sardines

 

We’ve now reached the point where I’m blogging about what I had for lunch.  It’s time to have this baby, am I right?

Today, on the two-hundred eighty-something’th day of this pregnancy, I finally got around to eating sardines.  I’ve been meaning to eat them for years, and it’s hard to put my finger on exactly why I never managed to do so. 

The pros of sardines are fairly obvious: fish is healthy and sardines are an inexpensive, low-mercury variety that comes in convenient shelf-stable packaging.  What about the cons?  While I have no beef with fish, or with canned tuna, I simply could not get past the can and the question of how to prepare the presumably cold and slimy contents. 

Seriously, I’ve had (different tins of) sardines lurking in the pantry for at least five years.

I’m well rested from taking PTO now and not making any plans, and maybe I’m emboldened by the challenge of our labor-to-come.  In any case, today was the big day.

The worst part was opening the can, which flicked oily tomato sauce in several directions as it opened.  Good thing my cheap, stretched out maternity top already had a stain on it…  The fish itself, which was packed in like a full term baby the day after the due date, was bigger than I imagined.  There were no heads or eyeballs to be found.  Perhaps I was picturing anchovies all along?

I figured that with enough parsley, some lemon and some good toasted bread they couldn’t be that bad.  And it was actually pretty good.  I feel so grown up.