The Rutabaga of Lies

Today, shortly after arriving home, our jovial UPS man showed up with a dolly full of boxes for us. This was the first real drop of baby gifts that we have absolutely no room at all to store in our apartment.



I piled them up in the hallway knowing full well that that's probably where they will stay until we can ready the baby's nursery sometime in 2015.



Jen was delighted to begin unpacking the boxes and examining our car seats. She is almost through with her twenty-eighth week of pregnancy which brings her that much closer to not having to lie around on our couch all day. However she'll probably want to lie around on the couch all day out of sheer exhaustion and frustration.



Week 28 means that the babies are the size of rutabagas. To point out how stupid this is I purchased the largest rutabagas I could find.



Keep in mind that according to this same size chart they were the size of cantaloupes a full two months ago. This is yet more proof that these size charts are written by people who have never actually seen the fruits and vegetables that they are referencing.



While I worked out away to turn rutabaga into a mid May dinner I followed orders from Jen by putting out this Humboldt Fog from Cypress Grove Chevre. Jen told me that she wanted me to bring home a delicious cheese so I went with my go to classic.



I also enjoyed my first beer from Cigar City Brewing, this Maduro Brown Ale. I'd been looking forward to trying one of their beers for some time now as I've been hearing nothing but great things about this brewery. This was a very tasty and malty beer that paired nicely with the cheese but I was more concerned with how it would go with the main course.



I rendered some bacon in a pan along with some crushed garlic and chopped shallots then I tossed in some peeled and diced rutabaga. I don't think I've ever purchased a rutabaga in a month other than October or November. It's not really a vegetable one associates with spring cooking. However, I was determined to turn this meal into a spring feast regardless of rutabaga being the theme vegetable. I added some arborio rice, chicken stock, and cooked it down with a little added butter. At the end I threw in some ricotta cheese, Bella Lodi, and sliced asparagus before serving up the risotto with some extra grated Bella Lodi and fresh chopped parsley.

It ended up being a very nice risotto even given the lack or appropriate seasonality and extremely short cooking time. Depending on which produce chart I use the coming weeks should mostly be easier than this. Next week calls for butternut squash and week 38 is calling for pumpkin so I may need to get creative in the coming weeks. I think a new chart is in order one that takes into account that the sizes should increase gradually over time and not fluctuate back and forth between alternating vegetables of smaller and larger size. My chart will also ask you for your due date and take into account your location to provide seasonal items based on your geographic location.

My chart is going to be so amazing.