Turkish Kabak Tatlısı Pumpkin in Syrup with Walnuts
We’re mid-way into January, and so far New England has seen a smattering of flurries. I’m not sure if we should all be concerned, but I’m enjoying the temperate enough weather and trying to get out as much as possible. I have an amaryllis that’s blooming which is a joy to watch, and a fresh bouquet of Irises.
I’ve been doing morning yoga every morning to start my day, and pairing with a liquid vitamin (MaryRuth’s Organic Liquid Morning vitamin.) I’m historically intermittent with vitamins, and not really sure they do much, but even the placebo in the winter is a nice ritual.
My stairwell and living room bathroom painting is done! The stairwell looks SO FRESH! (This unintentionally set off a saga with fire alarms, and another with a pup with an itchy eye; but we’re rolling with it!)
I went to the gym to participate in an off-session Barbell Betties, and lifted a back squat PR for myself unintentionally. It’s so nice to lift with barbells.
Acquisitions of note:
I “stocked up” on fresh undergarments. Friends with tatas, I’ve switched over almost exclusively to the True + Co Body Boost V Neck. (One of my yearly intentions was to continue with the undergarment refresh.)
I got myself a season pass to the Weston Ski Track, which is conveniently less than 11 minutes from my house, and offers night skiing! My first go was a little bit harrowing, as it’s been about 20 years since I last skied, and somehow I found myself in the MIDDLE OF A SKI RACE! I’m going to be taking a few lessons and looking forward to it.
I went to my friend Nat’s small business and friends mixer down the street. It included ice breakers (the best being – what piece of media have your recently enjoyed!) and a harmonica!
I went to a Female Founders and Funders event downtown at SVB. (Thank you Kristen and Meeta!) I also made it a point to connect with another founder in the same general space, and was kicking myself for not doing it sooner.
Good Reads: finished Ann Patchett’s lovely book The Dutch House. Took me about three years of audiobook to finish it, and still thinking about it. Picked up Danny Licht’s Cooking as Though You Might Cook Again, on Bettina’s recommendation list, which is a small and mighty little book to inspire you to cook and eat. Finally, a RomCom a month late – The Matzah Ballby Jean Meltzer – was delightful (and being turned into a film!)
Watched: Fire of Love– a National Geographic documentary on Disney+ about a pair of famous vulcanologists, Katia and Maurice Krafft. While I loved my geoscience and volcano research in college, I’m… also glad that I didn’t opt for a life of chasing live volcanos. (Their death is not a spoiler – you learn about it in the first 20 seconds of the film.) The footage is really quite remarkable.
Watching Fire of Love (and little Cone Boy)
{Good Eats}
Another great week in food! I’m still reading the 60-minute Gourmet Cookbook (Pierre Franey), Smitten Kitchen Keepers, and The Woks of Life. One of the fun things I did was crowdsource some favorite recipes from my Wellesley food people, so I’m compiling that into a list now. My Turkish recipe of the week was Kabak Tatlısı – a kind of candied pumpkin dessert. I also made myself a quality avocado toast.
Some highlights:
Kabak Tatlısı: the recipe is very simple, you cut approximately 2 lbs. of pumpkin (or squash! I used a Japanese squash this time) into squares in a wide shallow pan. You cover with 8 ounces of sugar, about 1/4 pint of water, and the juice of half a lemon (I use a whole lemon because I like it lemony). Cover and poach gently for an hour, basting every ten minutes or so. I usually turn the pumpkin over mid way to make sure it’s all cooked. You then leave it to cool in the pan, and sprinkle with walnuts.
Sardines Rice Bowl with Tomatoes, Cucumber, Pickled Ginger, and Furikake I each a version of this regularly – it’s one of my most satisfying meals. Sometimes I use tuna, or salmon, but I truly adore sardines.
Broccoli with Blue Cheese and Balsamic, tossed in some leftover Chicken + Kebabs: I get addicted to a combination, and then can’t stop eating it. Broccoli, blue cheese, balsamic, and toasted walnuts (if you remember) is really a perfect combination. I find myself eating the entire bag of broccoli this way.
101 Cookbooks: Christmas Lima Stew– this is a truly stellar recipe, and I cook up Rancho Gordo Christmas limas. This time around, I was planning on cooking the soup the day of, but I ended up taking myself skiing at the last minute, so when I came home, I simply made all the ingredients into a bean salad! Celery, Caraway, Olives, Lemon, Parsley. All delish.
Two bolo cheese sandwiches with açili I picked up these Portuguese sweet breads, and ended up making myself a late night cheese sandwich. My neighbor had given me a jar of her tomato and pepper condiment from her garden in Turkey, and I’ve been hoovering it this week.
Baked Fish with Crunchy Miso Mayo + Green Salad with Honey Goat Cheese. I usually eat fish on Wednesdays when I get it fresh from my farm share. This time though was Red’s Best Skate wings from my freezer. (The goat cheese was from the event I went to.)
Chicken thighs with tomato and bulgur (riff on the chicken and rice dish in Smitten Kitchen Keepers) – I always love homey dishes like this that are sort of stove top casserole and low effort. I ended up cooking some leeks and garlic with smokey Rancho Gordo paprika, cumin, chicken thighs, and then tomato, little honey vinegar, and Turkish bulgur with vermicelli.
Epicurious Kale Salad with Dates, Parmesan, and Almonds + Pork Chop. This is a PHENOMENAL salad. Honestly, might be up there in my top 3 salads of all time. MAKE THIS SALAD. It’s easy to make, and truly exceptional. I add a whole lemon instead of half.
May we all barrel roll with the JOY that Bertram brings to flinging himself and rolling in the grass.
Another year, another excuse to go back to “Week One” – which is a satisfying way to start again and renew for the year. One things I try to do at the end of every week is a pause for gratitude – taking a moment to do a little review of the week, how I felt, and what I experienced. Every time I do this activity (*every* *single* *time*) I’m reminded just how many really lovely moments I’ve had.
I spent a little bit of time on “systems upgrades” – reviewing my “Let’s Eat” spreadsheet, adding new recipes to my list to try, reviewing my “list of lists“, my January Intentions
I’ve kept a movie watching spreadsheet since 2019 (and an unorganized Letterboxd of most everything I’ve watched) – but this week as a gift to myself, I made a to-watch movie list with options for my favorite genres – primarily classics that I’ve missed.
I ran my first 5k of the year – I’ve run the Needham New Year’s 5k maybe for the past decade? (This year I had to tie both shoelaces..)
My stairwell and living room bathroom are being freshly painted
I’ve gone to bed by 11:30, and woken each morning to do some yoga or lift (I’m not usually a morning movement person, but I realized that I could get in 20 minutes without disrupting my morning coffee and reading.
My ProHort gardening and horticulture class kicked off! Looking forward to getting my gardening to the next level. (I also “accidentally” acquired some dahlia tubers from Five Forks)
Acquisitions of note: I sprung for a month of Youtube premium to see if it makes a massive experience difference.
Good Reads: we kicked off the year with The Bodyguard – Katherine Center (very fun romcom), 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman (2021, 129 pages) – strongly recommend!
Watched: The Menu (HBO) if you like watching Chef’s Table and dark comedic violence, you’ll likely be mostly satisfied. Wasn’t perfect, but enjoyed.
Chopped off about 5 inches of hair! And now it’s swishy!
{Good Eats}
It was a great week in food! I’ve been reading the 60-minute Gourmet Cookbook (Pierre Franey), Smitten Kitchen Keepers, and The Woks of Life – and been inspired to cook each evening (a working dishwasher, turns out, is the secret to my happiness cooking. Some highlights:
Ottolenghi Chicken Thighs with Fennel and Arak I’ve made this recipe maybe a dozen times over the past few years, and it’s always good. It’s also forgiving – you can swap different citrus out easily, and it’s a very simple recipe to make – you can marinate all the ingredients in a ziplock or even in the baking dish and just pop in the oven.
Cauliflower Gnocchi Deconstructed “Manti” (Turkish seasoned ground beef, yogurt sauce) I’m a fan of Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi, and this makes me feel virtuous. You really simply season the ground beef (usually cumin, oregano, chile, or köfte seasoning). I air fried the gnocchi, and then tossed it in when the beef was done. You make a little yogurt sauce with some garlic to top it, and some more pepper on top.
Pierre Franey Mustard Mayo Flounder; leeks with red wine vinaigrette + tomato. Super simple mix of mustard, mayo, and parsley. You coat the fish and broil or bake. I had flounder from Red’s Best in my farm share. (The leeks were leftover from boiling a chicken over the weekend, and I made a red wine mustard vinaigrette to douse over everything.)
Pork Chops + Salad with Burrata, Tomato, Avocado, Dill Dressing. The air fryer makes perfect pork chops every time. (8 minutes or so at 390 and I let rest.) Big salad of everything in the fridge. Trader Joe’s vegan dill dressing.
Lemony Shrimp + Bean stew with Christmas limas and Argentinian red shrimp from TJs, lemon parsley + sour cream. This is a great stew base recipe! You really want to add extra lemon and parsley at the end.
Also this week? I remembered how easy it is to make good popcorn in the microwave?
I haven’t been able to wrangle myself to write weekly, so here’s catch-up on this short month!
My amaryllis bloomed! I’ve been admiring it in the diffused morning light from the overcast sky which been giving us snow intermittently. I’ve been being diligent at picking up a weekly bouquet for myself at Trader Joe’s. It’s been a few weeks in a row of tulips, because they are fabulous.
Good Things and Creative Input:
Watched: The Big Chill – which has a surprisingly good soundtrack! To All the Boys:2, and Lucky Logan (neither of which were must-watch.) And MINARI! (HIGHLY recommend.) Signed up for Letterboxd, a film version of Goodreads. I’ve been *loving* WandaVision, and been watching Agent Carter, with deep angst that they cancelled it after two short seasons.
Reading: been loving the Brooklyn Bruja series. We’re reading Caste for Wellesley Book Club. A little behind on my reading these days!
Errands of note: Went to the dentist! Started my taxes!
Movement: The last week of my lifting class was bittersweet – I’ve enjoyed the structure of a Monday, Wednesday, Friday program at 6pm to look forward to. After finishing it, I made the attempt to switch programs and do the work on my own – it’s been… semi-successful! I’ve also kicked off our Ompractice My Core Floor Pelvic Health program (the exercises are very fun!) and I’m doing more time on the bike to contribute to our Circumpolar Race around the World Team.)
Together-ness: Weekly Zoom Trivia! A chocolate truffle making class on Zoom. A Zoom Pizza birthday party with charades and a seven year old DJ.
Organization: weekly personal sprint planning tag team!
Flowers: Red Tulips! Daffodils! Orange Tulips!
Joy: Getting a POST CARD from my DOG. Reading the Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer. Getting a second BLANKET with my dog’s face on it.
After a few weeks of being house bound with a sore back, Bertram has been up and at em for the past week or so going on walks again, and I’m deeply relieved!
Last week, I went to Formaggio to wait in line and bid farewell to the location that has been one of my comfort places for the past twenty years. It’s moving three blocks down the street, but I have a LOT of feelings.
{Good Food}:
One thing I’ve really enjoyed over the past few months is shared meal planning with friends. Not that we’re actually eating the same things, just more as an accountability tool. More than the fancy planning, I’m really interested in those quick default meals my friends are eating – I find that I’m more likely to make a healthy choice when I can swap out a simple meal that I know a friend is also enjoying this week.
The most glorious bowl of cottage cheese topped with Formaggio Kitchen passionfruit curd. A generous dollop. (And then having this same thing about four times for desserts. Sometimes I added a little oat.)
Some highlights:
Post-Superbowl Feast: leftover’s from my family’s Zahav montreal shortrib extravaganza from Goldbelly.
My favorite Epicurious Kale and Date salad.
Lobster Cacio Pepe
Calabrian Tomato Dumpling Soup from Trader Joe’s with added chicken
Kheer from my Indian take-out from Shan-a-Punjab.
Lentil soup with ham, bok choy, eggs
Chicken tenders in the air fryer with a big ole salad and two dipping sauces. I tried the new magnificause from Trader Joe’s (the second was actually Chik-fil-a spicy sauce.)
Molten Chocolate saucy cake.
Big pot of Kimchi Stew.
Pot of Rancho Gordo pinto beans. Ate a bowl with honey, and plantain garlic croutons which was sensational. Another bowl another day with chopped tomato, egg, and star dust (Rancho gordo tajin)
Cafe Spice Chicken Tikka Masala (one of my favorites pre-made meals).
A bowl of ham, chicken, broccoli, and basil caesar.
Fennel salad with hardwood smoked tuna.
Annies Mac n Cheese with Birdseye Broccoli with Cheddar sauce… because.
Incredible Beet Tzaziki from Formaggio.
Broccoli with blue cheese, toasted walnuts, and balsamic vinegar.
Mocktail with seltzer, cherry jam, and rosewater.
Lunar New Year food from my neighborhood Chinese restaurant: noodles, and sesame balls, 8 Treasure rice, and date rice cake.
OYSTER delivery from Island Creek thanks to Somchay and Janet. I’m so thankful for friends who will do an emergency drive to Duxbury to pick up $10/dozen Island Creek oysters…
Zoom Truffle Making Class! This was so much fun. Plotting my next online cooking extravaganzas.
Of course, there’s been a lot of snuggles as well.
This weekend I found myself slightly under the weather – likely a factor of working out in a group fitness environment several days a week… and having a co-founder who has a toddler! On the plus side though, my immune system is as fortified as ever, and illnesses these days are really only days of feeling a little under the weather, rather than anything more sinister. After a generally chronically ill childhood and teenage years, I don’t take this for granted!
{Good Things}
I found myself resting more this week – after a couple of full months, this week had packed days of hard work on Ompractice, coupled with more intentional downtime. More reading, a little bit more time in front of the television, and delivery instead of a night out. As I get older, I continue to double down on my self care practices to make sure that I have the energy to do the work I want to do in the world. It’s *so important*.
While keeping the relaxation intentional, I still fit in daily workouts, a combination of some higher impact fitness classes, relaxing yoga classes, and my daily mile streak.
Fitness, this week:
Monday: a mile outside.
Tuesday: OrangeTheory
Wednesday: OrangeTheory and Foundations with Traci at 7:30 on Ompractice (60 minutes)
Thursday: Yoga for Tight Shoulders and Neck at 12:30 ET with Niki on Ompractice (amazing!) and another OrangeTheory!
Friday: a “rest day mile”
Saturday: OrangeTheory – I’ve been going to the 9:15 am class, and it feels good to get it done!
Sunday: “recovery mile” outdoors.
Out of the house
A quick trip to Boston Landing – for a pit stop at the new location of Cambridge Naturals, and a cup of coffee at Kohi. In addition to a FULL STOCK of pretty much every natural food product I’m ever on the hunt for, I was delighted to see the wildly overpriced but delicious Coconut Cult yogurts at Cambridge Naturals. I resisted ($27.99 will do that to you – hello two dollar coastal mark-up), and instead filed away the note to self, and grabbed myself a Topo Chico for the road. At Kohi I picked up a Cortado (They have Tandem Coffee!) About two dozen banana breads were coming out of the oven just as I arrived, and the place smelled like heaven.
A Target trip – notable because I had a definitive shopping list and left without making ANY extraneous purchases. Can you believe it? (I could barely believe it myself.)
This post on building Willpower: we’ve been blogging some longform articles on Ompractice this month! Chris did the heavy lifting on this one, but it was a collaborative effort! 10 concrete tips on how to build and strengthen your willpower.
A manicure – after months going without, I finally have been working on making my hands presentable again. I took myself to a Miniluxe treat on Friday night, getting my favorite “Rodeo” color. (Side note: I always thought it was Rodeo – like the cowboys… until I realized one day that it’s supposed to be the classy Ro-de-o drive. I choose to be cowboy classy.) My first trip back since having to pause my $65/month unlimited mani membership because I couldn’t make the time for trips. Locals, this is a *steal*.
Watching: On the plus side, more downtime means more progress towards my 52 new to me movies this year. (Preferably without a cell phone in hand.) In preparation for the newest theater release, I caught up with How to Train Your Dragon 1 & 2. Both very cute!
On television: I finally succumbed to Russian Doll on Netflix. (I’ll join the chorus: it’s SO GOOD!) And a few minute into the Oscars, I decided to actually turn it on and watch – despite having avoided it for many years. Aside from the rotten best picture vote, I was happy to see some of my favorites win awards – including Olivia Colman for her role as queen Anne in The Favourite, Into the Spider-verse, and Ruth Carter for the costumes in Black Panther, and Hannah Beachler for the Production Design in Black Panther. I’m so excited for Bao – I haven’t watched it yet, but it’s at the top of my queue!
Creative Date:
On Saturday, I went for a museum tour at the Davis Museum at Wellesley – actually the home of my first museum internship (I worked in Development), and where I spent four years on the Davis Museum Student Advisory Committee. I hadn’t been back for years, and was thoroughly thrilled at the updates. For anyone local to the Boston area, the museum is truly a gem. One of the missions of the director of the Davis is to update the museum to better represent the diversity of the student body – and this is clearly seen in both acquisitions and the exhibitions on view. We went on a tour of women artists, and I spent another hour wandering through the galleries.
There’s a phenomenal new exhibit – Art_Latin_America, including a wide selection of protest and propaganda art, that I highly recommend visiting! Here’s a peek at some of the art:
Next museums on my list? Thanks to some great Twitter suggestions this week, here are some next ones for my list. I’ve been to many of these, but most it’s been over a decade! Who wants to join me?
A few suggestions that I’ve been to recently: the Whaling Museum in New Bedford (I went this summer!), and the Seacoast Science Center in Rye., NH. I’m also trying to work my way through some of the Historic Houses and Trustees Properties. And many thanks to all of you who chimed in. You know who you are!
Three other smart suggestions I’m bookmarking: getting a museum membership high enough to provide reciprocal membership at other museums (it’s.. possible I have that already.) This resource to look up participating museums: NARM – the North American Reciprocal Museum Association. And the Highland Street Foundation which sponsors free museum Fridays in the summer.
{Good Eating} I found myself eating a lot of leftovers this week.
Algerian Jewish Beef, Onion, and Coriander Stew. From Clifford Wright’s Real Stew – a cookbook I’d highly recommend. This was INCREDIBLE. Here’s the recipe: I used ground beef instead of stew meat, and canned diced tomatoes, but everything else stayed the same!
Chocolate “Dessert” Hummus. Okay… don’t hate me. I bought two different kinds – Joseph’s and Boar’s Head, and they are both great, and I’ve been eating them after dinner, with a bunch of collagen hydrolysate stirred in as a end of the day protein boost.
Chicken Lady Chicken from David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen. I marinated this gorgeous bird for three days in the wildly flavorful marinade, and then roasted it in the oven. The recipe calls for spatchcocking, but I wanted to cook it in my Breville toaster, so upright she went. Recipe here. Giving into a meme, I served it with generously buttered noodles with parsley. Meme – worth reading the tweets: https://www.eater.com/2019/2/11/18220148/generously-buttered-parsleyed-noodles-meme
Hodo Sesame Yuba Strips and a soft cooked egg. I was surprised to see West Coast tofu maker Hodo in my local Whole Foods, and couldn’t resist. These were nutty and good.
Barbecue pulled chicken and Turkish beans over a bed of kale. A bit of a cultural mashup, this made for a satisfying dinner.
Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi deconstructed Turkish Mantı with ground beef, yogurt garlic sauce, and urfa pepper chile butter drizzle. This was a genius move on my part – hitting all my favorite flavors of one of my favorite dishes, but with my favorite TJ’s vegetal freezer item: the cauliflower gnocchi. 12/10 will make again.
Shan-a-Punjab Takeout butter chicken, raita, garlic naan, and potato naan. A masala chai, and kheer for dessert. (I have to restrain myself from ordering this three times a week.)
A somewhat disappointing stir fry with soba, tofu, and tahini. (What I should have done was made the Otsu recipe from 101 cookbooks…alas.
Brunch: lucky 7 grain toast with Bavarian Rubius cheese, applegate maple chicken sausage, and some soft eggs. (At the top of the post.)
A bowl of mac and cheese. I don’t think I actually managed to take a picture of it, because I was hungry, tired, and under the weather. I stirred in a spoonful of Trader Joe’s Garlic Spread-Dip (which is basically Aioli), because, why the heck not?
It’s feeling just slightly like spring! Well, maybe not, it’s snowing here, but I can fantasize. This week, I’ve been thankful for consistency, good food, good company, and getting back into the swing of things here. And thank you to the two people who actually texted me to say you’ve been reading my blog!
{Good Things}
CPR + First Aid: I did the first step re-upping my first aid and CPR certification (required for my RRCA run coaching cert, and my ACSM personal trainer certification.) You can now take part of the class online as long as you do the in-person training to actually get a little hands on time. I passed the online modules, but unfortunately my in-person was rescheduled because of the snow storm, so I still have to take it!
After having to re-schedule an in-person coffee date, I had a great zoom call with my friend Sonya, who closed her (successful!) photography business to embrace her calling, and pursue coaching for creatives full time. It’s always great seeing people step into their zone of genius.
The plants in our Springfield Office (VVM Hub) I’m delighted each week to drive out and work in this beautiful space!
Worked on some speaking applications! This year, as I build Ompractice to serve thousands of people through yoga and meditation, I’m also looking to speak more about the things that I love helping people with: wellness, productivity, business, and women’s empowerment.
Fitness, this week: I’m starting to feel back to my old self. This week I got in a series of excellent workouts, while maintaining my run streak – including in an accidental flurry. On days I head to OrangeTheory, I try to start on the weights, and then I simply do my mile when I hit the treadmill before joining everyone else with the pre-planned tread workout.
Monday: Yoga Nidra with Amy at 1pm on Ompractice (45 minutes); OrangeTheory
Tuesday: OrangeTheory
Wednesday: Foundations with Traci at 7:30 on Ompractice (60 minutes)
Thursday: Yoga for Tight Shoulders and Neck at 12:30 ET with Niki on Ompractice (amazing!)
Friday: walking meeting and “rest day mile”
Saturday: OrangeTheory
Sunday: “recovery mile”
Bertram and I are practicing alone time. Because I’ve worked from home over the past three years that I’ve had Bertram, we’ve not been diligent about practicing alone time beyond my daily runs and the occasional grocery shop. I’ve been practicing progressive alone time, including when I’m at OrangeTheory and still feel the need to check in with him on the nanny cam. Here he is quietly howling like a baby husky. We just have to keep working at it.
Watching: I’ve been chipping away at my goal of 52 new to me movies this year. (Preferably without a cell phone in hand.)
This week I watched a documentary – Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski. Had no idea where it was going to go when I sat down to watch it. Clearly, neither did the director and producers. Pretty wild. CW: nazis.
The Incredibles 2 – great!
Flavorful Origins – a Chinese cooking series of the flavors of Chaoshan (on Netflix). I’ve noticed that Netflix has been auto-playing dubbing lately, which, if you watch with subtitles, you’ll notice a HORRIBLE mis-match. I complained about this last week when watching BorderTown. I highly recommend just listening in Chinese and reading the English subtitles rather than the dubbed version.
Newton Historic Jackson Homestead
Creative Date: after driving by the Jackson Homestead and Museum over a thousand times (literally), I finally decided that this would be the weekend to explore it! (For $8, I got myself a ticket that gives access to the Jackson Homestead and the Durant-Kenrick house, which I’ll save for another weekend.
The house was stop on the Underground Railroad, and the museum is three floors of history including a history of slavery and anti-slavery in the North, a rotating exhibit which featured the Newton architect Annie Cobb who was one of the women who exhibited at the World’s Expo in Chicago, and a historical toy exhibit, which even featured the now “vintage” game boy color, circa 1992.
I was delighted to find it to be a well curated little museum with things to see and read around every corner. Here are some of my favorites from the trip. (Including the mustache mugs!)
{Good Eating}
This week brought the delivery of a Green Chef box, another new-to-me box which I had yet to try. While I love these kits for the novelty of having my dinner picked for me, the cooking time on these is always nearly double what it takes for me to make a fairly sophisticated meal from scratch. (Want to try Green Chef? Feel free to use my affiliate link for 4 free meals.)
Batch cooking this week: for meal prep last week, I made a green tahini charmoula, soft boiled some eggs, made a batch of pepita chili, and baked chicken thighs with za’atar. All good choices! This weekend I cooked up eggs and a batch of Algerian Jewish beef, onion, and coriander stew. I also started the marinade on a chicken that I plan on roasting later in the week.
What I ate:
Chicken Katsu bowl, with cabbage, carrot, and pineapple slaw with sesame seeds. Tonkatsu sauce, and a togarashi spiced mayo. (Green Chef)
A big green salad, with romaine, green goddess, chunks of feta, and za’atar chicken.
Roasted garlic-herb chicken with cheesy mashed potatoes, sautéed chard, cabbage, and apple. (Green Chef) It’s amazing what a little cheese in mashed potatoes can do to brighten my mood.
Hawaij-rubbed steaks with herb sauce, feta, pistachios, farro with a tomato sauce, and collard greens. (Green Chef) The leftovers were great the next day with some eggs and sardines.
A caviar bowl: sushi rice, salmon caviar, soft boiled eggs, green tahini, picked daikon and garlic flower, and a little bit of sharp mustard. I got the caviar at Bazaar. (When I’m not blessed with a delivery from Zabars, I’ll either pick it up there or at Berezka.)
Pepita turkey chili, with peppers. With whole foods parm crisps crumbled on top. (The secret ingredient is Trader Joe’s new pepita salsa, which if you haven’t tried it yet, go, and grab two.)
Annie’s Macaroni and Cheese with herbed turkey. Sometimes I’m craving comfort food, and this is one of my top contenders.
Trader Joe’s Mash-up: Channa Masala + Organic Tomato & Roasted Red Pepper Soup (see the photo up to there). This was genius at the tasting station, but I made tweaks using the low sodium tomato soup this time around, and adding some more of the herbed turkey breast.
A kale salad with pollo asado seasoned chicken, roasted delicata squash, pico de gallo, and an egg. (Yes, I did say chicken chicken.)
Thai green curry with eggplant and wild cod. Topped with a little yogurt and cilantro.
Snacks of note: the crispy okra from Trader Joes. I munch through the whole bag with glee. Also – this delightedly vinegar shot that I snagged from my friend Jacqueline’s pantry last week. So good! (I snagged a bunch of these at Star Market today. I suspect making my own would be wildly cheaper, but portable is great!) Our Springfield office was stocked with laughing cow cheese wedges and string cheese, so my day was made.
Desserts of note:Whole milk ricotta two ways: day one with maple syrup and cacao nibs, and day two with chocolate sesame butter.
Also: Enjoy Life sunseed chocolate protein bites. These were on the “new” shelf at Trader Joe’s, and are already backlogged from the supplier. Wild Ophelia Vosges Sea Salt Dark Chocolate Bites with Soft Caramel. (Pro-tip: these are something like $11 at Starbucks, but can be acquired for free with the free food/drink reward on your Starbucks card!)
And: a scoop of Ben and Jerry’s Coffee Toffee Crunch.
I’ll leave you with a parting shot of Bertram – doing what he loves best – napping in the sunpatch.
One of the best parts of the weekend so far has been knocking out a million nagging tasks, cleaning out my inbox, and re-reading this article on configuring your phone to be less distracting.
And here I am, writing to you! I do hope it’s been a good week where you are. If not – tomorrow is a new day, fresh with new opportunity to do good things, see good people, and eat some great meals. Hopefully you find some inspiration in here to do just that.
{Good Things}
Hopefully I won’t lose you with this first one, but the Patriots won the SuperbOwl 🦉 Hear me out: over a decade ago, we really needed that win. I remember the first parade – I bundled up in cold weather gear and cheered and screamed. This year was different. We’ve been winning. The sport is problematic to say the least. But regardless about how you feel about the NFL or the Patriots – it’s been really nice to walk around a city that feels uplifted and a new sense of optimism. I’ve been thankful for that feeling during these otherwise depressing times. Sports can do that.
Plopping. In addition to my quest for curly girl hair care that had me acquiring a bunch of new conditioner last week, I’ve been back to “plopping” – a curl protective hair drying technique that involves me wrapping a shirt around my head and waiting for the curls to dry. (Unfortunately, I also managed to get hives from one of my new conditioners… except I’m not actually sure which one. Wish me luck.)
This week in nagging tasks. This week I knocked off a bunch of them, including a long overdue 401k rollover, fixing my driver’s side rear view mirror, and an oil change. The Universe also reminded me that it’s good to fix things you’ve been stalling on. I managed to get pulled over the day AFTER I fixed the mirror… with a newly broken tail light. No ticket, and I’m so glad that I had made the previous repair. I fixed the light this weekend as well!
Heather came to Cambridge. The best part about having friends become super fancy experts in their field is that they come to Boston to speak at conferences and workshops, and then go out to dinner with you! I met Heather at Legal on Tuesday night for some chowder and a seared tuna bowl. Here we are not looking at the camera quite at the same time.
Amanda’s Birthday Party at Naco Taco. It’s crazy to think that I’ve known Amanda for 25 years! To celebrate, I made the trek out to Elmendorf for a gift certificate, some candied orange peel, and chocolate dragées. (I’m a little ashamed to say that I managed to leave Naco Taco… without eating a taco. I will go back!)
Talking about baked goodness: my brother was in LA this week. In addition to his dream trip to The Price is Right (yes, I was jealous) he brought me back some treats. A Kouign-Amann from Dominique Ansel bakery. I was hoping for a cronut, but they wouldn’t sell it to him because it would get stale. He also brought me two pounds of Philz Tesora, one of my favorite coffees.
This week in Movement + Meditation: Another good week of fitness! The key to success this week was that my workouts were scheduled mostly in advance. A year and a few months, my run streak continues!
On Ompractice – my online yoga and meditation company – I took a Yoga Nidra session with Amy, and Foundations of Yoga with Traci (Wednesday 7:30 pm) this week. If you are interested in taking yoga classes at home where your teacher can see you – our unlimited membership is only $5 for your first month right now! I’d love for you to try it out.
There were also walks around the neighborhood, and THREE Orange Theory classes: got my splat on – on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Except, I don’t have the OT watch, I just wear my Apple Watch and it’s good enough for me.
Because I was out several nights in a row, I skipped my usual combo of a creative date with myself and dinner, in favor of an early movie on Friday night and a meal at home. I chose The Favourite – which I greatly enjoyed. Notably, my fellow theater goers did NOT. So many people around me hated it. It was deliciously quirky. Emma Stone, Olivia Coleman, and Rachel Weisz are all *fantastic*.
{Delicious Meals}
This week brought me several trips out of the house, punctuated by quick meals, and leftovers. I cooked a few different things from Anita Lo’s award winning cookbook “Solo: A Modern Cookbook for a Party of One” this week.
Dr. Bouley made me dinner! My friend Jacqueline is a chiropractor, health coach, and loves cooking as much as I do. She’s also the mom to two spunky french bulldogs, Frank and Momo (above). Dinner at her house is always a treat. She made me chicken thighs, roasted potatoes and broccoli, a salad, and baked me an amazing cookie for dessert.
Her spice cabinet inspired my project last week:
The chicken has Northwoods Seasoning (so good!) and got crispy in the cast iron.
The cookie dough was gluten free from Twist Bakery in Millis. UNBELIEVABLY GOOD. With some nada moo ice cream and a drizzle of Soom chocolate tahini.
Other good meals:
Anita Lo’s Kale Salad with Tahini and Dates from Solo My absolute favorite kale salad is this one from Epicurious – but this one has come in a close second, and is significantly easier to make quickly. I ended up making it for two separate meals. (You put all the ingredients in a bowl, and stir.)
Later in the week I followed up with her Red Cooked Duck recipe from Solo with some jasmine rice and broccoli. The store was out of duck legs, so I ended up going a little fancy with some duck breast.
Lots of quick meals this week:
Leftovers of Chrissy Teigen’s Lemony Arugula Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe from Cravings. I had put a portion in my freezer last week for a future perfect night.. but hadn’t realized that night would be less than a week later. Oops?
Trader Joe’s Gnocchi alla Sorrentina. I keep bags of this in my freezer for days when hunger strikes and I’m seeking comfort food.
An omelette with leftover green vegetables and a side of sauerkraut. It turns out Eggs and Sauerkraut are a lot of people’s jam in my friend group.
A romaine salad with blue cheese, blue cheese dressing, and a whole bunch of marinated anchovies.
A bowl of rice with eggs, chicken sausage, sauerkraut, and green dressing.
Trader Joe’s Macaroni and Cheese in the red box mixed with some Green Vegetable Foursome. When I’m not feeling like cooking, at least I can microwave. (Below. See, that looks at least a bit virtuous.)
Batch Cooking this week: this week I got my cook up on, and made soft boiled eggs, a charmoula-ish green dressing with anchovy, garlic, and my leftover parsley and mint, baked chicken thighs with za’atar for my upcoming lunches, and made a batch of pepita chili in the instant pot.
I leave you with Bertram on the yoga mat, hoping you’ll try out his tongue to nose pose.
The Second Lunch is a (mostly) food blog by Sam Tackeff about recipes, food writing, ingredient hunting, travel, healthy living, fitness, and everything in between.
Please do not steal! Email me at sam [at] thesecondlunch.com – if you’d like to use one of my photos, and I’d be happy to share my terms. Thanks!
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