Last night I took a great class with Michael Lee – Yoga as Therapy: A Phoenix Rising Yoga and Meditation class, and was joined by my friend Elyse and her partner Nick (who was sporting for his first yoga class on Ompractice.) The class is a little different than most on Ompractice, it’s divided into six phases, that start with movement and move into stillness, with the opportunity to find deeper wisdom at the end.
Our focus this class was on equanimity – “mental calmness, composure, and evenness of temper, especially in a difficult situation.” I always approach my mat with an open mind, but was particularly surprised at how much I found myself feeling at the end of class. It was a good one, and I’m focused on maintaining that approach throughout my day and week.
This morning I found myself waking a few hours earlier than normal, ready to start my day. Today I wanted to focus on fall – thinking about the traditions, rituals, and feelings for living in the season. I started by scratching out the things that I wanted to sit with this morning:
How do I harness the energy of the season: crisp, cool, maturity and wisdom?
What will I create this season?
Who do I want to re-connect with?
How do I harvest my bounty, and prepare for the next season?
How do I bring the colors of fall into my life – those that are most vivid – greens, gold, orange, red, and yellow?
Self Care: I was delighted to see some folks downloading my Fall Self Care Bingo back from the archives.
Food: on the shelf next to my office seat, I have a copy of Nigel Slater’s Greenfeast: Autumn, Winter, that I’ve been thumbing through for inspiration this week. A few years ago I sat down to write about some of my favorite Foods of Fall: lots of squash, apples, cider, chili, persimmons, pumpkin, and of course my favorite Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt.
Movement: I really appreciate the cooler weather in the fall. (I say that as I’m avoiding my run tonight because the temperature has dropped several degrees and it’s now windy. Update: bundled up and it was fine!)
Connection: I know that most people are foregoing holiday cards because… 2020, but I’ve resolved to contribute to the USPS, so if you’d like a dog themed holiday card, feel free to send me an email with your address, or reach out on social media in my DMs.
I mentioned a few weeks ago in our Ompractice monthly teachers meeting that while I don’t currently intend to dive into a 200 hour teacher training for myself, I’d love to start reading my way through a YTT-esque reading list to further my own learning, and deepen my practice.
Jane, who teacher our awesome Sunday evening restorative class, was kind enough to send me an email with some of her favorites, and I intend to relish my way through them.
Classics: For those with a strong appetite for the various roots of yoga philosophy and practice.
Advaita Vedanta: Ashtavakra Gita – Classic Texts of Advaita Vedanta
Raja Yoga – Swami Vivekananda
Kashmiri Shaivism: The Shiva Sutras – Swami Lakshmanjoo
Bhakti: Bhakti – Lilian Silburn
Yoga:
Light on Pranayama – BKS Iyengar
Light on Life – BKS Iyengar
Light on Yoga – BKS Iyengar
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali – Chip Hartman
Yoga Sutras – Swami Satchidananda
The Living Gita – Swami Satchidananda
How Yoga Works – Geshe Michael Roach
YogaBody: Anatomy, kinesiology and Asana Judith Hanson Lasater
The Key Poses of Hatha Yoga – Ray Long
The Key Muscles of Hathaway Yoga – Ray Long
Yoga Sequencing – Mark Stephens
Yoga Anatomy – Leslie Kaminoff
Meditation:
Who Am I? – Sri Ramana Maharshi
Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri
Reflections on Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi – Cohen, S.S Ramana Maharshi – David Godman
I Am That – Sri Nisargagatta Maharaj
Consciousness and the Absolute – Sri Nisargagatta Maharaj
The Ultimate Medicine – Sri Nisargagatta Maharaj
Be As You Are – Jean Klein
Ayurveda:
Everyday Cooking for a Calm Clear Mind: 100 Sattvic Recipes- Kate O’Donnell
The Everyday Ayurveda Cookbook- Kate O’Donnell
The New Ayurvedic Kitchen: What to eat for how you feel – Divya Alter
The Complete Book of Home Remedies – Dr. Vasant Lad
Textbook of Ayurvedic: Fundamental Principles -Dr. Vasant Lad
Ahoy! It snowed this week, in October, and I’m still shaking my head about it. Despite my side-eye, Bertram and I enjoyed our first walk out in the snow, accompanied by Sawyer, who is arguably much better suited to this kind of weather with her built in coat. My small droid was comfortable enough in a sweater, and I had a wardrobe failure with a lack of gloves.
Good Things, where shall we begin? I’m going to embark on a NaBloPoMo attempt (blogging every day in November), which is usually something I go into with enthusiasm each year with varying results. Some years I *nail it*.
This weekend I put into place my election week self-care plan: namely a solid meal plan, food shop, workout plan – including Dawn’s 120 minute restorative workshop on Ompractice on 11/8 – and weekly intentions – all written out so that I have a plan and a path.
While I did go on a run last night for Halloween, I didn’t trick or treat, nor were there trick or treaters at my house, so I did the 2020 version of costume-ing which is spending 20 minutes at 11pm taking glamour selfies with filters. TBH, I am fabulous.
Bertram didn’t have a costume either this year (wasted opportunity, I know) but his fall seasonal attire is a proper orange, albeit camping themed.
Good Things this Week:
I was feeling a little morose about the snow and the season, so I broke out my emergency Elephantine Bakery ricotta danish from the freezer. If you ever have the opportunity to visit them in Portsmouth, NH, I highly highly recommend everything they make. My mother got a seasonally appropriate Fougasse last night for dinner from them.
Watching and Reading:
On Netflix I started watching My Octopus Teacher, a documentary about a man and and Octopus. It’s gorgeous footage. Also thoroughly enjoying
I devoured Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi in a weekend. Considering it took me months to get through Jonathan Strange & Mister Norell (although I loved it), this was a pleasure to rip through, a WILD ride, and I’m sorry it’s through.
Good Food: my meals have all been haphazard, simple, or weirdly mixed in a bowl. I’ve been playing with my new Air Fryer. I got this Ninja 4Qt. (Affiliate link) I reluctantly admit that I think it’s great. I made calamari from Red’s Best two weeks in a row now – this time with home made cocktail sauce, and Brooklyn Delhi Curry Mustard.
I made a wonderful omelette with portobello mushrooms and oaxaca cheese with green chiles from Mozzarella Co.
I almost never buy pre-made soups, because I usually find them too salty, but I splurged on a few meals worth of Red Hen Baking Curried Carrot Soup with a smidge of ginger. It was definitely worth it. Super creamy, a little kick. Someone was also interested.
A couple of other pre-made items of note: Cafe Spice, who makes the BEST chicken tikka masala has added a few good meals to their lineup. I had the Ghee Roasted Chicken and their new Persian! Pomegranate Walnut Chicken. Both were delicious.
Tonight I wrapped up my night with a Restorative Yoga class with Jane, where she finished with a Rumi poem as I melted into my mat. Dinner was Birdhous Pierogies “Popeye” which… I’m realizing at this moment are so named because they have greens in them. Delicious! Boiled and pan fried, and served with air fried bbq cedar salmon, and a crispy leaf lettuce salad with Bariani olive oil and lemon.
Here’s to a good week. Hang in there, friends. I’ll see you tomorrow.
This week a friend asked for a list of quick Trader Joe’s balanced meals with fresh or pre-packed components. (Hi, Jana!) She specified chicken, fish, and pork. I thought you might find these useful as well! (Yes, the picture has nothing to do with healthy dinners. But pick up one of these Trader Joe’s Corn Cookie mixes before they are gone!)
Chicken Ideas:
TJ’s Schwarma Chicken Thighs; frozen jasmine rice packet, arugula salad with part kit.
Marinate chicken thighs or tenders in half a bottle of their Honey Aleppo Sauce, roast the marinated chicken thighs ON zucchini slices in the same container. Serve with a frozen jasmine rice packet. Other things to marinate chicken: their gyoza sauce. Their Carolina gold bbq sauce.
I’m an “adult”: Chicken Drumellas, steamed broccoli, baked Alexia French fries. Dip in sriracha barbecue sauce.
Fish:
Argentinian frozen shrimp, cooked in their organic vodka sauce on the stovetop. Crumble on feta. Serve over rice or just as is. You can also use eggs as a cheat“shakshuka” this way.
Bake their BBQ Salmon on Cedar-y thing. Served over “sushi rice”: frozen rice packet, doctored with a little rice vinegar and sugar. With chopped cucumber, and if you feel fancy, some pickled ginger.
Take any of their frozen fish, slather in their garlic spread, and bake. Or you can do half-half with mustard. I just got the new Bronzino filets and plan on doing this.
Pork:
Marinate Pork Tenderloin (I’ve been loving that honey Aleppo.) Then bake in the oven. While that’s happening, take one of the boxes of cubed pancetta, crisp up in the pan, add a bag of the shredded Brussels sprouts. Cook until soft. You probably want a spoonful of some sort of vinegar to balance it out, or a bunch of lemon. Note: I marinate everything in a ziplock!
Trader Joe’s Quick Chili: sauté ground meat of your choice, a bunch of cumin and salt, a container of chopped onions, a jar of salsa (I like either their hatch chili or pepita) a can of fire roasted tomatoes. Simmer for thirty minutes while you finish up something else. Top with unexpected cheddar or pepper jack.
Hit me up if you have similar requests, and I’ll help you out.
I’ve been leaning into fall. You’ll see quite a bit of New England fall situation in this post. Leaves. Flowers of changing colors. I’ve begun to roast things for the season. And I broke down and bought myself an air fryer. I’m busy air frying crispy potatoes at the moment while I pause to recap my week and the good things in week 42! (how?) of 2020.
Before we get into last week, I’ll just note that my culinary highlight this week was helping Samin Nostrat today find a specific thing in a slightly obscure cookbook – Ada Boni’s Italian Regional Cooking – to fact-check for an article. I happened to have on the shelf just two squares over from her own book, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. Quick culinary adventuring to the rescue on Twitter!
Fall notes, shall we? My neighbors have some exquisite gardens still in bloom. I managed to clean up and prune some of my slightly-neglected front porch plants, and I have a few tomatoes still hanging on their last legs before the frost.
Last weekend, I opted for a virtual run of the Boston Women’s 10k – making this my NINTH year in a row running this race (you can see my first race recap here!) I contemplated running the race course, but opted to safely run through my neighborhood, where it’s a little more hilly and a little less crowded.
I was not running this race to “race” it – but opted for a comfortable run, breathing through my nose, listening along to a Peloton marathon training run (thanks, Matt Wilpers!) – and somehow in the last .4 mile looked down at my watch for the first time in the run and realized that I would be technically PRing the race course itself had it been run officially. At which point I decided I might as well hustle a little bit. Turns out that a 1275 mile summer four month base training – is a STRONG BASE! I’m a little disappointed not to be doing “real” fall racing right now!
Repping my shirt and my lack of pandemic haircuts:
Next up in my “lean into fall!” plan was my first chili of the season. I go through chili phases. The simplest chilis I make are sort of “hack” chili. The “recipe”: I cook up some ground meat – in this case, turkey, with cumin, salt, and chile powder, add a bag of frozen peppers and onions, dump in a can of diced tomatoes with green chiles, and a jar of salsa – in this case pepita salsa from Trader Joe’s. 30 minutes on low for flavors to meld, and everything is better after a night in the fridge.
One stroke of genius I had in the middle of the night one night was to order emergency cheese. Each week as part of my Circumpolar Race Around the World, I set about organizing a small research email for my team members about the cities and towns that we are running through.
Given that it’s me, a good portion of the email is devoted to local ingredients, recipes and specialties. We’d been traveling the past month down the Eastern Coast of Mexico, through Tamaulipas, Veracruz, and Chiapas.
I’m now hungry daily for seafood, filled tamales, and good cheese. What started as a search for Queso de Bola de Ocosingo online (you can’t get it imported, alas), led me to Carlos Yescas’ interview in Cuture Cheese Magazine – shouting out Mozzarella Co. and founder Paula Lambert (sold many of her cookbooks at Omnivore! – which led to a 1am emergency order of her “South of the Border” cheese sampler. Which I do not regret one bit.
So far, I’ve made my way through the goat cheese wrapped in hoja santa leaf, and the Queso Oaxaca.
In other small comforts, inspired by the vast amount of corn dishes I’ve been reading about as we head down through Mexico and Central America, I’ve been craving good corn things. The easiest of which: I’ve been eating the occasional popcorn with good things on it. Or just plain with some salt.
My other emergency comfort food is doctored Annie’s Mac and Cheese; and given that this is the month leading up to the election I’ve found myself needing some of that too. Here’s a bowl topped with braised honey aleppo chicken thighs.
Fortunately, my comfort-dog has been doing extra good work.
Here’s a few more good things, dinner-wise: I’ve been a long time subscriber of Cook Smarts (affiliate link); a meal planning service. Although meal planning is one of my favorite personal activities, I always love inspiration from different places. I found myself savoring two excellent Cook Smarts meals this week.
Lomo Saltado: a Peruvian dish that is cooked like a stir-fry. Seared marinated steak, peppers, and onions, tossed with tomato, served with crispy fries. I made only one small edit; realizing mid-cooking that I didn’t have a tomato, I stirred in a spoonful of Tomato Achaar.
On that note, I had fries twice, as my Air Fryer arrived mid-week. So far, it’s been a success!
The second meal was more of a riff on the idea: Vietnamese Pork Chop with spicy pickled cucumbers, roasted asparagus, and ginger rice. Also delicious.
The rest of my meals were a whole lot of un-photogenic bowls of things, but I’ll note them: leftover Yom Kippur mix and match foods, savory herb chicken and roasted cauliflower with yogurt, a sweet chili shrimp bowl from Whole Foods, shrimp and avocado with cucumber and peanut noodles; roasted harvest veggies with pork tenderloin; a bowl of chicken and rice. Oh, and a bowl of cauliflower gnocchi with crumbled shrimp burgers and sweet chili sauce. UGLY delicious.
Oh, and challah french toast: made in five minutes with two eggs, some half and half, cinnamon, and sugar. Perfection.
I leave you with a seasonal parting shot of Bertram, and some entertainment recommendations: Indian Matchmaker (Netflix), The Left-Handed Booksellers of London (Garth Nix – book), and one of my favorite Ompractice classes of the week: Yin Yoga with (Dr.) Yasmene Mumby on Tuesday nights at 8pm Eastern.
And if you’d like to HATE-watch something, I highly recommend last weeks episode of Great British Baking Show… where they attempt and FAIL to make brownies.
It is possible that September of 2020 was the longest month, although October seems to be bringing a strong case. While I have largely resisted getting hooked into doom-scrolling the worst of the 24-hour news cycle, I’m thankful that fall is my favorite season to be outdoors, so I’m pulled gently outside on a daily basis, and it’s not hard to spot GOOD THINGS outside in fall!
While I missed out on the Five Fork Farms Dahlia Share this year, SOMEONE please remind me next fall!, I’ve been walking the neighborhood in search of resplendent blooms.
Fall running season is my favorite! After my 1275 mile summer adventure across Tennessee and back, I’ve been transitioning to a new fitness balance – a moderate dose of weekly running (my daily mile, and 3-5 miles or so a three times a week), adding back a good strength training program, and adding in a few yoga and meditation classes a week on Ompractice.
I’m particularly happy with my little “workout corner” to make movement more visible and encouraged on a daily basis. Visual cues are really helpful for me to get into the mood to workout.
While I don’t have any particular training plan for running right now, and as it stands, fall racing isn’t *really happening* (I did sign up for the virtual Boston 10k though!), I was thrilled to come across this – a real USATF meet happening right by my house.
Good Things: Puppies. Bertram got to enjoy the company of Penny Pupadoodle this week, and they both took up perch protecting the neighborhood while our leaves change colors. We also spent time with Sawyer!
And we participated in more than one outside romp on the front grass with Albert. This is Albert.
Good Things: Reading
I’ve not been in a rut, but I’ve been attempting to read too many long books at once. Right now I’m in-progress with several; on Audible: Leigh Bardugo’s Ruin and Rising; Garth Nix’s new The Left-Handed Bookseller of London, and Keith Ferrazzi’s newest Leading Without Authority; and on Kindle: High Output Management.
In physical books, I’ve been re-reading Keith Ferrazzi’s ‘Who’s Got Your Back’ as part of my leadership group book club – action oriented reading!
Good Things: Outdoor Excursions. While my outdoor time has dramatically reduced after my April – August race that had me outside for 10 miles or more a day, I’m still spending as much time as I can in the fresh air.
At the beginning of the month, I went on a socially distanced walk in the woods in Belmont. I took a glorious afternoon excursion one weekend to Fresh Pond, where I was able to mostly avoid the crowds and enjoy the fresh air. I made my first trip to Formaggio in FOR-EVER, where I was so overwhelmed by choice that I made out with a single small piece of Halvah.
Love little love notes like this.
Good Things in Food: I was excited to get started on my Rancho Gordo bean passport this month. They sent a little booklet in the mail as part of bean club, with bean “stamps” and a space for you to take notes on your bean journey. As I have an ever changing backlog of good beans, it’s a fun little project!
While I’ve been mostly getting food from my CSA or a weekly store trip, this month I made a concession trip to Eataly to treat myself to a variety of produce, prepared meat and seafood, and snacks. I picked up their chicken cacciatore (so good!), a chicken milanese, and some bubbe’s chicken soup Seemore chicken sausages.
Their produce is usually quite good, and relatively inexpensive compared to the super market, which is confusing. Once or twice a year I stumble across a perfectly ripe melon, which ends up being a highlight of the week.
They also have a *very good* salmon burger, which I ate over a fall salad with apple, roasted potatoes, and the end of the good summer tomatoes. (On that note, I’ve picked up the new little shrimp burgers this week from TJ’s, and will report back.)
I got a container of their marinated octopus salad, which I ate with a crispy lettuce, tomato, and potato salad. (Yes, there’s a trend.) Crispy lettuce is so darn delicious!
Good Thing: Eating as Vicarious Travel. Another good thing in September: I’ve been virtually walking and running along through Mexico with a team of my friends for the Circumpolar Race Around the World. Each week, I write up a little email about the cities we are “traveling” through. As we made it through Tampico, a city of Crabs – I couldn’t help but cooking a theme meal: crab salpicon over a salad.
Other good meals: I’m back on the marinating train. Meat is just so much better when you coat it in spices or sauce, and let it just hang for time to do it’s work. I’ve been doing chicken – a little bit of yogurt or sour cream, and a spice mix. Or lamb with cumin and olive oil. This one was honey-aleppo marinated steak kabobs over corn and tomato salad.
I’ve also been into super simple lunches: things that are more assembled than cooked. When I have the energy, I’ll do a tiny bit of prep on the weekend to have chopped vegetables ready to go. I’ll also make a bean of the week. (Chickpeas, in this case.) This one had tomatoes, cucumbers, fennel, and chickpeas with chicken.
The chickpeas get a completely different treatment for the next meal: Orange bowl: warmed chickpeas with wilted spinach, tomato, potato, with dynamite sauce.
The third version is dinner: this is a favorite chicken liver and chickpea curry, with Patak’s Tikka Masala PASTE which is always in my fridge.
Moving onto the next bean: Egg and Eggplant two ways (roasted, and salad) – with fat Rancho Gordo Corona beans. Corona beans are huge and meaty. I’ve been meaning to pan fry them, but haven’t yet. This batch was cooked in some leftover pan drippings added into the boiling water.
And my perpetual favorite meal: a “Sushi Roll in a Bowl” with seasoned rice, chopped fish or meat, quick pickled cucumbers, pickled ginger, and furikake seasoning. Sometimes I make this with chicken, or pork chop, or really any protein on hand, but a favorite in the past few months has been with Trader Joe’s smoked ahi tuna. I haven’t seen it in the last week though, but am hoping it’ll be back!
Other Good Snacks: a few good snacks to mention from September.
Blueberries, oats, brown sugar and a splash of cream.
Applesauce, oats, cottage cheese, cinnamon, and maple butter.
Roasted Spaghetti squash, with walnuts and crunchy maple sugar.
Single Serve Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies – just a little bit of water, the cookie mix from TJ’s and microwave for one minute.
An apple cider donut from Honeypot Hill Orchards (thanks Somchay!)
Chopped liver, noodle kugel, and stuffed peppers (from my mom!)
And here’s Bertram to wish you into the new month.
Cheers! Here’s to some Good Things in the next week.
The Second Lunch is a (mostly) food blog by Sam Tackeff about recipes, food writing, ingredient hunting, travel, healthy living, fitness, and everything in between.
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My other emergency comfort food is doctored Annie’s Mac and Cheese; and given that this is the month leading up to the election I’ve found myself needing some of that too. Here’s a bowl topped with braised honey aleppo chicken thighs.
