Have finally returned to the land of living, after wandering about for the last week or so in a sleep-deprived haze, exhausted but unable to rest. “This must be what it’s like to be an insomniac,” I told myself one night during a particularly stubborn spate of sleeplessness, and shuddered. My jet-lagged state made it remarkably difficult to master any task requiring mental acuity (such as brushing my teeth), and I can only wonder what the clients I visited on my second day back to work thought of my presentation skills. Not to mention my cough and hoarse voice (both of which disappeared today just as mysteriously as they came) that together made me sound as though I had been smoking Players unfiltered for thirty years, or had what Reese Witherspoon—playing June Carter Cash in Walk the Line—sweetly called “the laryngitis” (insert appropriate West Virginian accent here). At any rate, I was not my shining best. But I am back.
I had all sorts of energy tonight, and so Abby and I decided to make a recipe that I found in a parenting magazine. A parenting magazine.
Here’s the thing: I’m not a fan of parenting magazines. I feel they set the bar awfully high for those of us who are just doing our darned-est to get through a day. I also feel (and this is the budding psychotherapist in me speaking now) that they reduce important issues to fit into a double-page-spread-two-column-grid-with-stylish-full-bleed-photography-and-lovingly-kerned-pull-quotes magazine format. But I received a freebie with a subscription for Abby and flipped through it absently as I tried to keep it together one night around 8:00pm.*
Well, it was fairly standard going for the most part. You know the drill: celebrity Mom profile, what to do with a clingy child, how to know if your child is gifted, etc. The best bits were the recipes, of course, which actually sounded interesting. “Lunch box” ideas. Hmm. (Aside: you should know that I have a strange obsession with making my daughter’s lunch everyday. I take pride in sending her on her way with a well-crafted, good-and good-for-you midday meal. I was totally chuffed recently when one of the daycare teachers commented on her healthy lunches. What could this mild obsession of mine possibly mean? Perhaps the answer lies in the pages of a parenting magazine.)
At any rate (as I do rather like to chronicle my culinary successes) I followed one of the recipes tonight (kid-tested and all) and made a soup with ground chicken, baby spinach, carrots, chicken broth and lots of basil and thyme. Oh and pasta. It was delish. The meatballs (poultry balls?) were loosely based on Jamie Oliver’s recipe (substituting ground chicken for ground beef) and made with rosemary, dijon, breadcrumbs and egg so I guess I improvised a little.
Off goes the leftover soup in the lunch thermos tomorrow.
It’s good to be back.
*see opening paragraph.
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