Menu Planning

I love to cook.  At least, I used to love to cook. For many, many years I spent an hour or so every Saturday morning planning the menu for the coming week.  I made a grocery list based on the required ingredients for various dishes on the week's menu and then I went shopping.  I always tried to incorporate at least one or two new dishes to keep my family (and me) interested in meal time.  I began collecting cookbooks for inspiration.

My collection of cookbooks grew over the years to include not only books but cooking magazines, especially old issues of Gourmet and Saveur magazines.  I wrote about Gourmet here:

Old Gourmet Magazines

Nowadays, with just the two of us, and time on my hands, one would think I would be spending a lot of creative time in the kitchen.  Sadly, I seem to have lost my kitchen "mojo". Cooking sometimes feels like a "chore".  So maybe I need to get back into the menu-planning habit.

I am going to take a little trip through these magazines looking for inspiration today.  I keep my cooking magazines stored by season.

They look a little ratty, but truly for someone who enjoys cooking this row of magazines is a treasure trove.  The missing box is "July-Aug" and is where I found these:

Gourmet magazines were about so much more than food.  Gourmet really was "The Magazine of Good Living".  I am sad it is no longer published, but honestly, after about 1990 it had become a shadow of its old self.  The articles were shorter, the recipes were focused more on bistro-style food rather than elegant dining.  And, travel articles were like abridged versions of the old ones. Sigh.

So today, I will plan our menu for the week.  We might visit a hotel in England's Garden and Lake District if I choose "Herbed Cheese and Chicken Terrine Miller Howe".

A Lake District Hotel in Windermere

Or, if it is hot, we might enjoy Lemon and Basil Poached Chicken Breasts with a Smoked Mozzarella and Tomato Salad and Sesame Ginger Toasts for a cool kitchen meal.

The danger for me is getting sidetracked while menu planning with Gourmet.  It is quite likely I will spend a lot of time in Austria while reading "Austria's Narrow-Gauge Railways", an 11-page article with recipes in the August 1984 issue. But it will not be time wasted.  There is a wonderful recipe for Poppy Seed Cake on page 128.

England's Lake District

Narrow Gauge Railway in Austria