by Sam Tackeff | Nov 13, 2013 | Eggs, Meat, Pantry Staples
See that? That’s my one cup of coffee that I committed to yesterday. I nursed that cup for four hours, microwaved it three times, and resisted brewing a second one. For the rest of the day I drank hot water steeped with a nob of ginger. I keep a root on my counter which I snap off piece by piece into tea. I always try to find the ones at the market that have the most little nobs for this purpose – it’s like popping bubble wrap, but you get a whiff of spicy goodness at every snap! Sometimes I stir a spoonful of honey into my ginger water, but usually I just drink it straight-up.
On Wednesdays I work from home, it’s the day I have set for several morning calls, and I plan to tackle projects that require critical thinking with limited distraction. It’s wonderful for so many reasons – I find myself more productive than normal, it breaks up the week, and I find the quiet to be restorative. And I don’t have to wear pants.
I’ve been feeling a little bit under the weather this week, so I decided to feed myself comforting foods, take it easy, and hopefully ward off anything germy that could be brewing. Normally I head to the gym on Wednesday, but by mid afternoon I was exhausted, so I took a well-needed rest day.
Lunch was a pair of eggs fried in coconut oil, and topped with Trader Joe’s frozen vegetable curry. (This is one of my favorite items at Trader Joe’s – and generally, they do quite a good job on these frozen south asian meals. The ingredients are minimal, and the flavors well developed. I could rotate between this one, the Lamb Vindaloo, and the Butter Chicken for days.)
For dinner, I was craving something warm and filling. Last week, while trying out a few recipes from my newly acquired cookbook – Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese (by the lovely Stephanie and Garrett!), I loved the tomato soup in the book so much that I had to make a second batch. So tonight I decided to make meatballs – with ground beef from the butcher, salt, pepper, cinnamon and garlic powder, and simmer them for an hour in the tomato soup. I tossed in a large handful of orzo pasta, and let it bubble gently until cooked through.
Devon walked in the door right when dinner was ready, and we both loved this meal.
by Sam Tackeff | Nov 12, 2013 | Coffee
I decided this morning that I’m going to try to go back to one cup of coffee a day.
At some point, my single cup of coffee in the morning turned into two, and then one mid-afternoon, and then all too often one at five – my crutch to get me through the terrible shock to my system that is daylight savings. This darkness before five is oppressive!
Now, the coffee itself, it’s not all that bad of a habit, and most of the coffee I drink is black, so there’s no impetus to cut back to avoid excess sugar. So why change? Here’s the problem: I love the taste of coffee, and the ritual, and sometimes this means that I drink more than I really need – and I don’t like it when caffeine becomes a craving rather than an “optional”.
So here’s my intention. One cup, in the morning. For the rest of the day, I’ll refill with hot water – my favorite form of hydration. If I feel so inclined to take a 5pm special treat once in a while, so be it, but it won’t be every day.
–––
It’s been quite some time since I’ve shared my daily gratitude exercise here, but I try to come up with a small list on a regular basis that captures the things I’m thankful for. Years in this still feels a little hippy dippy, but being able to acknowledge the good around me really helps me feel better about life.
The little things:
smart and thoughtful coworkers. people who make me happy to show up every day, who are positive, hardworking, and caring.
sandwich fixins’. minus the bread. arugula, mozzarella, prosciutto, basil. also, coworkers that don’t mock me for dumping the contents of several sandwiches into my plate, and leaving a sad heap of bread cast-offs.
new strings. some of the guitars in the house are getting some attention tonight – they aren’t my instruments, but seeing new strings put on, and necks lovingly polished, and then listening to the tuning – is delightful.
twinkle lights. we have our string of lights up all year long in the living room – it always feels magical.
the gently vibrating alarm on my Jawbone Up. way better than getting woken aggressively by a phone alarm, and even though I usually wake up a few minutes before it goes off, it’s still quite comforting.
IOU’s. the parking lot credit card machine was broken tonight, and the attendant waved me off, telling me to pay the next time I was in.
dear book club friends, on our non-book club night, at the bar. added bonus of nostalgia from my college days studying poetry with chili and a pint at the bar (Dunn-Gaherin’s)
by Sam Tackeff | Nov 11, 2013 | Ice Cream
Most of the time around here our food is home cooked, organic, locally sourced. I pride myself on cooking a glut of vegetables on a daily basis. I try to bring my lunch into work. I rarely bake at home, and junk doesn’t make it into the house. I do have one weakness…. okay, yeah, no, let’s scrap this entire intro here. Seriously, just ignore any attempts to set the idyllic scene. I don’t need to apologize, nor do I feel guilty for this important truth:
I love Ben & Jerry’s. Love it. I’d eat pints and pints all day long if I could. In fact, I really miss the days where I could pack back an entire pint with ease. Now, unfortunately, I care about not getting sugar high and a stomach ache. Oh, good old days of gluttony, I do miss you! But why Ben & Jerry’s? It’s the creaminess. And the flavors. And the puns. And mostly the delightful mix-in prizes you get with every scoop. It’s the romance of scooping bowls for yourself and your partner, and making the conscious decision to equally share the crags of chocolate toffee, or the cookie dough, or the brown sugar swirls. A few years ago when Molly’s book ‘Season to Taste‘ came out, one of the most fascinating parts was her mentioning that Ben Cohen had anosmia (a loss of smell, and corresponding loss of taste), and that was the impetus for all of those excellent textural additions. It makes total sense.
I’ve tried a lot of ice cream in my day, but for me Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is the total package for a supermarket brand. While it may not be BiRite Salted Caramel, it’s much more than the sum of it’s parts. The caveat: it’s not small batch, and the ingredients aren’t always as wholesome as I’d like, and technically they are owned by a major blood-sucking corporation – the man. But man oh man, do they have consistency down. I’ve never met a flavor that I didn’t like.
So here we are tonight.
The ice cream aisle. All of the options. It’s the most important decision of the day. I love asserting this to strangers in the ice cream aisle. They all nod, knowingly. I’m only being partially facetious. Tonight, Pistachio Pistachio sang the loudest siren song. Sometimes we can’t make a single choice in agreement, so we get two pints. “We’re going for a balanced meal here!” I joke to the cashier. It’s one of my “regular jokes,” the kind that when I have children they’ll roll their eyes at.
Tonight this pint is coming home, and I’m going to watch Top Chef episodes that I’ve fallen behind on, and the world will be good.
Also: while doing “research” tonight, I came across this masterpiece – 2dips. 2 Dippers Kris and Fred would sit down with a pint and write their own reviews – the Siskel and Ebert of food blogging, with fierce enthusiasm about their frozen adventures. 500 words about a pint of ice cream? Yes, indeed. After reading through dozens of reviews, I was horrified to find that they stopped updating in 2011. How could this happen? So, 2dips Kris, 2dips Fred: this scoop is for you, wherever you are.
Other flavors of Ben & Jerry’s I enjoy:
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
- Chunky Monkey
- Cinnamon Buns
- Coffee Caramel Buzz/ Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz/Coffee Heath Bar Crunch
- Chocolate Therapy
- New York Super Fudge Chunk
- Mint Chocolate Cookie
- Greek: Strawberry Shortcake
And from the scoop shops: Coconut Seven Layer Bar and White Russian. I wish this was sold by the pint!
Do you have a favorite flavor?
