On mending and cooking...

It's been a week since my knee surgery. I can't believe how fast recovery is going. I ditched the crutches one day post-op, started physical therapy this past Monday, and I'm already walking without a limp. Until about seven o'clock at night, after three hours of toddler-chasing and dinner-cooking and dog-walking. That's when I bring out the ice and stretch my leg across two pillows on the couch. But already range of motion is returning, flexibility is nearly back to normal, and strength is good. I was doubtful when the doc said I'd be starting to run six weeks after surgery. Now I'm starting to doubt whether I'll be able to wait that long.*
*Mothers, mothers-in-law, and husbands: of course I will wait. Now hush.

Speaking of dinner-cooking, I have been trying to reconnect with my slow cooker. I have always thought of slow cookers as vessels for cream of this and that, massive hunks of fatty meat, and packaged spice packets. Or cheese dip. Or Swedish meatballs. None of those items were star players in my kitchen repertoire, so the slow cooker sat untouched for years.

And then I had a kid.

I used to spend more than an hour cooking dinner, several nights per week. I have a whole binder full of recipes from blogs and friends and family and magazines, all neatly stored in plastic pages arranged by type of dish: soups in the front, desserts in the back. Since Jupiter was born, I have a stack of new recipes, all jumbled together in the front, naked and dog-eared, not even given the benefit of a three-hole-punch. These new recipes tend to feature cheese and pasta, basic sauces and boring cuts of meat. I have made more efforts at a decent meatloaf in the past four months (three) than I had ever my life previous to motherhood (zero). In trying to create healthy, minimally-processed meals that can be prepared while simultaneously attending to the one-year-old tugging with increasing strength and frequency at my pant leg, detaching said one-year-old from the poor cat's tail, and responding to his unyielding demands for oranges (Orange. ORANGE! ORAAAAAANGE!), my stockpile of viable recipes that all three of us care to eat has became slimmer. And noticeably more bland.

Then, just when I'm thinking of resorting to a year or two of jarred marinara and dry meatloaf, along comes Pinterest and its endless photographs of beautiful plated meals. I don't know what everyone else uses Pinterest for, but for me it has become a sort of community of people who are trying to make dinner without working too hard, and sharing what they've tried or plan to try. It has been a great resource even if, as I've discovered, some of the recipes taste like they came out of Parade Magazine. You know what I mean. It will probably be a while yet before I can return to the days of sage-and-bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin. But here's what I've been working on lately.