Weekending

We were greeted with unseasonably warm, almost desert-like, weather on this first fall weekend which made it all the nicer to spend time outside with friends. Flavio had to work Saturday so Guiri and I met up with my friend and her yellow lab for some beach fun and lunch. Saturday night our gym friends hosted a paleo potluck inviting everyone on the challenge for a meat-fest in their gorgeous backyard. It was a fun barbecue and we all agreed it was a totally different experience to party sans alcohol. We enjoyed sitting outside and relaxing with our gregarious gym group. This morning we hung at the dog park and then made breakfast at home. Since then, Flav's been watching football while I've been grading papers and researching Halloween decorations. All the cheesy gold spray-painted pumpkin tutorials remind me to re-read this gem on fall decorating.

Flavio thinks this is an overshare, but something minor happened on Saturday afternoon that kind of surprised me and I want to discuss it in my journal, aka my blog.  I was in Trader Joe's and ran into someone I used to see regularly at my old gym. We were often workout partners and she approached me in the produce section, gave me a big, excited hug and said, Oh, it is sooo great to see you! We chatted and she introduced me to her husband as her "favorite workout buddy ever" and she mentioned how we should meet up for a drink sometime. I told her I was now doing CrossFit, she told me she was really into Bikram yoga but wanted to come try my CrossFit, followed by five minutes of other niceties, blah, blah, blah. At the end of the conversation I told her it was great to see her and that we should be in touch, and is she on Facebook? Yes! Find me! And let's get together! she said and gave me another hug. I told her I'd add her and when I did, she rejected the friend request.

My point in bringing this up is that many of our interactions today are fake. I work with a lot of international students and they've often told me how strange it is that they meet Americans and think they've met a new friend, but then outside class, or later on, the person acts like they don't know they exist, and my students are often hurt. I can honestly say I'm not at all hurt. I do think it's strange, but I could care less that she didn't add me - I'm finally reaching a point in my life where I don't worry whether people like me and she is not a person I ever sought out as a real friend. But this small interaction brings up bigger questions about human connectedness. Why all the theatrics of Wow, it is so great to run into you! Let's get together! when she could've just said a friendly, more genuine hello-and-how-are-you and moved on? -  Which is what I would've done had she not exhibited such an over-the-top charade. Or, I might've avoided her all together - I don't know. And of course my suggestion of adding her on Facebook was all smiles and hugs and was my own fake way of making a semi-connection with her. I think we both knew from the beginning that we weren't ever going to be friends and that's okay, yet we pretend otherwise. Why? Even if she had added me on Facebook, that would've been fake. In a world where we're more in need of meaningful connection than ever, we do these dances to create boundaries that prevent truthful interactions and it feels not right.  I don't have a solution and I've touched on this point before here, but maybe it's important to just be aware of this puzzling part of our culture and try to be better than it, to do our best to always act with genuine feelings and still be nice. Thankfully, juxtaposed to this small weirdness was a delightful weekend with real, great people who remind me there is still a lot of authenticity to be found.

I could go on, but I'll stop this overly rambly post here. We're off to our friends' house to watch the very last Breaking Bad. What is going to happen?! We don't have cable and I can't risk a spoiler so we're stoked to watch it with them live. We're bringing Pollos Hermanos (rotisserie) chicken. We'll miss you Walter White.

Fall To-Do

I try not to play favorites with the seasons, but there is something so magical about this time of year. For me, fall means pumpkin and apple treats, snuggling by our fireplace, warm blankets and old movies, and the excitement of all my favorite holidays. Though San Diego doesn't showcase fall as beautifully as other places, there were slightly lower temperatures and a few auburn-colored leaves on the ground this week - enough to get me excited for all things autumn. Here are some of the things I plan to do in the next few months:

1. Go to Julian for apple picking, leaf-peeping, and pie tasting
2. Master three new soups, starting with this one
3. Pack hot cocoa and take night walks
4. Decorate our house for Halloween and Thanksgiving
5. Make and jar apple butter or pumpkin butter to give as gifts
6. Visit Temecula for wine tasting
7. Volunteer at a soup kitchen 
8. Make mulled wine
9. Carve pumpkins
10. Try at least three new restaurants (we always go to the same places!)

Wishing you a fabulous fall weekend. xo

E.B. White on Daisy

{EB White in his office at the New Yorker, circa 1955}

My very first job, at age 16, was to write obituaries for the Imperial Valley Press, the local newspaper. It was exciting part-time work to a high schooler who thought she wanted to be a journalist and since then, I've loved reading these posthumous tributes - though Flavio finds it to be a macabre hobby. I've read many an ode to the departed, but none has delighted me like E.B. White's tender obituary to his beloved dog Daisy.

"At the moment of her death, she was smelling the front of a florist's shop. It was a wet day, and the cab skidded up over the curb - just the sort of excitement that would have amused her, had she been at a safe distance. She is survived by her mother, Jeannie; a brother, Abner; her father, whom she never knew; and two sisters, whom she never liked...She never grew up, and she never took pains to discover, conclusively, the things that might have diminished her curiosity and spoiled her taste. She died sniffing life, and enjoying it."

I read it here last night and found myself misted with happy tears.  Read the whole thing - I think you'll love it.

Dogs, who remind us humans to delight in the wonders of the world, to play with intensity, to stop and sniff with curiosity, are the best.

{Photo via}

Paleo Pumpkin Spice Latte

Happy first day of fall! Actually, it was yesterday but I was under the weather so I'm celebrating today. Autumn is my absolute favorite time of year - rosy cheeks, crisp evenings, comfy sweaters - and I always treat myself to a pumpkin spice latte from Starbuck's to celebrate the first day of this fantastic season. But, our 30-day paleo challenge doesn't allow for the...wait for it... 49 GRAMS of SUGAR (yikes!) in a grande pumpkin spice latte. [Um, that is more than double the amount of sugar that you should have in a day, according to Dr. Oz. Kind of horrifying, no?] So I did a little recipe research and made my own paleo version in my slow cooker.

I'm not gonna lie - it was a creamy afternoon treat but definitely not the same. I guess it had to do with the fact that it was missing 49 grams of sugar.  However, pure pumpkin, coconut milk, and spices are all good for us, so I was happy to be welcoming autumn with this much healthier, more natural, and still very comforting version. Plus, it was really easy to whip up and made the house smell like pumpkin pie.

Here's how I did it.

Paleo Pumpkin Spice Lattes in the Slow Cooker
Adapted from here
Makes about 4

1 can Trader Joe's Coconut Cream (Extra Thick and Rich version)
1/3 cup canned pumpkin (no added sugar)
2 Tablespoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Trader Joe's Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 cup brewed Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Coffee
If you are not strict paleo-ing, you might add a little raw honey or agave nectar to taste
Heavy cream for whipping

Pour all ingredients (except heavy cream) into slow cooker.  Whisk everything together well. Cook on high in slow cooker for an hour. Stir. Cook on high for another hour, for 2 hours total. Ladle into mugs. Whip heavy cream with a dash of vanilla and top lattes with whipped cream and spices. Enjoy!

Weekending

So, Friday I was feeling sort of weak and blamed it on my low carb intake. That night we enjoyed our rom-com marathon and even threw in a third movie, It's a Disaster (streaming on Netflix - I recommend it), but that whole day I was just feeling...off. Saturday morning I woke up achy, coughing, sneezing and generally miserable. I inherited the wicked cold that previously belonged to Flavio, so basically the weekend looked like this:

Except there were a lot more tissues and the accompanying cacophonous soundtrack of me hacking and whining - We were supposed to go to our friends' for a bacon-wrapped-scallops dinner party on Saturday and hang out at Heights Tavern for football Sunday, and I was vocally bitter about not being able to do the fun things we had planned. I hate the way being sick slows you down. Wahh! Anyway, the convalescence wasn't all bad. Flav brought me cheery yellow roses and I got some good couch time in. I ate a ton of The Best Chicken Soup...Ever, snuggled with my two faves, watched a whole lot of movies, and slept and slept. I think I'm on the mend. I'm not calling in sick tomorrow, so hopefully I wake up sniffle free.

PS: My fear of Calling In Sick

Rom-Com Marathon

It's Friday! Tonight's plans include eating paleo leftovers and watching romantic comedies. I need this, and I can't wait. (Flavio is so good to me.) What are your favorite rom-coms? Mine might be You've Got Mail and When Harry Met Sally, but I also love Dan In Real Life and Adam, and we'll probably watch those tonight.

Did you ever read Mindy Kaling's hilarious article in the New Yorker on the seven types of women in romantic comedies? The "woman who works in an art gallery" kills me. As does the closing line, "There are, like, nine people in the entire world who are architects, and one of them is my dad. None of them look like Patrick Dempsey." Ha! So true.

Have a romantic and funny weekend. xo

The Best Chicken Soup...Ever.

Sorry I'm always blathering on about soup but this one is my all-time favorite, we made a bubbling cauldron last night, and I couldn't resist sharing. Chicken Soup with Loads of Vegetables has a few secret ingredients, transforming it from meh-just-whatever-chicken soup to Nectar-of-the-Gods-Yum-Chicken SOUP! Its first weapon, bone marrow, gives the broth a fat and a depth that I swear to you, dons the whole thing with magical healing powers. If you are sick, or tired, or cold, or are just in need of something soothing, this soup is your prescription. Also in its arsenal is a magnificent combination of lesser-used (at least in my kitchen), seemingly old-world vegetables including parsnip, rutabaga, kohlrabi, and turnip which work together to make the broth rich, fragrant, almost sweet. You can change up the ingredients as you like. On some occasions I've added leeks, cabbage, garlic, or eliminated one thing or another. We don't usually add noodles or matzah as I don't think it needs it.  Do what feels right. This recipe makes a lot of servings, so if you're just two, you might freeze half the batch for when Old Man Winter comes calling. You'll be glad you did.

Other soup recipes I love and have blogged about:

Italian Wedding Soup
Coconut Red-Lentil Curry
Cream of Tomato with Goat Cheese
Spanish Pea Soup
Greek Lemon - Avgolemeno