Monday Night Dinner

Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by the sun of York
(William Shakespeare – Richard III – Act I/Scene I)

Currently we’re about halfway in between those two lines – it’s no longer the winter of our discontent, but it’s not quite glorious summer yet*.  We’re just glimpsing the onset of Spring, and I had the realization the other day that all my favorite flowers are Spring flowers – crocuses (croci?) hyacinths, daffodils, snow drops, lilies of the valley, forsythia, lilacs . . .

I’m not sure if this is because they are all things that come and go quickly; their pleasures are fleeting and like asparagus and cherries must be enjoyed to the fullest in the moment.  

It could also be because they are the harbingers of Spring.  The first crocus shoots that poke up above the brown leaves and snow drifts are the first indications that Winter is finally (finally) ending.  They are the emissaries from a future of warmer temperatures, and hold the promise of days without hats or gloves or coats.

It could also be that I just like lilacs more than I like roses, and there’s no deeper meaning involved at all.  Whatever the reason, the past two weeks have been filled with moments where I spotted clumps of purple and white crocuses amid the brown and felt my heart lift.

This week we’ve backslid to the degree that not only have I been forced back into my heavy winter coat (and hat and scarf and gloves – seriously, I just washed and put away all of these things, clearly I was tempting fate), but there was snow on the ground on Wednesday morning.  We’re never going to get to asparagus season at this rate – I have avoided asking the guys at Wilson Farms just how long we have to go until local asparagus because I don’t feel like being that depressed on a Saturday morning.

* Nonsequitur side note – whenever I’m told to type something as a test, this is what I end up typing.  I suspect it makes people think I’m pretentious, but mostly it’s just because it sticks in my head and I like a good pun.

Braised French Onion Chicken with Gruyere
Green Beans
Mashed Potatoes
Salad

Braised French Onion Chicken with Gruyere

Recipe previously given:  Year in Review + New Year’s (food) Resolutions

Mashed Potatoes

Dinner brought to you by my physical craving for starch and dairy.  It was either going to be egg noodles drowned in butter and salt, or potatoes mashed with an egregious amount of butter and milk.  Sometimes you just need to close your eyes and add the rest of that stick of butter to the pot.

I watched a show on the Food Network this weekend that features scalloped potatoes made with a béchamel sauce and layered with handful upon handful of shredded cheese.  If I’d seen that show before I’d been to the grocery store, that’s what we’d be eating.  As it is, I shall reserve that dish for a couple of weeks from now when we’re past Passover & Easter (not because I celebrate Passover or Easter, but because a friend who would really appreciate cheesy creamy scalloped potatoes and pork chops is out for Passover).

Green Beans