Photo credit: Nina Hill on Unsplash
THINKING ABOUT:
Our next-door neighbors celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary this week, a milestone by any measure. It made me think of all the ways we express love in our world. He takes her to her doctor’s appointments and the hairdresser, and they laugh together often. My hubs runs out to squeegee the rain off my windows before I take the car out so I can have a safe drive. My brother-in-law became my sister’s full-time caregiver five years ago after she sustained a traumatic brain injury. My friend’s husband built her a teaching kitchen in their home when she couldn’t find one commercially.
Photo credit: Anna Beukema on Unsplash
When I was young, I thought love was what I saw in the movies, a run-up to a dramatic kissing scene. I never thought past the end credits. If you stay with someone long enough, love involves bodies breaking down (slowly or quickly) and shared laughs about things that don’t make sense to anyone else and making their favorite food or doing the laundry.
What does love look like to you?
WATCHING:
I never, ever thought I would be recommending a sci-fi show in this newsletter, but I started watching Resident Alien. The first two seasons are now on Netflix and my friend’s son is in it so I checked it out. It stars the always-delightful Alan Tudyk and a cast of newcomers—including a number of Native American actors—which I always love. It is absolutely hilarious, with a goofy tone that must come from the original comic. Don’t miss the opening credit sequence as it changes every week.
READING:
I just skimmed through Vitamania (good but very scholarly) and Fit Nation for my disordered eating project. Fascinating to learn how much we DON’T know about vitamins and the evolution of fitness trends, which I contend are as much a part of diet culture as food is.
EATING:
I just went to a spring market day at Ethos Culinary, my friend Chef Mary Platis’ gorgeous teaching kitchen in Carlsbad, CA. She offered tastings of olive oil bread soaking in olive oil, cranberry bean soup topped with kale pesto, and Greek yogurt with wildflower honey, cookie crumble, and blueberries.
I plan to make her AMAZING Greek pasta salad. We all remarked how much we loved both the dressing and the ratio of veggies to pasta. Please check out the recipe and her lovely blog and book, Cooking Techniques with Olive Oil, which was a true labor of love by Mary and her co-author Laura Bashar.
Photos of Chef Mary Platis (on the left) and Greek pasta salad by Katie Stokes.
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