menu!

MONDAY:
- Potato Leek Soup (yup, we got potatoes and leeks in this week’s CSA bag)
- Yummy bread

TUESDAY:
- Vegetarian Chickpea Burgers (didn’t get to these last week)
- Fruit

WEDNESDAY:
- Last day of school! I think we’ll go out to celebrate!

THURSDAY:
- Leftovers

FRIDAY:
- Homemade pizza – I need to use up some honey goat cheese in the fridge, and Finley had “Pear, Arugula and Prosciutto Pizza” on her menu last week…doesn’t that sound divine?

SATURDAY:
- Eat out after Cate’s 1st annual dance recital!

SUNDAY:
- Beef Stroganoff (this was on Fran’s menu last week, one of my favorite meals as a kid…think I’ll give it a whirl, it’s been a while!)
- Salad or veggie with bread

You know the drill…this is when I beg you to share your menu for the week! Let’s see what you got!

Posted by Jane Maynard at 6:00 am 47 Comments
Categories: CSA, musings, weekly menus
Friday, May 20

Lemons

I’ve been doing some photography work for Cafe Borrone the last few months. We had another shoot this morning, which means I ended up coming home with the best lunch ever. Happy Friday to me!

While I was waiting for Josh (the head chef) to set up a shot of the beer on tap, I noticed these lemon slices off to the side. I snapped them quickly and am in love with the shot. I don’t know why, this photo just pulls me in.

And, here’s that beer I was talking about. I figured I should share, it is the weekend after all.

I have to say, shooting food that I don’t have to prepare AND that I get to eat afterwards is the best. Relaxing, fun, delicious. Speaking of delicious, I’m going to go finish my lunch. Which, by the way, does not involve any beer.

Posted by Jane Maynard at 1:42 pm 10 Comments
Categories: fab faves, musings
Thursday, May 19

It’s It…and the Magic of Local Ice Cream Traditions

When we first moved to the Bay Area, one of Nate’s co-workers told him about It’s-It Ice Cream. We tasted the mint flavor and, in all honesty, weren’t that in love. Then, the other day, they were sampling the original vanilla flavor at Costco. My girls of course begged for some, so I gave them each a sample. I was going to pass on it myself, but decided I may as well give it another try. After one bite, I threw a box in the cart to take home!

I did a little research about It’s-It Ice Cream before sitting down to write this post. It’s-It has a very fun and unique-to-the-Bay-Area history, which you can read about on their website. It’s-It Ice Cream even has an entry on Wikipedia. This ice cream must be serious business! I love that it’s been around forever and is so tied to the local culture. It’s fun to eat something and know people nearly 100 years ago ate the same thing.

It’s-It is simply vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two oatmeal cookies (with tiny raisins…we didn’t even notice those until last night!) and dipped in dark chocolate. They have a few other flavors, and you can find them throughout the West or order online. And I love their retro packaging.

As I was munching on my It’s-It last night, I couldn’t help but think of other similar ice cream creations in other parts of the country, creations that people stand by for years, creations tied to the history of a place. Newport Beach has its Newport bars and chocolate dipped frozen bananas. North Scituate, MA has it’s Wilbur Wheels. Cape Cod simply has homemade ice cream everywhere you turn, each town on the Cape claiming theirs is the best.

What is it about ice cream that inspires such tradition, loyalty, nostalgia? The possibilities for creating new frozen treats are endless, so everyone can find their own claim to fame. And maybe ice cream just tastes so good we can’t help but keep coming back for more.

As always, I love hearing about where you live and your own traditions. Share your town’s/region’s/state’s favorite ice cream treat! And who knows, maybe one day I’ll get to try them all…one can wish!

Posted by Jane Maynard at 11:34 am 12 Comments
Categories: fab faves, musings, the goods, travels
Thursday, May 5

Confession: I Hate Grocery Shopping

The other day I posted the following status on my personal Facebook page:

“I hate grocery shopping. That is all.”

I immediately had a bunch of “Likes” and comments. Most comments were in full agreement. And Carina’s comment hit the nail on the head: “I only like to grocery shop if I go to certain out of my price range stores, with disposable income, and by myself. Every day grocery shopping? Sigh….”

This is the problem. Sure, farmers’ markets are loads of fun! Fancy stores with fancy foods…bring it on! But that is rarely reality. Each Sunday I plan a menu. I feel good about myself. I’m organized. I know what we’re eating that week. My grocery list is ready to go. Then Monday rolls around. And things get crazy. And 75% of the time we don’t have time to get to the store. Then Tuesday rolls around, a day which is usually even busier than Monday. Finding the time to go is killer…and when I do, I have to get it done as quickly as humanly possible, usually with two grumpy daughters in tow. Between being a mom, working and watching American Idol, I simply don’t have disposable time (let alone income) to devote to the kind of grocery shopping that is in fact enjoyable.

My friend Emily commented on Facebook that I should confess my feelings on the blog. So, here I am. Confessing. Laying it all out there. This food blogger hates grocery shopping!

This is not the first time I’ve used the blog as a confessional. And, to be honest, when I confess things, I usually get good dirt on all of you, so I kind of love it. So, at the risk of causing you to wonder why I write a food blog, here I am…in all my grocery store hating glory.

So, are you with me?

Posted by Jane Maynard at 9:19 am 53 Comments
Categories: meal planning, musings