“in the next week or twelve…”

Week 31, Day 4

Well, as promised at the end of the previous post, just barely making the twelve-weeks-later cutoff, a quick update. All through the second trimester and now into the third, the urge to cook comes and goes, the ability to eat comes and goes (though is mostly here to stay), and the energy for cooking, eating, photographing, and writing fluctuates more than a little.

But in the last three months, I’ve been very conscious of trying to eat a variety of things whenever possible, just in case it has any influence at all on Little Dude’s palate. Among the dishes that seemed to make him hop and wiggle:

* A plain brioche and a hot chocolate at Croissant d’Or in New Orleans

The bun on the plate and the bun in the oven, at Croissant d'Or in New Orleans

* Also in New Orleans, one single perfect raw oyster at the original Drago’s, from the Cvitanovich oyster beds, the only raw oysters in the world I would eat while pregnant

* A grilled sandwich of house-cured bacon, Swiss cheese, and sauteed collard greens with pickled-pepper aioli and fabulous spicy bread-and-butter pickles on the side at Cochon Butcher in New Orleans (some of those pickles came back to Texas with us)

* Still in New Orleans, all on the same quick trip, Italian peach ice from Angelo Brocato’s, one of their last few quarts left after the summer, made with Alabama’s Chilton County peaches which are the Very Best Peaches Anywhere In the Universe (and I am proud to say I made the introduction between the peaches, from James and Pat Jones of Durham Produce in Jemison, and the parlor)

* My best friend Pam’s shrimp remoulade, at our New Orleans baby shower, with my sister-in-law’s special sugar cookies for dessert (using her great-grandmother Sweet’s recipe)

In addition to Pam's shrimp remoulade and Nicole's sugar cookies, the shower spread included all kinds of favorite foods, including Logan's etouffee, Nicole's spinach-artichoke dip, mini muffalettas (another hit with the Little Dude), and a completely beautiful cake (in another room)

The incredible Buckboard Bacon Melt with amazing pickles at Cochon Butcher... this pregnant mama ate half at lunch and then took the other half to have as leftovers. Collards on a sandwch turn out to be perfect.

* Crawfish boulettes at Pat’s, a restaurant in the Atchafalaya basin, on the way home from the shower

* My homemade pumpkin pie, using fresh-roasted pumpkin from Greenling, whose organic produce deliveries have saved many a meal for us these last few months

* Lamb vindaloo with tamarind chutney (he especially seems to groove on the tamarind chutney) from Tarka, whose take-away has been dinner a few times

* Bread and butter and sardines (hey, Omega 3s are very good for the little guy)

* Organic honeycrisp apples with an oat cracker and a piece of Wisconsin brick cheese sent by my grandmother

* Handfuls of walnuts and Texas pecans

* This year’s Christmas fudge recipe variation, Fuego Fudge (in small doses)

* Sauerkraut, especially on sandwiches

* Trinidadan roti from my friend Lisa

* Spicy roasted chickpeas

* More collard greens, whether chiffonaded and cooked down like my great-aunt Helen taught me or in this cool slaw that Whole Foods sells

* Heirloom russet apples from Whole Foods, sadly only available for about a week but a true highlight of my pregnancy cravings

* Scrambled eggs and oat toast, made by Michael

* Brisket from Franklin Barbecue (again with the ever-important pickles on the side)

* Hot biscuits with homemade blackberry preserves or local sorghum or red-eye gravy from the country ham that was also on the plate, at Loveless Cafe in Nashville while there for my friend Alonso Duralde’s book tour in support of his new book, Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas (shameless plug, awesome book, great movies)

* Sugar-and-spice pancakes with cinnamon syrup at Pancake Pantry in Nashville, the perfect plate after 18 years’ absence from the joint

* Spanish almonds

* Big green olives

So you can see that I’m trying to keep the variety going, trying to balance salty and savory and sweet, trying to introduce flavors of his ancestors from Germany, Wisconsin, New Orleans, Texas, Alabama, and so on. Not to mention what a great excuse to eat some of my own favorite foods. Now I’m off to the kitchen to make my holiday shortbreads, which I’m not at all worried about the Little Dude liking his whole life long.