September 3, 2022

WEEKLY MENU 09.04.22

Shout out to ALL the laborers during the Weekly Menu 09.04.22~

We’re celebrating Labor Day during the Weekly Menu 09.04.22, which means that summer is slowly coming to a close, although it’s not OFFICIALLY over for another three weeks or so. We get to have one more big hurrah on Monday.

Check out the Labor Day Menu 2019 for more info on Labor Day proper (including a little homage to Jerry Lewis), or the Labor Day Menu in general for a fun feast. This week, though, I’m thinking a little closer to home with the “labor” part of this holiday. It always makes me think of babies and that we should be celebrating the women that labor all year long to bring them into the world. (And not just the actual laborers we’re thankful for.) Who’s with me?

Full disclosure: We’ve got three babies, but I’ve only labored once. Turns out that, even after gaining 75 pounds with the OG Baby Boy, I was far too petite to birth him. (As if!) Hello C-Section. I wouldn’t heartily recommend (the recovery was a slow go) but the second and third caesareans were scheduled, which was lovely for the planning aspect of it.

Labor for the first one was enough.

I was induced, and labored for about 24 hours before throwing in the proverbial towel. I was ready for an epidural, and they suggested a C-section instead. We were completely on board with that, and the rest is history.

Labor is interesting.

Average Amount of Time in Labor: Labors can last minutes or days, but the average amount of time a woman spends in childbirth is 8.22 hours.
It is common for labor to start and stop once or twice before becoming strong enough to complete the birth._[6]
Factretriever

Labor is a series of continuous, progressive contractions of the uterus that help the cervix dilate (open) and efface (thin). This allows the fetus to move through the birth canal.
Labor usually starts two weeks before or after the estimated date of delivery. However, the exact trigger for the onset of labor is unknown.
While the signs of labor may vary, the most common are contractions, rupture of the amniotic sac (“breaking your water”).
Johns Hopkins Medicine

Did you catch the important item in the second quote? They don’t know what the exact trigger is for labor. How odd is that? They have some ideas though:

Researchers now believe that when a baby is ready for life outside his mother’s uterus, his body releases a tiny amount of a substance that signals the mother’s hormones to begin labor (Condon, Jeyasuria, Faust, & Mendelson, 2004). In most cases, your labor will begin only when both your body and your baby are ready.
National Library of Medicine

See why I think we should celebrate all the different types of labor?

Time for the menu portion of the Weekly Menu 09.04.22~

Anywho, we’re eating in a celebratory manner during the Weekly Menu 09.04.22! (Affiliate links follow. See Disclaimer Page for details.) We’re starting on Sunday with Bert on the kettle grill smoking the ham. It doesn’t take long, and tastes fabulous. Added bonus is that the ham is already cooked, so we’re not spending all sorts of time checking with the trusty meat thermometer.

There is a hotly contested debate in Pennsylvania for senator. (Our former senator, Pat Toomey, is retiring.) I’m not getting into the politics of it, but Dr. Oz (you read that right) is running against the former mayor of a steel town, John Fetterman. Dr. Oz (who isn’t actually from Pennsylvania, and never lived here prior to this run) had an ad on the tv talking about crudités, and Fetterman had a rebuffing ad about the fact that we call them veggie platters in Pennsylvania. It really has gotten that petty.

I’m here to tell you that at least one Pennsylvanian calls them crudités. And that’s what we’re having to start out dinner on Sunday. We’re having it with a fabulous homemade Dill Dip. You know, in honor of the senate race.

It’s the Labor Day Menu from 2019 this week – grilling chicken and eating corn on the cob. How much better could it get than that? Happy Summer eating!

Family Favorite conversion ahead…

Everyone loves the Pork Milanese, and usually, we have it with dressed greens and maybe a side of pasta. This week, I’m going to make the cutlets a little smaller and we’re sandwiching them! A little ketchup-mayo-dill relish combo sauce and we are good to go. We’ll top with shredded iceberg. Doesn’t that sound great?

We’re hoping we have enough ham left for Hot Ham & Cheese sliders. We’ll let you know.