February on the Farmlet

January blew through our house like a tornado – flu playing round-robin, emergency surgery and a long hospital stay for my husband, and nothing quite went as planned. So I think we all breathed a sigh of relief when February 1st rolled around, and brought with it something resembling normalcy. 

Still we are lucky ducks, with all ending well, and despite the periodic cough that seems to be hanging on for myself and my son, the rest of the year is looking much better. At least we got all that out of the way early. 

And once Eli was feeling better we were able to attend a cooking class as a family that had been a holiday gift to us all, with the kids taking charge of the Zuppa Inglese for 12 without so much as a bit of help from anyone other than the Chef leading the course. I look forward to having our own dessert chefs do more at home. We are targeting experiences over stuff this year, with the exception of more hospital experiences – I’ll think we’ll skip those. 

February on the farmlet starts to get busy – it starts quietly, and then by the later part of the month there’s seed-starting and garden cleanup on the good weather days. We still need to mow down the raspberry canes and the trench beds. Nearby the local farms are starting to tap their maple trees – syrup making is a long New England tradition, and it is one of those things that I love seeing. 

We are trying to balance experiences and downtime this year. Especially in the summer we get so busy we forget to be home just mowing the lawn, weeding the garden, and making fresh summer foods. I’m starting to plan the garden for the year, and bought some lovely blue pumpkin seeds I can’t wait to try. 

For now though, we’re eating as much of the winter foods as we can, and it’s time to eat down our bulk veggies in earnest. Saturday night I used 14 onions to make French Onion Soup, because they won’t keep forever. We’re almost halfway through them, and by April they will need to be used up. 

So what are we eating this week?
Use up: Cantaloupe, kale, oranges
Bake: Bread, if I get motivated, homemade donuts

Sunday: Family dinner, we aren’t cooking
Monday: Sheet Pan Sticky Chicken and Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Kale Salad with Pecorino and Walnuts & No Knead Bread I can prep the bread and some of the kale salad tonight and do a lot of prep work in the morning to make sure we eat at a normal hour
Tuesday: It will be just Eli and I, we’ll make a cauliflower curry soup
Wednesday: Roaster chicken with veggies, rice pilaf
Thursday: Eli will find a protein and cook
Friday: The kids schedule has been a bit fungible since their Dad started a new job – they mostly want to hang out with him on the weekends, since they see him less during the week. If it’s just us, I’ll make a butternut squash soup or a curry.
Saturday: Eli and I are going to make a pantry challenge meal together – using up what we have and getting creative
Sunday: Remember those Chinese chives I froze? Time for Chinese Chive Dumplings, Hunan Dumplings, some spring rolls from the freezer, rice and Edamame. 

If you haven’t heard about Hunan Dumplings before I’m not shocked but oh are they good. 

Prep for Monday: Chicken soup with rice. Any time we have a roast chicken, once we’re done with it I take the carcass and put it in the crockpot in water with herbs, bay leaves, and a dollop of vinegar. I then let it cook overnight, and at the end is the best broth. I strain it out, strip the meat and add that to the broth, and then chop carrots and onions, add some seasoning to taste, and cook. If I have a Parmesan rind, it’s perfect for this. 

I don’t add any rice until it’s getting close to dinner time, about an hour out, and then i add it on a low simmer, about a cup and a half-ish, but i eyeball it. 

Add to that either our leftover bread or some popovers, and that’s dinner. And usually a couple of lunches for Eli and I as well. 

I’ve started to plan meals for the rest of the month as well, including trying out Char Siu Pork and Lemon Butter Dijon Chicken and Orzo. 

But that’s later.