Aug 1
My great, great aunt — a role model for healthy aging — always seems to bring something special when she comes over for a meal. Self educated and worldly, she has a sophisticated grace about her that shows through in her day-to-day way of living, the questions she asks, and her impeccable taste in seemingly everything. As a college student, her recipes are the first one’s I’d ever seen with no measurements, just ingredients. Read more
My mother, that is (not me).
Maybe it’s because of all the wisdom she accumulated raising three kids, or maybe it’s just plain old Midwestern resourcefulness, but she seems to often (not always) know best. She knows how to paint rooms and arrange flowers and install screens and strip floors and sew comforters and fix almost anything. She knows how to make people feel special and loved, no matter who they are. And most impressively to me these days, she knows how to get kids to eat vegetables. Read more
I used to dream about opening a breakfast and lunch cafe. Years of sitting in New York City cafes sipping espressos and eating croissants and browsing through magazines made me think it would be amazing to start my own. I longed to create a place where people came for community and warmth and strong coffee and wholesome, chic breakfasts. A place where children and elderly people in the neighborhood could mingle or simply co-exist. Where the menu was small, but mighty. Read more
New York City’s Sullivan Street Bakery publishes a no-knead bread recipe on its site — I’ve also seen it appear in The New York Times within the last few years, and it’s a staple in Mark Bittman’s food bible, How to Cook Everything. It’s the only yeast bread I’ll attempt because it takes very little (working) time and usually comes out quite well (except the time I put tablespoons instead of teaspoons of salt in it and gave it to a friend after she had a baby…ooops). Read more
Jul 11
photo by tim sackton, via flickr creative commons
Summertime screams salad. Gardens overflow with beautiful produce, and if your garden stops giving (because you got lazy about watering it like we did), farmers’ markets are bountiful. Hot sticky weather makes cold food taste better than it does in the dead of winter. And perhaps most importantly, most salads are quick and easy. In the spirit of summer, here are three salads that keep my belly full and palate satisfied. They’re listed in order of ease/speed (the latter two take a bit of work, but are worth it). Read more
Jun 24
photo by mnapolean via flickr creative commons
Our garden is overflowing with tomatoes and zucchini these days. The kids are making sure the tomatoes get plucked from the tangled vines once they’re red and juicy, but we’ve let the zucchini get a little bit out of control. OK, a lot out of control. Sean bushwhacked his way thorough the leaves last week to find a few that had embarrassingly grown to the size of bowling pins. Everyone who has seen them sitting on the counter during the past week has said something like “woah, do you know that you’re not supposed to let zucchini get so big?” or “is that seriously a zucchini?” or “when zucchini are that overgrown, all you can really do with them is make bread.”
So…making bread is what we did yesterday afternoon. Muffins, actually. Delicious, warm, gooey, chocolatey, zucchini-y muffins — a true feat for the sporadic bakers in our house. I had some quinoa flour in the cupboard and have been wanting to try using it, so searched for a recipe using zucchini and quinoa flour. And bingo — I found a great one:
Rich Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
1. Mix the brown sugar, canola oil, and eggs in the bowl at low speed; add applesauce until mixture is smooth.
2. Whisk together the quinoa flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add to the mixer bowl and beat until the ingredients are smooth and well combined. Using a spoon or a rubber spatula, fold in the zucchini and the chocolate chips.
3. Pour the mixture into two greased muffin plans. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-ish minutes until a utensil or toothpick comes out clean.
These were a huge hit, and would have been good even without the chocolate chips. I’m definitely going to make quinoa flour a baking staple (you know, like four times a year). Enjoy!
Have you ever baked with quinoa or any other special flours? Make anything delicious? Oh, and if you have any ideas about what to do with an armful of zucchini, please let me know!
Jun 17
via mark bittman
Mark Bittman posted a graphic last week that I loved, for both its beauty and its simplicity. I love grain salads in the summertime — they’re easy to make ahead of time for a BBQ, they keep well in the fridge, and they’re amazing 1-dish meals that leave you satisfied but not stuffed. Inspired after seeing this image, I made a favorite recipe for dinner last night. The core grain is farro, a wheat most commonly grown in Italy. With a chewy texture and rich, nutty flavor, it’s distinct, crave-worthy, and our kids even eat it! Here’s my go-to recipe:
What’s your favorite grain-based salad (if you’re a grain eater)? And if you don’t eat grains, why not?
Jun 12
photo by quinn.anya, via flickr creative commons
Some friends invited us to join them for a special event at the San Francisco Cheese School last night: a Wisconsin versus California face-off (IRRESISTABLE). There were four rounds (all paired with beer, of course), and each one included two pieces of cheese – one from Wisconsin and one from California. It was up to us – a mighty crowd of 26 – to decide which state produces the very best cheese.
The cheese was totally delicious…but what I want to note in this post (since waxing poetic about cheese and beer is a weird thing to do on blog about well-being) is how amazing it was to LEARN ABOUT SOMETHING NEW. As grown ups (well, at least in my experience as a grown up), it’s so easy to get stuck in the ruts of daily life and forget that there are whole worlds out there waiting to be discovered. Last night we learned about a world in which people spend a lifetime perfecting recipes and adjusting temperatures and caring for their herds…a world in which a Wisconsin cheesemaker only goes into his cave NAKED for fear of contaminating the aging cheese…and a world where a guy who believed in the power of cooperative grocery stores grew into a famous cheese dude.
Absent of phones and computers, and surrounded by tastes, smells and sounds that kept us in the moment, my brains was able to focus last night, and I settled into the cheesemonger’s rich stories the way I remember sinking into the chapter books my parents used to read…and the way my own kids settle into the stories we read today. This event was a great reminder of the value of shifting away from our normal rhythms and the power of opening our minds to new and foreign ideas. Just as we need to mix up our physical workouts, we need to mix up what we put into our brains….and how it gets there. As someone who finds the physical challenges more natural to take on than the mental ones, this was two hours well spent. I left with an inspired mind…and yes…a full tummy too.
And for the record, according to my palate, Wisconsin won. Here were my favorite cheeses in each flight:
When was the last time you learned something new? What did you learn, and how did it feel?
Jun 10
Life is full of transitions — big ones like getting married or having a child or starting a new job, and small ones like watching day turn into night and shifting from weekend to work week. These transitions are a great time to reflect — even if just for a few minutes — on what’s going well and what’s not. They’re a good time to check in about whether we’re rested or tired…energized or ambivalent…taking care of ourselves or not…and prioritizing the things that matter most. I consciously thought about these things for a few minutes as I drove to work this morning, taking stock of how the weekend went and what intentions I want to set for the week ahead. Here are some reminders I’m holding onto as the work week begins…
EXERCISE
Little Eyes Are Watching: Our 2-yr-old daughter was busily working on her own in the kitchen yesterday. I assumed she was “cooking” something in her play kitchen until she told me it was time to begin “spin class.” She told me she had water and pistachios ready in case we got hungry and thirsty, and she was ready to turn up the music and SPIN (note: she has never been to a spin class…she’s only heard me saying that I’m going to one…so her version of spin class was literally SPINNING, until I was sick and dizzy and ready to fall down). The point here is: as parents and as people…we don’t always realize how our behavior is impacting the people around us. If I had spent the weekend watching TV, my daughter likely would have organized a Downton Abbey marathon…not a spin class. Health begets health….something I posted about a few weeks ago in Cheering Us On.
FOOD
Deliciousness Can Be Easy: My mother-in-law was visiting this weekend, and she’s a great cook. What I love about her cooking sensibility is that she focuses on simplicity, and she proves that great cooking doesn’t need to be complicated. She made a beautifully seared prime rib, roasted potatoes and spinach and mango salad with seemingly minimal effort. No recipes required. I covered this idea of simple meals in an earlier post — 3-Ingredient Meals — and I love seeing it in practice. It’s a great reminder that time need not be a barrier to healthy + yummy cooking.
MIND
Technology is Complicated: If you missed it, this New York Times essay, “How Not to be Alone” is thought-provoking as we think about the role technology plays in our lives and how it can shape our behavior. Here’s a teaser that might make you want to take five minutes to read this: “I worry that the closer the world gets to our fingertips, the further it gets from our hearts.” If you’re interested in the conversation about technology and well-being, here’s an earlier post about the power of unplugging.
RELATIONSHIPS
Make New Friends, but Keep the Old: We spent time with three different out of town guests over the weekend (mother-in-law, old friend from Wisconsin, and old friend from Calgary), and I was reminded how important it is to invest in lifelong relationships. I know it’s cheesy, but I’ve always loved the piece about friends in that famous Baz Luhrmann “Sunscreen” poem/song: “Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.” Both new and old friends add huge value to our lives…and seeing old ones face-to-face is an important reminder that we need both.
PURPOSE
The Power of Focus: I don’t have any weekend revelations about purpose to share — after all, it was just a weekend! But I did do a bit of thinking about focus. We went to a park Saturday that’s famous for kite-flying, and I loved getting lost in the moment while watching the colorful kits swirling in the air (similar to the Hockey Moments I covered a while ago). Our lives have the potential to be totally absorbed by distraction, making focus elusive. Jonathan Safran Foer quotes Simone Weil in the loneliness essay I mentioned above: “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” This is so true…generosity to others…and to ourselves. This leads to my intention for this week…FOCUS. Less email, more making stuff. Less breadth, more depth. Less interruption, more impact.
What’s your intention for the week? And does it stem from something you did, read, heard, or realized this weekend?
tonight’s dinner!
Until about a few years ago, I thought I hated brussels sprouts. When I’m honest with myself, I’m not sure I ever gave them a fair shot; instead compartmentalizing them into the same category as lima beans (which I indeed still hate). I finally tried them out of solidarity when Sean made a brussels sprouts, bacon and parmesan dish for Thanksgiving dinner at my parents’ house. And from that point forward, I was a changed woman — gobbling up brussels sprouts when I saw them on menus (beginning a long love affair with the brussels sprouts chips at Marlowe in San Francisco) and cooking them at home often.
Eating solo with the kids tonight, I scrambled to quickly cook something green and tasty, and shocker…brussels sprouts were in the fridge. It took five minutes flat to…
…take them out of the fridge
…wash them
…halve them
…toss them with a handful of pancetta over medium-high heat
…and sprinkle them with salt and pepper
This is the one of the easiest ways I know to feel like I’m eating something fancy with minimal work…and get loaded up on vitamin A, vitamin C, and folic acid to boot. So next time you’re looking for a healthy veggie, reach for the brussels sprouts. And don’t be afraid to add some bacon/pancetta to make them extra delish. After all, bacon makes everything better, doesn’t it?
Do you have a brussels sprouts dish you love? Or do you have another veggie that helps you get a quick and easy fill of the green stuff?
P.S. If you’re looking for some fun dinner table trivia, 1) the first written reference to brussels sprouts dates to 1587, 2) most U.S. production is in California, and most importantly, 3) Prince William and Kate Middleton love snacking on brussels sprouts and cream cheese.
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Tim Ferriss is the author of five #1 New York Times bestsellers and host of The Tim Ferriss Show podcast.
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