Greens bruschetta with fried eggs

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Sarah| Comments Off

Can healthy comfort food exist? Is the term an oxymoron? I usually avoid that sort of thing, believing that if I am going to eat a chocolate chip cookie, then I am going to eat the real thing with butter and a lot of sugar. I am not fooled by the fakers with their applesauce and agave nectar. That’s not to say that healthy cookies are bad. They can be good. But only if that is what you seek.

I think this greens bruschetta is getting over into the comfort food area. It’s garlicky and belly warming. But I still felt good about eating it because of that pile of green beneath the egg.

I adapted my recipe from this one at The New York Times.

1 loaf multigrain bread
1 or 2 garlic cloves, depending on your tastes
1 bunch swiss chard or other greens
2 eggs
2 slices fontina or Gruyere cheese

Slice the bread about a half-inch thick and toast it. Then rub each slice of bread with a garlic clove that has been halved. Next, mince the garlic and chop the greens. Heat some olive oil in a skillet and add the garlic. Saute about 30 seconds and then add the greens. Cook for a minute or two, until the greens are wilted. Season with salt and pepper.

Spoon the greens onto the toast, and top with the sliced cheese. Crack your eggs into the same pan. Fry the eggs, breaking open the yolks if you’re paranoid about food-borne illness like I am, though I’m sure this tastes better with runny yolks.

Slide your eggs onto the cheese and put the whole thing under your broiler for a couple of minutes until the cheese melts.

I’m sorry that I don’t have a better to picture to share, but I think Greg is tiring of taking photos before every meal. The man actually expects to eat his food while it’s hot. Can you imagine?

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Posted in Mains

Not a Halloween post

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Sarah| 1 Comment

I know that most of you are thinking of ghosts and witches today, but I am thinking mostly of Genevieve. October is pregnancy and infant loss awareness month, though it’s lost in the shadow of breast cancer awareness. Those boobies get all of the love.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently ran this piece by Laura Schubert on infant loss, and I wanted to share it. I will say that this article captures the despair of baby loss. And though I have hours of despair, most of my days are happy. I am grateful that Greg and I get to watch Eleanor dress up as a ballerina tonight. I am grateful that we get to watch her bounce from house to house with her little red Elmo bucket. But Genevieve will not be snuggled in my arms, as she should be, for this holiday or any other. And nothing can make up for that.

Infant loss is nature’s cruelest practical joke. It’s investing all of the required time and effort into pregnancy, only to be robbed of the result. It’s cradling a body that grew within your own and trying to reconcile the cold, lifeless form in your arms with your memory of the baby who turned double flips in your womb.

It’s worrying that you’ll forget what your child looked like and snapping an album’s worth of photos that no one will ever ask to see. It’s sobbing so hard you can’t breathe and wondering if it’s possible to cry yourself to death.

Infant loss is handing off a Moses basket to the nurse who’s drawn the unfortunate duty of delivering your pride and joy to the morgue and walking out of a hospital with empty arms.

It’s boxing up brand new baby clothes and buying a 24-inch casket. It’s sifting through sympathy cards, willing your foolish body to stop lactating, clutching your baby’s blanket to your chest in hopes of soothing the piercing ache in your heart.

It’s resisting the urge to smack the clueless individuals who compare your situation to the death of their dog or who tell you you’ll have another baby, as if children are somehow replaceable.

Infant loss is explaining to your 7-year-old that sometimes babies die and being stumped into silence when she asks you why. It’s watching other families live out your happy ending and fighting a fresh round of grief with every milestone you miss.

It’s being shut out of play groups for perpetuity. It’s skipping social events with expectant and newly minted mothers because, as a walking worst-case scenario, you don’t want to put a damper on the party.

It’s listening to other women gripe about motherhood and realizing that you no longer relate to their petty parental complaints because, frankly, when you’ve buried a baby, a sleepless night with a vomiting toddler sounds something like a gift.

Infant loss is pruning from your life the friends and relatives who ignore or minimize your loss. It’s recognizing that, while they may not mean to be hurtful, the fact that they don’t know any better doesn’t make their utter lack of empathy one whit easier to bear.

My baby girl would have been 5 years old this month. I don’t know what she’d look like, what her favorite food would be. I’ve never had the privilege of tucking her into bed, taking her to the zoo or kissing her boo-boos. I will never watch her graduate or walk down the aisle.

Infant loss is more than an empty cradle. It’s a life sentence.

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Posted in Parenthood

Salmon with lime butter

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Sarah| Comments Off

Is this a healthy recipe? I’m not sure. I was all set to tell you about how Greg and I have been eating healthy, and I planned to provide this dish as proof. But I can’t think of a way to defend the butter here.

Anyway, Greg and I really have been eating healthy. I am still trying to get off the baby weight. And after all of the fretting I’ve heard from new moms on this topic, I will just say that it is much, much harder to take off the weight when your baby dies. I have seven pounds to go, and I am going to get back into my regular jeans, goshdarnit!

Enough ranting. This salmon recipe comes from Gourmet magazine via Epicurious. Not only is it easy, but that butter will cover up any mistakes you make with the fish, such as way overcooking it, like a certain someone did.

I scaled the original recipe down for our family.

1 pound salmon fillets
zest of one lime

1/2 large garlic clove, chopped
1/8 cup lime juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted

Season salmon with salt and pepper, then cook over a grill or in a grill pan indoors. When the salmon is done, sprinkle it with lime zest.

For the lime butter, puree garlic, lime juice, salt and pepper in a blender or food processor. Add melted butter and blend until well mixed. Spoon the butter over the fish. And maybe onto your side dishes, too. Or just right into your mouth.

You’ll have to excuse the not-very-precise photo below. The fish close-ups that we took were a little wonky. On a side note, Eleanor has decided that she likes broccoli. I can’t be serious, right? But I am. We are eating broccoli EVERY SINGLE DAY.

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Posted in Mains, Recipes