The Piglette making little piglets

I was in a mode where I was super motivated to update this blog regularly and devote a good portion of my summer to making fresh, light, beautiful meals. I was going to be super hostess and have fun tapas parties and grill outs galore....until I found out I was pregnant in May. Then I became tired. And lazy. And a huge fan of things like donuts and Skyline and basically anything that I didn't have to prepare myself. I get bursts now and then -- and it manifests itself on my Instagram page -- but not so much here. Because mostly I've been eating things like this:

However, I have been trying to balance out my meals so that I'm not a complete glutton destined for gestational diabetes. Anything crunchy and watery has been right up my alley -- watermelon, grapes, pickles. I have also become obsessed with green tomatoes. The squirrels in our neighborhood get to the red tomatoes before we do, so initially using green tomatoes arose out of necessity. I didn't have any red tomatoes on hand and I wanted to throw them in a salad. The green tomatoes were just staring at me outside so I thought why not? Now I actually prefer them to red tomatoes in a lot of things because you always know that they'll be firm -- you'll never get caught off guard but a mushy, grainy green tomato. It's wonderful! I mixed in some green tomatoes for a panzanella-like salad

 

I made a green tomato salad with pickled pistachio relish (recipe here: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/green-tomatoes-with-pistachio-relish)

I threw green tomatoes into a calamari salad with thinly sliced celery, onions and a lemon parsley vinaigrette, I've been dreaming about how they'd taste juiced -- there are so many possibilities! Since summer is not officially over yet, it's a great time to make use of these green beauties rather than waiting around until they ripen to turn them into sauce (although that is also a very worthy, delicious use).

On a personal level, I read this blog post by Emily Henderson tonight about her sixth months of pregnancy: http://stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/6-month-pregnancy-update/. I am five months along and I related to so much of her post. I am also incredibly in love with my husband right now, and I feel so grateful that he is the father of my child and that he will be my parenting partner. I have been riding the hormone rollercoaster for sure... One morning Tyler and I were walking to a bakery for donuts and we ran into a really kind, sweet neighbor who had the audacity to want to stop and talk to us. At the time, I felt like I'd never been more furious or impatient in my life. Why was she interrupting my donut run?! And there was that day I cried because Tyler wouldn't go to Target with me... I do however love being pregnant. Even on the days when I wasn't feeling well -- it boggles my mind that there is a thing growing inside me which eventually will became a full sized human. It is insane and I can't believe this is how people are made. I love not caring about sucking in my stomach. I love how my maternal instincts are in hyperdrive right now and I just want to love and mother everyone (when my hormones aren't telling me otherwise). I love imagining Tyler as a father. It's just such a happy time and I don't care (right now) about becoming a big ol' whale. It is incredible that I get to experience this and I am so happy. We are also in the process of buying a house -- we're under contract and we're hoping to get most of the work done that needs to be done before January rolls around. I can't wait for this baby room! I am more excited about that one room than I am about that whole house.

So even though I'm not devoting as much time cooking and learning about food as I hoped I would at the beginning of the summer, I am very very excited about what's taken over that part of my brain and stomach instead. Maybe being pregnant will inspire me to combine things in a way worthy of posting so I can remember it even when I'm not driven by 3 am ramen cravings...