The Only Newsletter I Care About This
The only link that I care about this week:
A link that I feel so passionately about, that simply sending out a group text to my besties just isn't going to cut it.
Treat People with Kindness
The only recipe I care about this week:
What I've been cooking lately and the accompanying extemporaneous thoughts, dedicated to my friend Beth.
On a stroke of good luck that can only happen in the first 3 days of any new year, I had an idea for a recipe. A made up recipe in which all ingredients existed in fine form in my kitchen at the exact moment of inception and that ultimately came out just as good as I had hoped it would in my mind.
I posted a scattered, dream-journal-esque version of the recipe on my Instagram stories a few days ago, but it lacked two very important things: coherent directions and salt/pepper. Important!
Here it is again...
Slow Cooked New Years Chicken with Artichoke Hearts
2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
1lb of Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs
1 Medium Red Onion Sliced
1 Can of Artichoke Hearts, halved
1 cup of White Wine (something dry... and by that, I mean whatever is open in your fridge)
32 oz of Chicken Broth
A Few Sprigs of Rosemary or Thyme
3-5 Garlic Cloves (and by that, I mean 6)
Salt and Pepper
Rice or whatever is your favorite grain (optional)
(Actually, every single one of these things is optional. Even the chicken... I dare you.)
Add the oil to a dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the sliced onion and a season with a little more salt than you think. Let them sweat in the oil for a few minutes. Maybe 3 minutes - just until they're starting to become translucent. Add the chicken thighs to the pot, not moving them around very much so that they gently brown to render a bit of the fat into the onions. Maybe 2 or 3 minutes on each side. You've now accomplished all of the hard parts of this recipe.
Add the can of halved artichoke hearts and their liquid into the pot. Now add the wine and the broth. Toss in your rosemary sprigs and the crushed garlic cloves. Add another pinch of salt and a good amount of ground pepper. Hard to sayyyy..... but if I had to... 1 teaspoon? Is that a lot? How about this: Pepper to taste!
Wow. That's a lot of liquid. Yes. Perfect.
Turn up the heat to high and once everything reaches a simmer/low boil, turn it all the way down to whatever is lowest on your stove and put the lid on.
Let it go for 4-5 hours. What on earth will you do for 4-5 hours? Imagine the freedom! Think of the productivity! Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in 4-5 hours! Rome was built in 4-5 hours! What on earth will you can do!!?
When you're about 30 minutes away from wanting to eat, take the lid off and bring everything back up to a low simmer. This will help reduce the liquid a bit and take it from soupy to saucy. Put on a pot of rice while you wait for the sauce to reduce and by the time the rice is cooked, the chicken should be good to go, all shreddy and delicious. Spoon it over rice with a few more cranks of fresh ground pepper.
...did I shave a little parm over the top or am I just dreaming? I don't remember, but that sounds good. Maybe a few red pepper flakes? THIS IS YOUR CHICKEN AND YOUR LIFE.
Disclaimer: I've never written a recipe before and this has been made and tested a grand total of 1 times, so please try this and let me know what you think!
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plus a little more!
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How are we doing with New Years resolutions? We're on day 7 and I'm a swinging pendulum every day between totally inspired/ dialed-in over to a very Live and Let Live approach to literally any thought that passes through my brain.
Ultimately, I find myself on the side of the Resolutioners, a place I am proud to rest my head. And apparently, that's the vibe I've been giving out to friends and family for years because I have already had no less than four (4!) coffee dates with friends since Jan 1 to discuss our goals for the year. I don't hate this for my personal brand!
The other day I made a living Google Sheet that will either be my greatest joy of 2021 or something I find 8 years from now and laugh at my own foolishness as it lays untouched "last edited: January 5, 2021." I would share, but I won't because it has explicit financial goals on it which will either horrify you that I'm 29 and only now reaching $XX.XX in my bank account or breed comparison for whatever $ situation you find yourself currently in. And I'm not really feeling great about either, so you're just going to have to trust me when I say... it's a work of art (Think Adult Sticker Chart, but with Excel Formulas)
Because I think voicing dreams and goals is the very first step to achieving them, here are few of mine for the year:
- Walk most days
- Protect my morning routine
- Host 20 Dinner parties
- Read 30 Books
- Find authentic ways to love and support all of my pregnant / new mom friends (Covid babies out the ying-yang!! tis the damn season!)
- 15 Sewn Garments
- 3 Completed Knit Pieces
- Continue to enjoy and grow The Home Ec in ways that feel joyful and life giving (if you like it here, tell your friends!)
- Stick to (and continue to reduce) phone/screen time limits
- Send out 52 newsletters
Some of you may be reading this, nodding along to ones that resonate and simultaneously editing your own list for the 100th time. Others of you may currently feel nauseous. I get that! The key to all of this for me is that I hold all of these goals incredibly loosely. Even in the way that I phrase things to myself or in my creation of these lists, I use verbiage like "protect" or "try and..." or "see what happens if you..." or "think about..." This might feel like a cop out. Where is the accountability? Or the measure of success? Won't this be a fast track to dropping off and ending up right where you started? Potentially! But, in my own experience, I have found just the opposite. Through lots of trial and error, I have realized that I'm a very self motivated person who doesn't do well with external pressure. Or hard and fast rules. Or black and white. Or high stakes. And as a matter of fact, most people don't. Especially if you consider yourself a creative. I can (and do!) work on growing in that, but I can also simply recognize that I am much more likely to succeed at something if I create the space to explore. To try. To change my mind. To decide that this version isn't working, but maybe that one will.
My approach in the past has been very "starting Monday, I'm going to run X miles, 6 days a week, for the rest of my life." Ignoring the very important piece of the story that I've actually run X miles before in my life, running brings me no joy and there is no track record for that behavior in the past. Does this sound familiar? How did it go for you? I'm really asking!! Because there are some people out there that this works for. My Uncle Steve is one of them. What I would give to be able to make a decision and then follow through with it til my dying days, nomatter the cost. I would kill for that level of discipline! But, truth is, that ain't me.
Sometimes I do ascribe a fine point goal like "Save $XX.XX" or "Read 30 books" but that is based on past experience and behavior. Example: last year I read 25 books. And I want to spend way less time on my phone this year... what am I going to do with all of that free time? Maybe I'll be able to hit 30! Maybe not! That's okay too! Notice there are no consequences or dangling carrots attached to anything on my list. It's all an experiment and a new chance to try. Imagine a world in which failure didn't have any negative connotations. (a newsletter for another day...)
Whether you've got any goals/ resolutions in mind or not, what I'm very much NOT into (and feel like has been extra prevalent this year) is the demonization of goals and resolutions. I feel like those who aren't goal/resolution/intention/planning/dreamer people reallllyyyyy like to go hard on those who are, always throwing out discouraging statistics and being aggressively vocal about how foolish and cliche New Years reflection (in any capacity) is. We all know 2020 was a whopper. And you might be absolutely exhausted or feeling completley burned by the disappointment and let downs that it brought over and over and over again. Goals and resolutions may be taking a way back seat for now. Or maybe they'll never be something you find value in, but quick note: Don't be that guy. It's not a great look for you and does nothing but potentially confuse or deter someone who may on the edge of something fantastic.
Anyway, I hope this was helpful and doesn't come off as too preachy. Talking about goals and encouraging people to "just try it" is kind of the exact reason I wanted to start Home Ec in the first place, so I could go on for days, but I'll cut it off here. I wouldn't be ~*FuLlY mE*~ if I didn't now ask you to share what some of your resolutions/goals are. Mostly because I'm nosy, but also because I'd love to cheer you on from afar!