Life Begins at 30

Where I've Been ...

While I haven't been here much these days, you can find me in several other places on the web:

... on KQED talking about rising food costs, and what Michael Pollan and Alice Waters said that bothered me.

... on Serious Eats as the San Francisco writer for their national farmers market series (I will be posting about once a month).

... on Twitter mostly twittering about what I'm eating and cooking.

... on Flickr working hard on my 365 day project (about 100 days to go!)

Whipped Cream, and other musings

I have whipped cream in my coffee this morning.  An unnecessary indulgence, but it's leftover from dinner that I had here with Stephanie last night.  The whipped cream has a touch of Anita's Nocino in it, which really gilds the lily.

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When I was a sophomore in college, I spent a school year in Florence, Italy.  Thirty of us from the same university lived and took classes together in an old Medici villa for a eight months.  In a move that made a huge change in my culinary upbringing, I did my work study in the kitchen -- working alongside the Italian cooks as I earned money.  One of the main cooks, Luanna, took a particular liking to me and my great friend Amy.  Tuesdays, Luanna would make macedonia -- an Italian fruit salad topped with whipped cream -- for dessert.  And late on Tuesday nights, after all the dishes were done, Luanna would bring Amy and I some whipped cream that she'd ferreted away for us and we would drink it on our espresso.

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"This is an espresso-free establishment" reads the sign at Bovine Bakery, the lovely bakery in Pt. Reyes Station.  It's the only bakery where I will order a morning bun, with its nuts and sweetness.  Normally baked sweets like that overwhelm me, but I can't resist the perfect balance of the Bovine Bakery morning bun.  It had been a year and a half since I'd been to Pt. Reyes.  And on a cold, damp day last week I returned.  We'd had a quick and lovely lunch at Fish, and then headed out to the national seashore.  I pointed the car toward Abbott's Lagoon -- a spot I had been to many many times in my past.  Out past the Marin Sun Farms ranch, Abbott's Lagoon holds a special place in my heart, and I was so happy to return.

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There's just no segue for this next item, but if you haven't seen this video clip of Robin Williams on Law and Order: SVU on Tuesday, check it out.  Williams is a suspect in a crime involving a fast food restaurant and he uses what I am calling "the locavore defense" as his excuse for never having been at the restaurant.



(video via Serious Eats)

Word Retreats

{240} lovely lilacs, originally uploaded by jen_maiser.

When I haven't written on this site for a while, when I've allowed it to lie fallow with only a couple of notes here or there, the blog becomes bigger than me.  I'm sure if you have a blog of your own, you can relate.  It becomes less of a casual, day-to-day posting thing and much more of a post-that-you-need-to-conquer-or-else-you-can't-go-on.  You begin to feel guilty for not updating, and begin to feel that you must write something really great in order to make it up to your readers.

I can't promise that, but I can tell you what's been going on in my life where possible.

I've been having a lot of a-ha moments lately, and several of them have come from the amazing people who I read on the Internet.  "Word Retreats," I've been calling them to myself.  The stories or phrases or moments that make me take a deep breath, regroup, and see the world from a slightly new perspective.

Word Retreat #1.  Opt out of the drama.

A couple of weeks ago, I took a super fast trip to Los Angeles.  I had a family obligation on Saturday, and since Sunday was Easter, I stayed in town to have brunch with everyone.  My sister lives over an hour from my mom's house, and we all piled into my grandparents' car to drive up to have brunch with Annie and her boyfriend.

At some point during the trip, I was telling my Aunt about some incident in my life.  "It was a total drama," I told her. 

"You have a lot of that?"  My grandmother, who was sitting next to me in the back seat, asked.

"Drama?  Yes.  A lot,"  I told her.  I'm single, and in my thirties, in the middle of San Francisco.  Between friends and day-to-day life, there tends to be drama, right?

"You know," she said, "the drama is always there.  And you can opt out of it at any point.  You can just let it wash over you.  And you know what?  If you decide that you want it back, the drama will always be there."

Since that day, when she spoke those words I needed to hear, I have really been trying to "opt out of the drama" when possible -- not completely succeeding yet, but at least trying.

Word Retreat #2.  You are a bad ass chick.

This one is years old, but I have been calling on it a lot recently.  There was a moment, about six years ago, when I was having a particularly rough couple days.   My dear friend Molly wrote me a one line e-mail.  It said, "You are a bad ass chick."  For years, I had it pinned to my bulletin board -- a way to remind myself that I was a strong woman who can handle whatever is coming at me.  I don't have it pinned up anymore, but it's ingrained in me.  And it amazes me that the one-line email had such an effect on me.  Not only does it give me strength to remember that I am a bad ass chick, but it reminds me about the power of our words.

Word Retreat #3.  Complicated emotions.

"Here is the truth: I have never had an uncomplicated emotion. 
Love + sorrow + devotion + grief arrive on my doorstep in a single package.
I don't even try to untangle them any more.
Today, I am grateful that I get to feel at all."

When Jennifer Jeffrey wrote this a couple of weeks ago, I let out a huge sigh of relief.  In an email to her later, I wrote, "You have no idea what you did for me by writing this."  Just in those words, in the fact that she admitted to emotional conflict, I felt a sort of permission to be as complicated as I tend to be.

Word Retreat #4.  You are exactly where you need to be.

For about a year and a half, I have had the note pictured here taped to the inside of my bathroom cabinet.  It says "Wherever I am is where I am meant to be."  This morning, I logged into my computer to see the same sort of reminder from the amazing Andrea.  Her post, "A love note to you", was exactly what I needed to hear this morning.

I hope this post finds you all well.  Any word retreats that you've been on lately?

Starbucks acquires The Clover

Ever since I read about Starbucks acquiring the Clover Brewing System last week, I've struggled with trying to decide how I feel about it.  I read up on it this week and talked to James Freeman, owner of Blue Bottle Coffee yesterday -- you can read my thoughts on the matter at Bay Area Bites.

Photo from my Flickr stream.

Edible SF: Real Food for All

I wrote an article for the most recent issue of Edible San Francisco called "Real Food for All."  It looks at usage of public assistance moneys at farmers markets and starts to talk about whether it's feasible for San Francisco's poor to shop at farmers markets.  I'm glad to have had the opportunity to write this article, as farmers market access for all populations is a critical question.

It's worth it to find a (free) hard copy, as the layout of the new issue is great, and you can also see Catherine's great article about the Alembic.