Whole grains

 

It’s important to pay attention to your daily fiber intake, even (and maybe especially) when you’re trying to figure out the best way to do your part in resisting creeping authoritarianism. I’ve been in a pretty consistent breadmaking routine ever since I put up my very first post about baking bread more than 17 (!) years ago. And in all that time that I’ve been making bread, my standard recipe is pretty basic—1:3 ratio of whole wheat flour to white bread flour: suitable to most uses, including rolls, loaves, focaccia, pita bread, pizza dough, sometimes even bagels. The one thing it couldn’t do is fulfill my craving for a hearty wholegrain loaf that would fit into my kitchen routine as seamlessly. I’ve tried a few different recipes over the years, but nothing has ever made it into the regular rotation. But I think I may have found The One, at last—ironically in a cookbook I bought eight years ago.

Multigrain Cereal Bread

Adapted from Bread Toast Crumbs by Alexandra Stafford

The best thing about this recipe for me is that the source of the ‘multigrain’ in this bread is a multigrain hot cereal mix (I use this one). I had no idea these even existed until I found this recipe, but I love that it’s such an easy and convenient option. In the past I was always daunted by the prospect of trying to find, buy, and manage even a few types of whole grains in order to make multigrain bread, and this genius hack just removes that whole obstacle. I’ve been making this bread consistently for the last six months, and it has become a staple in my daily breakfast. It’s hearty and chewy and leaves me feeling much more satiated than any other bread I consume. And it’s texturally consistent enough that I think it could be a feasible option for people who might expect to have texture issues with multigrain bread—always a plus in my house!

Yield: 1 tin loaf*

⅔ cup (106 g) 10-grain hot cereal

1 cup boiling water

¼ cup (60 ml) maple syrup

2¼ cups (288 g) bread flour**

1 cup (128 g) whole-wheat flour

2 teaspoons (~10 g) kosher salt

2¼ teaspoons (~5 g) instant yeast

1 cup room temp water

1. In a large (at least 2-cup) measuring cup or a medium bowl, combine cereal, boiling water, and maple syrup. Leave to stand for 10 minutes while you get on with the rest of the recipe.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, salt, and yeast.

3. Add room temp water to hot cereal mixture and stir to combine. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix together (I use my beloved dough whisk for this) until fully combined into a fairly sticky dough. 

4. Cover the bowl and put in a warm place to rise for 60-90 minutes or until the dough has doubled in bulk.

5. Heat the oven to 375F/190C and arrange with a rack in the middle. Line a loaf pan with baking parchment, or grease well with butter.

6. Use a rubber spatula or other implement of choice to scrape dough from bowl into loaf pan and distribute evenly. Leave to rise for 10-20 minutes while the oven comes to temperature, or until the top of the dough has risen to the edge of the pan.

7. Place the pan in the center of the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes, rotating halfway through, looking for a golden crust. If you have an instant-read thermometer, insert into the center of the bread to check that the internal temperature is at least 190F/88C and that the probe comes out clean. 

8. Tip the bread out of the pan onto a rack to cool. Let rest for at least 15 minutes, and preferably longer, before slicing. 

* The original recipe calls for making two smaller, round loaves baked in Pyrex glass bowls, but after a few tries I’ve decided I prefer it as one larger tin loaf.

** The original recipe calls for all-purpose flour, but I like the consistency better with bread flour. 

Still standing

 

Handmade taggy for a new baby in
my neighborhood—plus the all-important book

I’m so far from being in a state of flow on anything I’m trying to do at the moment. The combination of having been sick for the last couple of weeks and the daily onslaught of horrors makes it almost impossible to focus, and makes focusing on any one thing seem pointless. What difference does it make to help out a neighbor with snow removal? To donate a few dollars to a mutual aid fund in Minneapolis or Maine? To make a good dinner out of leftovers so they don’t go to waste? To put my hand up to do volunteer work? To edit a piece of academic research that only a handful of people will ever read? To sew a present for someone instead of just buying a cheap plastic thing online? To stand here on my little soapbox and say, “No! No! No!”

And yet I continue to believe that these things do matter, even when they seem like trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon. I remind myself that these are not new problems we are facing. I reiterate the importance of “know[ing] what you stand for and what you think is good.” I practice thinking of myself as part of a team. And I seek the courage to keep doing the next right thing, which is often to not succumb to the easy, apathizing lure of despair. I have not been called upon to display the kind of courage I see in the news every day—but I remain responsible for doing what I can. And, as a fellow blogger said, one thing I do know how to do is feed people:

Food for All Services - Maine

StandwithMinnesota.com

Progress, not perfection

 

The table runner that I used to teach myself three different quilting methods;
it is full of mistakes and makes me happy every time I look at it

The number of tasks I aspire to get done every day may be objectively ridiculous. I don’t know, and one of the things I have struggled with throughout my life is feeling as though I’m not doing enough, no matter how much I do. Also that I don’t have enough time, even on days where I have no commitments and 16 unfettered hours stretch out before me. If I spend too long on any one thing (hyperfocusing), I start to get anxious that I’m falling behind on something else.

To combat this, I’ve developed a lot of routines that involve spending 10-15 minutes focusing on a bunch of different things (microtasking). This is usually pretty effective; I may not finish whatever task I’ve allocated to that small chunk of time, but I will at least move it forward. And it’s an ongoing surprise to me how many things I can substantively complete in a focused 10-minute session.

This method is a helpful way for me to circumvent procrastination (I’ll just do 10 minutes on that thing I don’t really want to do) and decision paralysis (I don’t have to prioritize one thing, I can focus in turn on each of these things that seem equally important). It also helps me get past my own perfectionist expectations, and focus on the process rather than the rush to get it done. Even I recognize that the chances I can turn out a finished product of any kind are slim to none. But I can get one step or one seam or one sentence done. And if, horror of horrors, I do make a mistake, I can step away, focus on something else, and fix it in the next session.

Sometimes I get frustrated by microtasking, because I feel like my progress in any given area is so slow. But occasionally I get a tangible reminder that little by little, the steps, seams, sentences, sessions do add up (see above).

This is a useful analogy for any area of life, especially the ones where results might not be so material (no pun intended). The important thing, I am learning one day at a time, is to keep going, keep learning, keep doing and making.

September vibes

 

Miss B came home for a visit for the last part of August, and went back over Labor Day weekend to start her third (!) year of university. (The cat does not approve of this arrangement.) DP’s semester got underway in mid-August, but Miss B's exit, plus changing the calendar to September, makes the back to school/impending fall vibes inescapable for me. The temperatures here have cooled off enough to leave the windows open during the day, and maybe even pull on a blanket at night. The other morning I woke up wondering why I didn’t have a comfortable chair in my room. So I pulled this one out of the basement, moved it upstairs, and embellished it with some me-made comforts. An instant life upgrade using what I had available; an ongoing encouragement to use limitations to spur creative problem solving, and to take regular breaks from the daily onslaught. 

Making things

Unquestionably frivolous—but also
a provider of great satisfaction and joy

“‘In a time of destruction, create something.’ To be creative is to push back, again and again, against despair, complacency, and cruelty.” - Maxine Hong Kingston, quoted by Maggie Smith in Creative Fuel by Ana Brones

When I started blogging nearly 17 years ago, it was to build a creative outlet for myself and to document my life as an American immigrant to Australia, experiencing life in a new, faraway country with my husband and then four-year-old daughter. At that point, my other primary creative outlet was cooking and baking—practical and satisfying, if ephemeral. 

Since then, my family and the blog have been through three more international moves, returning to the US seven years ago, into an era of political volatility that has only intensified. My own daily life is also much different: I’m now the mother of a young adult, attending university in another country; and my primary creative focus has shifted from food to fabric. I feel the desire to make things with my hands more than ever, but these days I get more satisfaction out of making things that are more enduring. I still love to make and eat good food, but I do it more on autopilot these days as I apply my brain to learn new skills using stitching. 

I’ve really struggled with blogging over the past few years, feeling as though talking about my life of relative privilege and freedom to focus on creative endeavors is tone-deaf and irresponsible in the face of the hardship and horror that so many people are experiencing every day. And how to navigate the fact that everything about food, about crafting, about domestic life, is simultaneously fundamentally political and an escape from politics. 

I find myself increasingly impatient with internet content that is purely focused on escape, that takes little or no notice of the realities that we in the US—and by extension the rest of the world—are currently navigating. Being able to focus on baking bread and stitching pillows is unquestionably a marker of privilege—and even more so than usual in this moment. And it can feel frivolous given the state of things. But I continue to think it is important. Every decision that I make about how and where I spend my money—and my time—is a political decision. And I feel strongly that putting my time and money and energy into endeavors that support local enterprises and communities over multinational corporations is political—and so is finding joy and self-actualization. There’s a hustle mentality component to activism along with everything else that appears on the internet; but that’s just another exhortation to set myself on fire to keep other people warm. I can’t change the world by myself, and I can’t work with other people if I’m too burned out and exhausted to leave the house. So I’m trying to embrace making things as resistance, and make time for them alongside more conventional resistance activities. I have been paralyzed by feeling I need to demonstrate that what I’m doing to live my values, or how I’m doing it, is ‘enough’ or ‘good enough’—but I’m going to try to continue to resist that idea as well, and re-integrate this blog among the things I make with my hands.

News roundup

Thank you for your patience while I took *checks notes* eleven months to post an update. I’ll try to keep it informative without becoming voluminous.

The Thames at sunset, Midsummer Day

Family About a week after Miss B’s graduation last June, we set off for a four-week trip overseas, with stops in England, France, Germany, and Switzerland. We spent time with friends, absorbed loads of cultural and historical information, and had some stupendous meals. We also made trips to Boston (to visit family), and to New Jersey (for our annual beach trip). And at the end of summer, we made the most momentous trip of all - to deliver Miss B to the start of her next adventure, aka university. It’s still kind of mind-blowing to grasp being the parent of a university student, even now when her first year is finished. 

The Alps from Anzère, Switzerland

Work I think DP and I have adjusted well overall to our new phase of life. DP is busy with work as always, and made several work trips, including back to Canberra for the first time in five years. I’ve been able to continue to keep my work schedule more manageable and focus on a few projects that I find interesting and challenging, but which don’t take over my entire life. 

The beach at Cape May

Home We’ve been in Northern Virginia for almost six years, and will soon break our record for staying in one place. This is by far the longest we’ve lived in one house in one location, and it’s been such a relief to have that continuity. I feel as though I’m still learning my way around and finding things to do and places to go (COVID also put the brakes on this process in a big way), and I’m grateful that we’re set to stay here for the foreseeable future. This spring I had visits from the one niece who hadn’t been before, as well as my best friend from Boston, and those made me feel rooted in a new way. 

Domestic still life with snoozing cat

Avocations Changes to my work and parenting commitments have given me the opportunity to give some time and attention to creative interests that had been getting short shrift for a long time. I’m trying to make time every day for creative pursuits. I’m also reading, with my top priority my daily chapter of War & Peace for the yearlong ‘slow read’ I’m taking part in. I’m really enjoying it and I think I’m getting much more out of it than if I had tried to tackle it on my own.

A set of bowl cozies recently completed for a nibling birthday gift

Food Some changes here too, mainly that with a smaller household and other outlets for my interest in making things, I’m not spending as much time cooking as I used to. I still want delicious food and plenty of it, but I also want production to be straightforward and efficient. My priorities these days are veg-heavy meals that provide maximum impact for minimum effort. 

Imagine a tray of vegetables roasting in the oven while I learn strip-and-flip scrap quilting

So that’s the (extremely condensed) news update from here. I promise it won’t be another eleven months until the next one!

Graduation day

DP, Miss B, and I often joke that we’re “not a math family.” Words, rather than numbers, are our preferred medium, by a long way, to transmit information. So when DP suggested that I say a few words at Miss B’s graduation dinner, I was surprised to note that what kept coming into my mind were numbers. Those had more impact for me in capturing Miss B’s singular experience so far than any words I could corral onto paper. So here they are, documented for posterity.

26+3 Miss B’s gestational age when she made her unforeseen early entrance onto this plane of existence - at the very end of July, rather than her due date of early November.

590 That’s her birthweight, in grams; for those of you working in imperial, that’s 1 lb., 5 oz.

225 Days spent in hospital - about 7.5 months on the calendar, from the end of July 2004 to mid-march 2005.

When Miss B came home, her health was stable and her physical life and development became more typical in many ways (albeit on her own schedule). But her life experience continued to follow a road less traveled:

3 | 3 | 4 | 4 Miss B has lived in three countries on three continents, as well as in four US states. She also navigated four intercontinental moves between the ages of 3 and 13. 

(When we moved back to the US five years ago, I promised her that the next time she moved, it would be her decision. I’ve been able to keep that promise, and she has taken the decision to move again, to attend university. She will also be moving to her fourth country, but I’m grateful to say that she will be remaining on the same continent.)

10 | 7 In the course of all these moves, Miss B has also lived in 10 houses (or apartments), and attended seven schools - a metric that testifies to her resilience and adaptability.

For the final number that came to me, I tried to calculate the number of air miles that Miss B has logged. I gave up when I passed 100,000, and was not close to finishing.

Reflecting on these numbers brought me back to some words that I feel describe, at least somewhat adequately, the person she has always been and continues to become.

Intrepid

Creative

Curious

Passionate

Kind

Funny

Focused 

Brave

To Miss B: I offer you congratulations and admiration for all that you’ve learned and achieved as you complete this milestone and look to your next phase. I’m so glad that I’m your mother and riding this roller coaster with you. To me, you are first, last, and always - the mighty Miss B.

Four months

 Well, that was an unplanned hiatus. Here’s a quick recap of key events since my last post:

The month of June was dominated by a two-week trip to England which was a combination of work and holiday. We were mostly in London, with excursions out of town on the weekends. The highlight of these was a trip to Oxford, our former hometown and Miss B’s birthplace, where we caught up with various friends and revisited old haunts. These included my favorite place, the Covered Market, here still sporting some yarnbombing to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee, which had happened in May.

Speaking of Miss B, the theme of July was some big life stuff happening for her. One thing involved her being away for most of the month, on a three-week pre-college course that enabled her to delve into her love of history and start getting a taste of university life in an extremely historic location (as well as help her parents start preparing mentally and logistically for the next phase).

She finished up right at the end of the month, just before a milestone birthday. Luckily not yet too old for a themed cake though!

We kicked off August with our final major event of the summer, our annual jaunt to the coast. This is our fourth year at Cape May, and we love it as much as ever - plenty of sun, lazing by the ocean, and New Jersey farmstand produce. 

My cooking highlight this year, to make the most of some great local tomatoes, was a MacGyvered focaccia. I made the same basic bread recipe that I always make, then after letting it rise I gave it the focaccia treatment - i.e., spreading it in a baking pan with lots of olive oil, poking dimples in it with my fingers, sprinkling salt on it, and then baking it. It was yummy, and since then I’ve continued to work it into the regular bread rotation. 

This rotation has gotten more regular as August shifted into September, because along with other transitions, I’ve made some changes to my work commitments which I’m hopeful will allow for better balancing of priorities across multiple areas of life. 

I posted a picture of the pillow on the left on Instagram a few weeks ago, describing it as “turning anxiety management (handstitching) into home decor”. Ideally (among other things) I’d like more of the handwork and less of the anxiety.

I'm not quite at this point, but it's something to aspire to. More to come soon, I hope, and that your anxiety is minimal and your contentment maximal in the meantime.

No words

A while back I learned a technique from a counselor: I was struggling to deal with a crisis situation and she asked me to start processing by listing five emotions that I was feeling in that moment. At the end of the session, we revisited that technique, and she recommended it as a tool to help start the process of navigating difficult emotions. It's a tool I've continued to use. So here’s what I’m feeling today, if I try to think about pretty much anything outside my own little sphere:

- anger

- sadness

- despair

- frustration

- fear

I don’t feel able to write anything about everyday events like food or gardening or holiday weekends because it seems so cluelessly trivial in the context of the bigger picture of what I see happening in the US and elsewhere. I know it’s important to stay in the present, in my own reality, and not get swept up into the surging currents of events on social media, and food is one of the ways that I keep my feet on the ground. But right now the luxury of being able to mull over what to make for dinner, or what’s on the schedule for this week, feels like an impertinence; how can normal life for anyone continue in a world where things like these can happen? 

And yet it must. We must not give in to despair, to the forces of darkness. We must take action as we can: Make a donation. Call an elected representative. Hug our loved ones. Hold a thought for those who are devastated. Keep putting one foot in front of the other, remembering that every day that we draw breath on this earth is a privilege and a responsibility. Keep helping each other along.

Donate or take action in your community (US)

Find your members of Congress (US)

Support food as a universal human right (global)

Support humanitarian assistance worldwide (global)

Work/life balance

I know that I have infinite company in feeling that the roller coaster of the last two years has thrown this balance off completely, that the mental load that work entails has expanded to encroach into every corner of brain space, with attending consequences for mental and physical health. Re-establishing boundaries, especially for myself, is an ongoing challenge and a necessary one. Here are some things that have helped recently with re-balancing the scales:

Getting out of the house and going somewhere different - in this case, London. After being entirely confined to the BosNYWash megalopolis for nearly 3 years, I got on a plane with my family and went to a different country altogether. We took Miss B to some of our favorite London spots and thoroughly enjoyed the change of scene. Oh, and we got to cheer DP on as he won an award in his field, which put a very nice finishing touch to the excursion.

Welcoming visitors - two of my sisters came to visit, also for the first time in nearly 3 years. It was such a refreshing change; we took a break from the regular routine to do touristy things with them, as well as making the most of the time together with lots of walking, chatting, and eating. We spotted this rainbow as we were lingering at the dinner table one evening - I doubt I'd have noticed if it if I'd been doing my usual daily round. 

Making time for hobbies - these breaks from the routine reminded me that I don't have to wait for other people or events to provide an opportunity to take some time to focus on things other than work. In addition to my usual food purchases at the farmers' market this weekend (including some spectacular strawberries, see above), I also picked up some tomato and herb plants to grow on the back deck - an addition to the daily routine that I hope will supplement both diet and quality of life. 

Easter 2022

Here's this year's edition of my annual Easter post...

...freshly completed tarrale...

...a piping-hot pizza chiena...

...a bouquet of tulips from my visit to the first farmers' market of the year on Saturday morning...

...all culminating in this morning's Easter breakfast spread.

I also discovered from a friend's post that this weekend is a rare confluence of spring festivals in a number of different cultures and traditions. So I'm sending good wishes to everyone celebrating Easter, Passover, Ramadan, and Vaisakhi this weekend - and a weekend of peace, goodwill, and abundance to everyone. 

March roundup

March got away from me, so here are a few recent highlights:

I’m continuing to find new uses for my sourdough starter and this one is right up there: a recipe for nearly-instant crumpets, aka TrashCrumps, constructed mainly from starter and found on Instagram. Definitely a keeper.

We had a weekend in New York City mid-month where we visited friends and family, ate lots of good food, and walked a good chunk of Manhattan (21,000 steps in one day!). Our Saturday evening included taking Miss B most of the length of Central Park, including the reservoir.

I’ve been continuing to make snacking cakes, inspired by this book. Miss B’s recent favorite is a raspberry cake topped with a glaze made with icing sugar mixed with equal parts milk and blood orange juice. A good way to make the most of their short season.

Spring has come to northern Virginia and the flowers are blooming. I snapped this gorgeous camellia when it was all just beginning a couple of weeks ago.

And now it's time to jump into April. Hoping it brings good things to all.

MacGyver gnocchi

The pace of work and home life this week continued to dictate yet again the need for dinner solutions that could be produced on a short turnaround. Gnocchi in the pantry and leftover sausage and kale in the fridge came to the rescue to help produce this cheesy gnocchi bake when MacGyver night rolled around on Thursday. 

It’s still a work in progress, but the basic infrastructure involves preheating the oven to 425F/210C; browning gnocchi in butter and bacon fat in a cast-iron skillet on the stovetop, then mixing in chopped, cooked kale and Italian sausage. I then added about 1 cup of stock and milk mixed together, and slid the whole thing into the now-hot oven to let it heat through for about 10 minutes. Then I mixed in somewhere around 1.5 cups of cream cheese, grated cheddar cheese, and grated pecorino romano, and put it back in for another 5 minutes or so. The sauce isn’t quite right yet, so I’ll be continuing to fiddle with it, but even as is, it was still pretty tasty and hit the spot at the end of a long, busy day. And since I'm on a short turnaround yet again, that's all from me for today.

Points north

This week was another busy one - a visit from our oldest nibling, more mitigation on the recent water issue, plus the usual round of work and family commitments crammed into four days - and we wrapped it up with a weekend overnight in Pennsylvania. This trip encompassed our youngest nibling’s first birthday party; a celebratory dinner with one of DP’s former students who’s just achieved a significant career milestone; and, since we were in the neighborhood, a peek at a possible candidate for Miss B’s college application list. (Yes, we’ve officially entered this phase of the parenting journey.)

By the time last night rolled around, I was glad that DP had insisted that we splurge and stay at a local inn, rather than a generic hotel room. After an extra-long sleep in a very comfortable bed, we were fed an amazing homemade breakfast made by someone other than me. And with all of our obligations completed, we had a flexible Sunday schedule and continued the indulgence with a stop in Gettysburg on the way home to browse in some shops we don’t get to often - including the only Polish pottery supplier in this part of the country. I took the opportunity to pick up a few new pieces to level up breakfast at home.

So - not much cooking this weekend, but plenty of good eating and good company, a change of scene and a bit of rest. I'm grateful to be able to say so.

3-day weekend

The third Monday in February is a public holiday in the US - Presidents’ Day. I can’t say I commemorate this in any meaningful way, other than this year by being even more grateful than usual to get an extra day off. Last week felt like it went on about twice as long as normal, thanks to a confluence of professional and household events that started way too early on Tuesday morning with discovering puddles in the basement, and finished late Friday with a day that felt like a real-life game of Tetris, trying to slot repeated visits from various repair personnel in with work-related Zoom calls, and vice versa. The time in between involved 48 hours of industrial drying equipment that invaded 2 out of 3 floors, sounded like a jet engine was parked in the kitchen, and required constant wearing of earplugs in order to function indoors. 

This disrupted my sleep patterns just a bit, and I was awake before 6 on Saturday morning, even though I didn’t need to be. This was an improvement over the previous 2 mornings - not only because I had slept past 4, but also because it was quiet. Even with a busy Saturday of offline and online chores in prospect, I thoroughly enjoyed a peaceful breakfast - and the ability to move about freely in my own kitchen again. 

I celebrated by making a little something special - a batch of biscuit croissants. I made up a batch of 2-Ingredient Biscuits; rolled the dough out flat; sliced into 8 triangles; filled half with chocolate chunks (for Miss B) and half with cinnamon sugar (for me); rolled them up like croissants; and baked them on a parchment-lined tray at 400F/200C for 15 minutes. I had 2 of the cinnamon ones for breakfast with some cranberry-apple butter.

No alarm tomorrow morning either - hurrah! Hope that wherever you are, you're getting some rest and relaxation too.

Weekend schedules

Do you have a schedule for your weekend? Following on from last week’s post, I’ve been thinking more about time blocks and how useful they are - but also how important it is to not fill up all those blocks with chores. It’s just as important to set aside a few for fun things, or to do absolutely nothing. 

My mother had a tendency to fill her days with chores from morning until night, and to try to combat this environmental conditioning, my sisters and I have been encouraging one another to follow the practice laid down by one of our aunts for herself post-retirement - chores in the morning, fun in the afternoon. 

I can’t say that I’m fully succeeding at implementing this system for my weekends, especially as I regularly push the envelope by doing things like not eating lunch until 2pm. But I think it is making me more mindful about how I use my time. This includes paying attention to how long things actually take; I have a tendency not to notice that, and trying to estimate that more accurately ahead of time is helping me to better manage my own expectations of what’s feasible in a morning. And maybe also helping me to normalize that an hour or two on the couch with a book or a movie is a perfectly reasonable way to spend a weekend afternoon. Even if this weekend I instead gave chunks of my afternoons to an Instant Pot beef stew (very) loosely based on this recipe, and a longstanding family Valentine's Day tradition. It's all about progress, right?  

15 minutes

My corner of northern Virginia has 15 more minutes of daylight today than we did last Sunday - a useful reminder of the impact that a seemingly small chunk of time can have. Particularly useful at a time of year when it’s hard to muster up the energy or motivation to do much of anything at all, and yet the list of things that needs to get done never seems to get any shorter. To say nothing of the list of things I’d like to make some time for as well, and the constant tug of war between those two categories. 

Allocating small chunks of time - 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 25 minutes, depending on the task at hand and the budget of daily time available - has been for many years the best strategy I have found to get pretty much anything done that needs doing, or that I want to be doing. It’s not an exaggeration to say that it’s the key to everything I’ve accomplished, certainly since I became a parent. 

I remembered another two benefits of this method this weekend: 

1. If you’re contemplating tackling a project that’s daunting in scope or duration, allocating a small, regular chunk of time to focus on it will enable you to deal with it in less-terrifying and more-manageable chunks, with gaps in between to mull your next steps. 

2. Even a 15-minute block of time is enough to get you well on the way to having some cake.

January snapshots

I feel a certain loyalty to January because it’s my birth month, but even I have to admit that it’s kind of a drag. It feels even more so than usual this year, probably because today, as my Timehop reminded me, is 2 years since the WHO declared coronavirus a “global health emergency”. 

This is at the top of a long list of reasons to be gloomy; but I know all too well that there’s little benefit to going down that road. So instead I’m digging deep and looking for reasons to be cheerful, or at least grateful, during this season of hibernation. Here are a couple of mine this weekend:

Minneolas - one of the highlights of my winter rotation; I keep an eye out for these and eat one a day as long as they’re in season. Seeing them in the supermarket before the end of January is a bonus.

Opportunistic cooking - I don’t have the discipline or the energy to do any significant prep cooking on the weekend, but I did take advantage of a free hour and some surplus vegetables in the fridge to do some chopping and roasting for use later in the week. And since the oven was already on, I mixed up a snacking cake while I was at it and chucked that in there too. 

Lights - yes, I know it’s almost February, but every weekend since New Year’s I think about taking these down and then I don’t. They turn on automatically at dusk every night and they still give me a little jolt of happiness every time.

Side note: that's all that's left from the small amount of snow we got from the mega-storm that hit the US east coast this weekend. Thinking of all my friends and family digging out up north, and hoping that wherever you are, you've got light, warmth, and good food.