These Are a Few of my Favorite Sparkly Things and Ginger Miso Tofu Salad

We are getting in the holiday mood over here as a lovely denial of the chemo week coming tomorrow. Here is a random and possibly fated collection of goodies that have flowed onto my porch, all gifted. Consider paying forward kindness into your community and rounding up some of these gifts to delight a loved one.

First, we start with proper nourishment. I’ve had so much more energy on high dose steroids and for sure hypomania. I have sort of felt like Marvelous Ms Maisel all week, so how fitting to make a marvelous miso dressing and to get my veggies and protein with Nasoya tofu! Recipe is from Your Astrological Cookbook, and so this Scorpio dish is a day late, but lets just plus or minus a few for the moon margin of error?

Nine grams of plant-based protein per serving!

Ginger, ahem, great for nausea. Tofu, ahem, great for maintaining body mass.

In the recipe I substituted “vegetable oil” with Wild Groves olive oil, Olio Nuovo to be precise, which is just so high quality and so delicious. Shout out to Dewey in California, he is such a kind person. Thanks for the oil!

Pictured is Ascoland, but I used Olio Nuovo in this recipe. Both (and I suspect all) oils from Wild Groves are delicious.

With Thanksgiving coming, last night we tested how Milo’s Unsweetened tea paired with barbeque. I haven’t tested it as turkey brine, but I’ve heard this is tasty.

Milo’s Famous Sweet Tea Turkey Brine

1 Gallon Milo’s Famous Sweet Tea

1 Cup Kosher Salt

3 Large Sweet Onions, quartered

4 Lemons, sliced

8 Garlic Cloves, pealed

5 Sprigs Rosemary

10 Cups Ic

In a large stock pot, combine the Milo’s Famous Sweet Tea and kosher salt. Heat, stirring frequently until salt is dissolved. Add onion, lemon, garlic, and rosemary. Remove from heat, and let cool to room temperature. When the broth mixture has cooled, pour it into a clean 5 gallon bucket. Stir in the ice.Wash and dry your turkey. Making sure you have removed the innards. Place the turkey, cavity side up, into the brine. Making sure that the cavity gets filled. Cover and place the bucket in the refrigerator overnight. Remove the turkey carefully draining off the excess brine and pat dry. Discard excess brine.Cook the turkey as desired reserving the drippings for gravy.

And now for the self-care products.

Poor grumpy cat, probably didn’t get good sleep.

Sleep and Glow makes a lovely feminine and supportive structured pillow which they say will fight aging. I would love for it to also fight cancer. I’ve used it for one day. Time will tell.

I love that Alfredo thought he was coming over to bring me hot chocolate, and wound up in a high-stakes photoshoot for glitter sunscreen.

In the sunshine of my rainbow room (it was actually raining outside.)

To prevent more cancers from happening to me, with some sparkle sass, I’ve tested Sunshine Glitter’s Awesome Sauce and YAAAAAS sparkle glitter sunscreen with my friend Alfredo, and we give our two glittered thumbs up. We can’t wait to use this at Bayou Boogaloo on Bayou St. John. They also make a body gel called Holiday Slay. I can’t even.

Glitter is always necessary in New Orleans, especially Mid-City.

New happy Beauty and the Beast garden door, who dis? That was translated from Kermit.

Now Wissotzky Tea makes our favorite Nana Mint series of tea, to keep the rainbow connection with the previous product. We love all of these teas. Mint is so calming, so I agree that it should just be an additional ingredient in all teas.

Finally, we have two matching robes. One for me from Bollie Brand, which is just so comfortable, love the length of the sleeves a bit short so I don’t dip them in what I’m cooking or eating.

He was actually a super good sport about wearing it, just needs a medium or large. Red, I assume, is his favorite color because it is mine.

And one for Kermit, just in time for his fourth birthday party! Little anti-stress, anti-shed tracksuit jumper from Shed Defender. We didn’t get the right size, this is a small on a 45 pound hound, but I know a blind schnauzer named Rudy who will love it.

Update: Rudy loved it. So did his sister Anjali.

Happy Sunday, y’all. Go SAINTS! Be not afraid and love everyone you possibly can.

And in closing, since, we are now in robes, glittered up, drinking mint tea and about to fall asleep on a structured pillow, a hymn if you know how to play piano. Love and peace and happy shopping to all, a peaceful and fun Thanksgiving!

Kindnesses, myriad and without end

“Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,/ only kindness that ties your shoes/ and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,/ only kindness that raises its head/ from the crowd of the world to say/ It is I you have been looking for,/ and then goes with you everywhere/ like a shadow or a friend.”

Nurse Naomi Shihab-Nye’s words are ever with me and something about this present illness has turned her words to a bathwater, a warm soak for my worries, helpful to reframe what it is we are here lucky to live for. Kindness. Each person a half-open door to a room for everyone, says Tomas Transtromer.

Tulane Medicine and Psychiatry at ACLP. Drs. Amanda Satterthwaite, George Sayde and Ashley Ellison.

What a blessing to be at the Association of CL Psychiatry in San Diego with esteemed colleagues who are truly family. I am dizzied by affirmations showering at me from all directions, despite the clouds of aching bone pains and nausea and fear and fatigue.

Dr. Nithya Ravindran and I among San Diego palm trees, honored to lecture after sun-charging.

To meet heroic women leaders like Dr. Patrice Harris, noble and elegant president of the American Medical Association and advocating for mental health.

The female future feels more present these days.

To mentors like Dr. Michael Bostwick whose counsel and friendship arrive annually in lattes and laughs and holiday cards.

To ninety-something fabulous grandad marshals who travel over oceans to march their beloved grand-daughters in second lines and down the aisle.

The intrepid and debonair Sir Thom Rowley, grandfather of newly-wed Lucy Baglin.

To sisterhood and marriage and love ever-latticing us all.

Lucy Baglin and Michael Rivers in love, reporting live.

Sisterhood!
We will know this wedding day spa session had epigenetic effect if my hair is blonde when it comes back in! Honored to officiate and be an honorary Baglin queen for the day.

Cerise here at Jazzfest back when we marveled at Herbie Hancock!

To gifted home-made pies from Cerise Joiner and to be nourished both physically and spiritually by food which is and always shall be medicine. Also to Cerise and husband Wardell’s laying on of hands and oil-anointing and resonant, inspiring, enduring prayers for me. I consider these also ingredients in my healing bathwaters.

Cerise’s Apple Pie

PIE CRUST (Pate Brisee)

2 Cups sifted flour

2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

Mix together then add

1/3 C cold Lard (or shortening) (lard makes a better crust, per Cerise)

1/3 C cold butter

6- 8 Tbsp ice cold water.

Mix all together until it’s a broken lumpy slightly sticky mixture (pate brisee). Refrigerate at least 30 min before rolling out.

PIE FILLING

6-7 tart apples (Cerise uses Granny’s)

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/8 ground cloves

2-3 Tbsp Cornstarch or flour

Mix together. Fill pie . Crimp top of crust to bottom crust. Bake 350 for 1 hour, let cool and Enjoy with someone you love!!

To delight in babies, precious Clark who loves her Lil Mixins (gifted!) egg powder as she explores new foods, and we hope never develops allergies due to intentional early taste-testing.

Clark, second youngest Mid-Citizen I know and love. Crushing milestones left and right!

To going home to Louisiana tonight. Rooting on LSU football in the fantastic season they are having.

Lauren, timeless beauty. Now warrior mother and kind sage.

Lauren Nathanson, the only Golden Girl in my life, is thrilled to celebrate these fabulous festive LSU fan kitchen accessories from the College Kitchen Collection, (also gifted).

And to Karl-Peter. The anchor to my kite. The thread is strong, my love. Unbreakable.

Love from the infusion chair, self-portrait, kite with anchor.

French Patisserie at Hyatt Regency New Orleans with a Side of French Onion Soup for the Soul

Since Sucre went out of business in New Orleans, I’ve been looking for a new place to salve my sugar itch, in particular, where to get a proper macaron. I did not expect to find the boutique feel at the Hyatt Regency in Downtown New Orleans, but lo and behold, I give you 8 Block Patisserie–maker of my new favorite local almond chocolate croissant and my new favorite macaron, among other delicacies.

Rachel and Amanda with host Aaliyah Shareef and Chefs Charonne Jenkins and Nydia.

Bake This Day visited with Hyatt’s new Patisserie team and enjoyed a round of eight French pastries made by award-winning Pastry Chef Milan Smith, winner of the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience Best Pastry and Best King Cake!

On display in the patisserie–these can be gift wrapped if you are looking to send a holiday treat!

Up front, the Banoffee Tart with Chocolate Mousse dome and Raspberry Eclair with Craquelin topping.

Pistachio Pumpkin Paris Brest and Passion Fruit Macaron.

And my absolute favorite, the Chocolate-Dipped Almond Croissant.

The most perfect croissant I think I’ve ever tasted.

We will be back to check out the King Cake scene at the Hyatt in a few months, but huge thanks to Aaliyah and her team for getting pastries back online at the New Orleans Hyatt Regency!

We decided to pair this pastry tasting with a simple French Onion soup recipe, made by Corey Constantino, fellow medicine resident and gifted on a dark night of my soul. What a marvel how a simple beef bone broth with savory onions and thyme can pack so much flavor!

French Onion Soup

Caramelize about 10 chopped onions in a half stick of butter, and I mean, really caramelize them. Then add about two cups of beef broth and cook down for about 10 minutes. Add 2 tsp thyme and 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce. Salt and pepper to taste. Then blend until smooth and serve with a garnish!

Another discovery has been wine filters that remove sulfites and histamines from wine. Really great for people with sulfa allergies or who find that red wine gives them an unpleasant hangover. We tested the one-time use disposable wine filter and I noticed that in addition to feeling good (but I usually do after drinking wine), I felt like the flavor profile of the wine came out more with less bitterness and acidity.

My chemo-sickened skin has been super dry as fall turned its leaf. Turns out Coco Oil does the trick.

Cruelty Free and Fair Trade and all that. Made with Love and Coconuts.

Products features have been gifted or sponsored.

Coconut Curry Lentil Chickpea Bowls with Kale vs Nausea

What to do about the small block of cement that seems to have settled like a brick fog amid my intestines? Nausea is inertia. I have been searching for things to move me through this stormy weather. And then KP made this super easy Instant Pot curry dish that settled it.

So delicious and apparently anti-inflammatory. Ginger, turmeric, and healthy protein? Who could ask for anything more for a cancer dinner? This is from The I Love My Instant Pot Anti-Inflammatory Diet Recipe Book by Maryea Flaherty, which has 174 other amazing InstaPot-able dinners to choose from.

Coconut Curry Lentil Chickpea Bowls with Kale

We all loved this.

The other thing that has been a real comfort is hot tea. With the mucositis (basically my inner mouth skin sloughs off like snakeskin every time I get chemo), beverages that are super acidic like my first love—coffee—are now nauseating. Bummer!

Thank Heavens for Sips By which is a tea subscription service that sends you a customized box of teas monthly, with education on the proper temperatures to brew each type and also a gourmet variety that I may not have discovered as the tea novice that I am. Tea seems to be a little easier on the mouth and on the gut. I also love that Sips By provides these tea bags you can put loose leaf in!

Tried CBD oil for the first time this last round of chemo—I tried product from The Rooted Co because it is third-party tested and guaranteed to be THC free. I just wanted the anti-inflammatory and anxiolytic properties of cannabinoids, and, I’d say after about four or five drops added to my tea, it seemed to be equivalent to a beer (which I’m not drinking right now at all) and an ibuprofen.

Didn’t have a great smell, so I highly recommend a nice tea flavor to cover up the natural oil.

And even more important, is who you have to enjoy your tea with. Kermit remains a devoted sickbedfellow. In this photo, a mosquito was bothering my face but I didn’t want to untuck my arms from under my cozy blanket, and then Kermit crawled onto my chest and ate the bug out of the air!

(Not shown– me wearing pajamas under my coat to this fancy soiree. They asked us if we wanted to pose on the red carpet outside the box office and I wanted to evaporate.)

And Karl-Peter, thanks for taking me to the Orpheum Theater last night to watch Harriet, a gorgeous featured finale film in the New Orleans Film Festival—honoring the strongest woman I’m aware of in American history—an incredible survivor and true hero, Harriet Tubman. Her haunting counsel sustains me this week, “If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If there’s shouting after you, keep going. Don’t ever stop. Keep going.”

*Products featured have been gifted, and while I share my experience for what I’m trying for symptoms in my own treatment, I do not recommend anything here to be taken as medical advice–that’s between you and your doctor!

Vegan Mapo Tofu for the Tightrope Walk

Still oaring through the bog of cancer treatment. “I can’t complain about it, just gotta keep my balance/ And just keep dancing on it/ We getting funky on the scene/ And you know about it, like a star on the screen/ Watch me tip all on it. Baby whether you’re high or low, baby whether you’re high or low, you got to tip on the tightrope.” I’ve been humming and twizzling my toes to Janelle Monae’s Tightrope (for years, but of late, daily). It is a daily balancing act, with feel-good level and energy and nausea unpredictable.

We have had these weird little gecko lizards in New Orleans all summer flitting across the sidewalk from one grassy bourne to the other side, some ecosystem balance has tipped in their favor down here and we, the sidewalkers, are left to dance around them to avoid a sad crunch. Kermit the hound is particularly unnerved. Constant vigilance; you never know when a lizard might decide the grass is greener. Or when a white blood cell might choose immortality. Wouldn’t you, though, too?

Just got back from Minnesota for an infusion of reassurance and rest. Always wonderful to see the family up North!

Calvary Episcopal Church–still the best congregation I’ll ever know.

Mary Beth Alvarez, Med Psych wonderwoman, drove all the way from Milwaukee to help me get to Rochester for my appointment. Big love.

Back down South, hitting round three of chemo this week and feeling love and well-fed, literally, by the dozens of porch guests flooding our stoop with casserole pans and tupperwares of deliciousness.

This latest installment of spicy Sichuan tofu with eggplant was gifted by Chelsea and JP who have had the most incredible eggplant harvest this fall, and snuck it into this recipe, which they so graciously shared.

Here they are featured on the left corner, with beautiful kiddos, and Chelsea next to me at our last Med/Psych Homes Tour—which happened to coincide with a Saints game. Woot.

Vegan Mapo Tofu

Adapted from The Food Lab at Serious Eats, prepared for Bake this Day by Jean-Pierre

4 whole dried woodear mushrooms (about 1/6 ounce)

1/4 ounce dried morel or porcini mushrooms, or a mix

1 (2-inch) piece of kombu

1 1/2 cups boiling water

6 ounces white button mushrooms, stems trimmed, quartered

1-2 diced medium sized eggplants

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon cornstarch

2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine

1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

2 tablespoons Sichuan peppercorns, one tablespoon left whole, the other toasted and ground in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle

2 whole dried Chinese hot chilies

3 garlic cloves grated on a microplane grater

1 tablespoon fresh ginger grated on a microplane grater

4 scallions, whites finely chopped, greens thinly sliced, reserved separately

12 chives, cut in 1/2-inch segments

3 tablespoons minced yacai (Chinese preserved mustard root)

2 tablespoons fermented chili broad bean paste

2 tablespoons roasted chili oil

1 1/2 pounds medium to firm silken tofu, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Combine dried mushrooms and kombu (if using) in a small bowl or liquid measuring cup and cover with water. Place a paper towel or kitchen towel directly on surface of water to keep mushrooms mostly submerged. Set aside for ten minutes to rehydrate.

Meanwhile, place button mushrooms in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until chopped into rough 1/4-inch pieces, about 6 to 8 one-second pulses. Combine chopped button mushrooms and oil in the bottom of a large wok. Heat over high heat, stirring constantly, until mushrooms are shriveled and well browned, 6 to 10 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh strainer set over a small saucepan. Transfer fried mushrooms to a medium bowl and return oil to wok.

When dried mushrooms are rehydrated, strain through a fine mesh strainer set over a small bowl. Discard kombu. Discard all but 3/4 cups soaking liquid. Add cornstarch, wine, and soy sauce to liquid. Transfer drained mushrooms to a cutting board. Remove and discard hard central stems from woodear mushrooms, then finely chop all the mushrooms. Add to bowl with fried mushrooms.

Add whole Sichuan peppercorns and both chilis to oil in wok and return to high heat. Cook until fragrant and peppercorns have stopped sputtering. Do not overcook, or they will burn. Immediately strain through a fine mesh strainer, discard peppercorns and chilies, and return oil to wok.

Heat oil over high heat until lightly smoking. Add garlic, ginger, scallion whites, chives, and yacai (if using). Stir-fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add chopped mushrooms and stir-fry to combine. Add fermented chili broad bean paste and eggplant and stir until all the vegetables are well coated. Stir mushroom liquid mixture to incorporate cornstarch, then add to wok. Cook, stirring constantly, until lightly thickened and reduced, about 1 1/2 minutes. Add tofu and carefully fold in, trying not to break it.

Cook until tofu is heated through. Transfer to a serving platter, drizzle with chili oil, and top with scallions and ground Sichuan peppercorns. Serve immediately with white rice.

With my hound dog playing nurse these days, he is getting extra couch time. He sheds and so we are constantly vacuuming the furniture and Roombaing the floors to keep ahead of the fur blanket threating to bury the house. We love the couch cover strategy (in particular for the odor component, easy to wash!) and we were gifted these from The Slip Cover Company and the chevron is such a fit with our living room.

While couch bound, I love the company of tea and cocoa. Have been sampling gifted Moodbeli Bliss Booster, which is a cacao, cayenne and maca root powder—no added sugar—which I like best added to ginger green tea.

The maca root I was less familiar with, and from my reading, it is a Peruvian medicinal root that has been used in the Andes for three thousand years for all kinds of malaise. I’m more excited about the cacao for being a natural source of iron to help my sad little marrow. I can use all the Boostering I can get.

Another important tool to have around the house is a scale to monitor weight stability.

This scale gifted by Eat Smart Technology has an app that goes with it to remind you to weigh in and is synched to the scale through Bluetooth to generate charts for tracking.

This was me pre-cancer, and it is the goal weight I am eating my way back toward.

And apparently there are hospital gowns for divas now. Tres Chic. Nice to have on hand for when you want your nurse to know you take being a patient seriously. Haha, thanks GiftGowns.

I’m drinking much less caffeine now, mostly lattes for the caloric density benefit! My mother and I LOVED these Nespresso-fitting Woken pods! So smooth, and with great flavor. And the pods are biodegradable, a must!

Products featured here are sponsored, thank you, thank you!

Back in Business Biscuits with Ricotta and Tomato

The staggering procrastination which has stymied this post is likely proportional to the degree of denial serving to protect my selfhood from the very thing attacking it—cancer. Diagnosed with lymphoma in late August, I now find myself starting the “long march in a bathrobe” through the obstacle course of treatment, which so far, has frankly sucked. I have much to say on this, as the doctor-turned-patient naturally would, but I’m not sure my fond little food blog is the right venue. What I shall continue to use this space for, as I always have, is testimony to the myriad people who gather at my table, and, who, for the time being, are taking my place in the kitchen.

I am beyond grateful— I am stopped and still— so in awe of the small army that has quickly assembled and stands somewhere just under my armpits and at my back so that I feel as upright and upheld as possible while I rest in good faith upon them, walking we all blindly forward.

Mom (of course) was the first to jump behind my stove on her visit last month. She accompanied me through surgery and diagnosis. Mostly she nagged at me to eat constantly as though calories themselves were chemo. She made delicious meals to coax the seven pounds I inadvertently lost back on. This was one of my favorites. Featured in *red!* baking dish gifted by Carthage Co. LOVE!

Ricotta-Based Buttermilk Biscuits and Tomato Cobbler

Adapted from NYTimes Cooking

¾ cup whole-milk ricotta

2 ½ cups/320 grams plus 2 tablespoons cake flour, plus more for dusting

1 tablespoon plus 1/4 cup/50 grams granulated sugar

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick), chilled

1 cup buttermilk, plus 2 tablespoons for brushing

2 to 2 ½ pounds cherry tomatoes

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

2 sprigs fresh thyme

Strain the ricotta in a cheesecloth or fine-mesh strainer for at least 30 minutes. When it’s ready to use, squeeze to get rid of any excess moisture.

Prepare the ricotta biscuits: Put 2 1/2 cups cake flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, baking powder and baking soda into a large bowl and whisk to combine. Transfer to the freezer to chill for about 20 minutes. Add the butter to the bowl by grating it through a cheese grater. Put back in the freezer for about 10 minutes to chilly chill.

Make a well in the middle of the bowl and gradually pour in 1 cup buttermilk while using a fork to fluff in the flour from the sides of the bowl until you form a shaggy-looking dough. Crumble in the ricotta and loosely incorporate with your fingers.

Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured surface and use your hands to shape it into a roughly 4-inch-by-6-inch rectangle. Fold into thirds and flatten back to the same size with your hands; repeat two more times, flattening the dough out until about 1-inch thick. Refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes.

Position a rack in the center of the oven, and heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut about half the tomatoes in half. In a 2-quart baking dish, combine all the tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar and thyme sprigs with the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons cake flour. Season generously with salt and pepper, and let sit while you prepare the biscuit dough.

Lay the biscuit dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Cut into 2-inch squares or circles and arrange in a single layer over the tomatoes — you should have around 10 to 12 biscuits. Roll and cut scraps, or just bake the scraps separately to snack on. Brush the remaining 2 tablespoons buttermilk on top of the biscuits, and bake for 45 minutes, until the tomato mixture has bubbled up and the biscuits are browned on top. Allow to cool, and serve warm or at room temperature, finishing with a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

In addition to ricotta biscuits, I’m finding I need more calories than usual just to maintain the weight I’ve got. It could not have been more perfect timing to get a sampler from Huel, which is a meal-replacement shake.

I think these taste great, especially with the coffee and chocolate flavor booster. Even with three meals a day, I’m needing to add extra snacks through Huel shakes. I like that I can feel good about the type of nutrition I’m getting through these shakes, plant-based, high protein, good fiber and vitamins. And they don’t taste gritty or gross like others I’ve tried. The pre-mixed shake is my favorite (and because I’m lazier than normal right now.)

Among other comforts, my skin care regimen has several new additions. Dionis goat milk hand cream—I’m addicted. I keep these stashed next to everything that I’m using as a bed in the house. Makes me feel extra cozy to have soft hands.

Also, Ultraviolet C3+E cell protecting complex for my face. It’s fair to say most thirty four year olds are starting to feel anxious about the aging process, but thirty four year olds with cancer know they are doomed. This stuff is great.

This last week I dubbed Hair Appreciation Week as it may well be my last gas with the curls that I finally came to accept in my late twenties. Of course.

What better time to take as tender care as possible of every last strand. I tried out VOLO Hero Hair Towel. Tres chic. This is to be gifted to my resident colleague (of course a diva) who volunteered to take my medicine call so that I could start chemo. Hero, indeed.

For travel, I bring Elyptol hand sanitizer because I much prefer the smell of eucalyptus to the smell of whatever alcohol the stuff usually smells like. I’ll be needing gallons of this as I slide toward neutropenia.

And finally, for journaling and as my DIY bullet journal planner, I love Archer and Olive. And y’all know I’m journaling the shit out of this.

[All featured products are gifted.]

Serendipity, Ice Cream, Soup and Biscuits for the Soul

Per custom, we say soup is good for the soul, probably only because it’s alliterative. Really, I think ice cream may be just as good for the soul. Ice cream cake, even better. Serendipitous.

This brand derives its name from the famous Serendipity restaurant in NYC.

Or ice cream sandwiches made with madeleine cookies.

Also a cup of Nana mint tea served in a funky teacup your mother gave you.

Okay, this Nana Mint Tea is my new favorite. Especially the Green Tea, but close second is Ginger and Citrus.

But soup is also cozy and comforting. Here is one of my recent new favorites, a southern spin on a bland lentil soup. Now with sweet potatoes and bacon.

Lentil Soup with Sweet Potatoes and Bacon

Adapted from Southern Living

8 thick-cut bacon slices, cut into 1⁄2-inch pieces

1 medium-size yellow onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, finely chopped

5-6 large garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp ground cumin

1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped into 3⁄4-inch cubes (3 cups)

1 1/2 cups dried brown lentils

8 cups lower-sodium chicken broth

1 (14.5-oz.) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Cook bacon pieces in a large Dutch oven over medium-high, stirring often, until crisp, about 10 minutes. Drain on paper towels, and set aside. Remove and discard all but 2 Tbsp. drippings from Dutch oven.

Add onion, celery, and garlic to Dutch oven. Cook over medium-high, stirring often, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add cumin, and cook, stirring constantly, until toasted, about 1 minute. Stir in sweet potato, lentils, broth, tomatoes, salt, and pepper. (You can also add in whatever other vegetables you’ve been meaning to eat, I threw in some diced carrots and bell peppers.) Bring to a boil over medium-high. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until lentils are tender, 45 to 50 minutes. Spoon soup evenly into 6 bowls. Top with reserved bacon pieces, and sprinkle with parsley.

Bake This Day was gifted some gorgeous Tunisian pottery from Carthage Co -ethical dinner ware, and they do wedding registry! This piece in particular is a plate from their Zaghwan collection, featuring these delicious savory Southern biscuits.

Buttery Chive and Mustard Drop Biscuits

Also adapted from Southern Living

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated

1/4 cup sliced fresh chives, plus more for garnish

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon black pepper

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 3/4 cups whole buttermilk

3 tablespoons whole-grain mustard

3/4 cup unsalted butter, frozen, plus melted butter for serving

Preheat oven to 475°F. Stir together flour, cheese, chives, baking powder, pepper, salt, garlic powder, and baking soda in a large bowl. Whisk together buttermilk and mustard in a small bowl. Grate frozen butter into flour mixture using the large holes of a box grater; stir until well coated. Add buttermilk mixture; stir until just combined.

Drop batter in 2 1⁄2- to 3-tablespoonful rounds onto 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper, leaving 3 inches between rounds.

Bake in preheated oven until biscuits are golden brown, 14 to 18 minutes, rotating baking sheets between top and bottom racks halfway through baking time. Brush biscuits with melted butter; garnish with sliced chives. Serve warm.

Kamut Whole Wheat Tartine Bread with Self-milled Flour

“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.” Ursula LeGuin

My brother was married this weekend in the vineyard countryside of McMinneville, Oregon. Our family spent days together toasting and toasting and toasting.

We ate delicious breads, some of the best I’ve ever had at the Joel Palmer House, in Dayton, Oregon.

Flowers from my Grandma Barb’s garden! Stunning.

There is nothing that feels more like home than well-baked bread, thanks to my mother. Over the years we have been perfecting our technique, but when I dwell on this LeGuin quotation, I consider the ways in which this work of kneading and proofing and rising and baking has also been the work of love. The daily work of it, the hearty thing we make, the smell of reward like an answer to hunger.

LeGuin’s metaphor is even more rich for those whose bread baking processes involve sour dough starter—the starter suggests that the true life of new bread “remade” is breathed through the past, all the old flavors, aromas, oils and atmosphere from other places the starter has been, the very time spent living is stirred into each new dough—the new literally rises from and with the old. There is no love without precedent, and we bring into our loving all the old love too, just remade.

On milling your own flour, I now feel this is an essential aspect of bread baking. No more buying wheat flours milled who knows how long ago, subject to spoil and weighty on the rise. When you mill your own, and I use a Mockmill, the rise is more explosive, the crumb softer and the flavor—as good as it gets.

Kamut Whole Wheat Tartine Bread

200 g sourdough starter

800 g + 50 g water, divided

500 g whole wheat flour (grind approx. 1 cup hard red wheat berries and 1 cup Pereg Kamut berries)

500 g all purpose flour

50 g wheat germ

30 g milled flax (I don’t mill my own flax currently because I suspect there would be too many oils that would gum up my mill)

25 g salt

½ cup Happy Day Superfood Oats Plus blend

Kamut flour is the yellower half. So fresh!

Blend sourdough starter, 800 g of the water, wheat germ, flax, and all flours. Let rest, covered, for 1-2 hours. Add a slurry of salt mixed with the 50 g of water and knead into the already wet dough.

Cover again and let rest 3-5 hours, until doubled. Turn onto a floured surface and divide into two halves. My mother recently bought me an Emile Henry oblong red pan to match my red cloche for boules. Shape into desired loaves. Place clean dish clothes into proofing bowls/pans and dust with gluten-free flour. I use Pereg Quinoa flour. For these loaves I also used the Superfoods Oats blend. Preheat the oven and baking vessels in 500 degree oven. Then decrease temperature to 450 degrees and place boules (I usually transfer onto parchment paper so as to minimize degassing of loaf) in cloches and replace lids. Bake for 30 minutes. Then remove lids and bake another 20-25 minutes until internal temperature of bread is 200 degrees.

Me and Mom at the rehearsal dinner she hosted at Joel Palmer House.

Mom and I did some pampering of ourselves for the wedding, of course. We tested out microderm abrasion at home using Trophy Skin RejuvadermMD. Pretty easy to do, once you learn to keep your skin taut and to move the nozzle piece along at a good pace (lest you give yourself a hickey). You can Google and Youtube plenty of how-to videos if you need more than what the packaging provides, Mom and I did not feel like adding yet another video to the vlog “literature.”

We looked much more enthusiastic while using the system than the lady on the box.

We also slathered on creams and oils and primer from The Organic Skin Company. My favorite products were the Clean Slate Holy Basil cleanser and The Good Oil, which is jojoba with honeysuckle and turmeric (don’t worry, it doesn’t dye your face orange, or at least it didn’t mine).

I love that this company is Cruelty Free and, obv, organic. File these away for future mother’s day gift ideas. Or pamper her today, just because.

This post is sponsored by the companies featured.

Tales of the Cocktail 2019

Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, 2019. Oh, the decadence. Last year, we attended just one TOTC soiree. This year, five.

In most places I’ve lived, the social life among citizens is communicated through declarative and interrogative sentences. “Tonight there is bowling league at Oaks Park bowling alley, if you’re interested, that is.” In New Orleans, social life is imperative. “See you at the Garden of Elyx tonight. Bring a swimsuit.”

I’ll just start there, in the Garden of Elyx, hosted by Absolut, because it was the most stunning of all five events. Even amidst a tropical rainstorm deluge, with a flashflood river coursing over the cobblestone garden path and the French Quarter slowly filling like a dirty martini glass, partygoers arrived at the Garden of Elyx soaked top to bottom, barefoot, and huddled together under the big top.

“Is it raining, is it snowing, is a hurricane a blowing?” -Willy Wonka

Drinks served in copper chalices, ponies festooned in leis munching hay by the side of the pool, a craft session to fashion yourself a floral headpiece, a beauty salon, an indoor swingset tucked into a closet with disco-mirror copper wallpaper.

We made these floral headpieces en style of Frida Kahlo

Glitter touch ups by a fashionista with a memento mori tattoo, tre chic!

Absolut Elyx vodka cocktails with essences you’ve never imagined drinking—patchouli, vetiver. Flowers bursting out of the walls, peonies and hibiscus amid the vines. It was the best of times, it was the best of times.

Alex Thomas, Master Blender for Sexton Whiskey

Earlier in the week, we stopped by a Midnight party at Cane and Table hosted by Sexton Irish Whiskey. We got to meet the Master Blender Alex Thomas who is both glam and soul—so follows her whiskey. She taught us about the barley and the malt and how she marries flavors. She said the term “sexton” traditionally refers to the person in charge of the church graveyard, and so is known as “the keeper of precious things.” She feels personally that this is her role in the making of fine whiskey, not because the liquid itself is precious, but because she believes our short time here on Earth is—and when people use her product to toast at family occasions, at funerals and weddings alike, a lifetime well-spent is what she hopes her whiskey celebrates. She said it much more eloquently than that—a natural storyteller.

We toasted fuchsia gin and tonics with Empress Gin 1908 at an event they co-hosted in a gorgeous mansion parlor on Esplanade Avenue with Zeus’s Animal Rescue. The butterfly pea blossom additive in the gin affords it the technicolor show stopper—turning from indigo to hot magenta to pink as the acidity is altered with citrus or tonic. It was just delicious and Squirrel was my favorite pup of the day.

Finally, we got our Italian infusion of Disaronno and Tia Maria and also Campari.

Special props to the bartender who gifted me this hat! I love a little memento mori.

TOTC coincided with KP and my twelfth wedding anniversary and the Rolling Stones coming to town, so after much frivolity, with honestly no end in sight because…New Orleans…in a cyclone of gratitude, we twirl on.

Hurricane-Strength Peanut Butter Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies and Coffee Granitas

Clouds are swirling fast above us. The sky changes color from orange to grey to white to purple; sky as kaleidoscope.

Meanwhile, we hunker down inside, beside the shrine of bottled water, having dutifully collected extra flashlights, batteries, and kayaks, and we wait. With board games and snacks. I suppose it’s not unlike the rest of life, right?

So much waiting.

Until Barry takes the power out, I’ll bake. I invented a new protein cookie that should be the perfect DIY “protein bar” for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Hurricane-Strength Peanut Butter Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Adapted from Cooks Illustrated

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda

4 TB butter

1 tsp cinnamon

¾ cup brown sugar

½ cup sugar sugar

½ cup olive oil

1 egg plus one egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla

¾ cup PBfit powder

1 cup Happy Day Superfood Oats Plus (besides oats, so many good ingredients like teff, chia seeds, quinoa, flax, hemp and amaranth!)

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

½ Enjoy Life Dark chocolate morsels yum!

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment. Melt butter in skillet until it is brown butter. Stir in cinnamon. Add all the sugars and oil to the butter and whisk. Then add egg and yolk and vanilla and whisk again. Then add flour/salt/baking soda mixture (pre-sifted). Then oats and chocolate chunks. Should be a really stiff dough. Bake 8-10 minutes. YUM.

Hurricane snacks.

This Colonel Popper makes great microwave popcorn in an easy-to-clean silicone collapsible bowl. This will work great until the power goes out.

Then you should get going on LivBars. Real ingredients, made in Oregon, lots of gluten free and vegan options.

If the power goes out, we will need to stay cool. This is an easy treat, sweet and refreshing, good for a little caffeine kick!

Coffee Granita

Adapted from Food Network magazine

3 cups Java House Sumatran cold brew

2 ½ cups water

½ cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Pinch of salt

In a bowl, stir together the cold brew, water, sugar, vanilla and salt until solutes dissolve. Pour into an 8 inch square baking dish and put in freeze for 2 hours. Remove from the freezer, take a fork and scrape the ice that has formed and return to the freezer for another 2 hours. Scrape and repeat until frozen! Serve with whipped cream, or enjoy plain!

*All products in this post were sponsored.