Jelly donut cupcakes
This morning I woke up at 6 AM after a vivid dream, in which I was on a hike in the woods along a river. Suddenly in the water, I noticed a family of “hippos” swimming in the water (I say “hippos” because that’s what I identified them as in my dream; however, they really looked more like a hippo/dolphin/seal hybrid.) Another hiker’s dog jumped in the water, climbed onto one of the hippo’s backs, and then, the hippo jumped out of the water like a dolphin, the dog clinging on, like it was a Sea World event. It was absolutely magical.
The above paragraph is strange for many reasons. I hardly ever have dreams that aren’t just about forgetting to pack for a flight I forgot about or rushing to find the location of a class I didn’t realize I signed up for (though last night’s dream did feature a frenzied rush to the airport in addition to the hippo spectacle.) And, in the past, I wasn’t the person naturally waking up at 6 AM on weekends. But lately my life is just.. subtly different from before.
I’m in a weird limbo. On one hand, I’m terrified for September, at which point my life changes dramatically and, I’m told, will feature more sleep deprivation than I’ve ever known before. On the other hand, I can hardly wait for September at which point I get to meet a new person who will feature so heavily in the rest of my life. And then, in the middle, here I am, nearly halfway through this whirlwind, just trying to stay calm as I notice things in my body, my mind, my circadian rhythms all shifting towards the inevitable.
The good news is that the latest shifts have brought me out of the fatigue of the first few months and back to feeling more inspired. In other words, I’ve been cooking again.
Yesterday, I made mint & lemon white bean walnut “meat”balls. I slow roasted eggplant and peppers. And I combined it all over whole wheat pasta and just a little tomato paste, lemon, olive oil, and pasta cooking water to create a light sauce.
While I made dinner, Evan made jelly donut cupcakes (and beautiful ones at that). The center was studded with raspberry jam and the cake itself was flecked with fresh nutmeg. The last batch, which I made last weekend, were considerably less pretty than his (and scarfed down too quickly for photos.)
Breakfast has also been a source of joy - specifically, oatmeal. I can’t get enough oatmeal these days! The above picture doesn’t look like much, but was actually pretty fun to make. I made an unstrained nut milk in the blender (pecans, hemp seeds, flax seeds, and a couple dates), and cooked the oats in that mixture. Swirled with a little raspberry jam at the end, it was pretty delicious (though, full disclosure: Evan ate it after it had sat for 30 min and complained that the texture had become “gloopier than usual” thanks to the flax.)
Outside cooking, I’ve also been going to the farmer’s market again, reveling in the abundance of dried beans at one of my favorite stands and buying three pints of strawberries per week, along with lots of tangerines and oranges that are still in season. [At first I thought that other than the oatmeal, that strawberries were my first real pregnancy craving, but Evan’s obsession with them lately as well has convinced me it’s just spring.]
And, last but not least, lately I’ve been walking. Breathing in the fresh air. Taking pictures of flowers in bloom to identify later. Reminding myself how lucky I am to be where I am right now.
