Here is my ideal January soup. It’s the one I come back to, again and again, in the blur of my post-holiday malaise when my body craves fresh and wholesome things, but my heart dwells on the richness of…
Lately
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Life •
December 5, 2012: My 25th birthday. A and I spread an old comforter on the grass in Alamo Square park and stretch our bodies into the waning sunlight. We feel the gentle crunch of fallen leaves underneath us as we lay down, padded by the layer of polyester fill and…
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Books •
I’m always surprised by how much certain books shape my memories. For instance, I cannot imagine my family trip to France this year without The Ensemble by Aja Gabel. It’s as if the four main characters ate croissants by the fountain in The Tuileries and watched the sun set over…
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Life •
My daughter has just learned the word, twinkle. She whispers Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in my ear at night, when I carry her upstairs to her bath, pleased with herself that she knows all the lyrics. On our way to preschool, I put on one of my favorite songs by…
ABOUT ME
I ask big questions and complain about how the laundry is never finished. Sometimes in the same sentence. Welcome.
I’m Renae. I’m a writer, a mom, and above all, an observer. I like to pause on the things that move me, to dwell on my experiences. Even the hard ones. Especially the hard ones.
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This morning, I’m somewhere different. A hillside house, with oak floors and a real backyard with a patch of grass and COUNTER SPACE (prayer hands emoji). It feels surreal to say that this is my house and that we are now homeowners. We’ve traded the swooshing soundtrack of a busy…
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Hello. I come to you this morning from the little balcony outside my apartment. Lately, I’ll come out here for a few minutes at a time, just to look up and feel the sun warm my face. Adam and I had lunch at a restaurant the other day (!) with…
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To me, nothing says spring more than sugar snap peas at the market. Combined with anise-fragrant fennel and the tart, herbaceous lemon-mint dressing, they taste like spring in a bowl: fresh, bright, crunchy, and sweet. I make this salad in that perfect crossover moment at the market, when the fennel…
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The 12 essays in Let Me Tell You What I Mean, written between 1968 and 2000, don’t exactly follow a cohesive thread. Or rather, Joan Didion’s methodical, cutting search for the truth in every situation is the thread. In the essay, “Why I Write,” Didion says about the way she…
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Why pickle fennel? A fair question, but not THE question imho. Here’s better one: what do you do with pickled fennel? Because the answer is EVERYTHING, not to exaggerate or anything. That jar of pickled fennel in your fridge is the friend you call after a rough day at work,…
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Salads, generally speaking, are the least sensual of all foods. They’re intellectual, straightforward: a combination of ingredients chosen for harmony and substance. Sensual foods derail the logical. They’re about being and wanting, about wanting things that glisten and drip and quiver like a three-minute egg over salty, pink gravlax or…
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My friend and former roommate, Josh, makes the most over-the-top, stupid-decadent ragu you’ll ever taste. The secret is onions caramelized in butter and de-glazed with red wine, which turns into a jam so sweet and complex you could almost abandon your plans for ragu and make French onion soup instead….
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I used to be afraid we’d run out of things to talk about. A luxury, now that my fears are trained on bigger things. But I remember those momentary sparks of worry from our first couple of years together, when conversation died down at the end of a long dinner….
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Lentils are the perfect January food, at least in my book (you should know that my book does not include Whole30, or Veganary, or Dry January, god help me). They’re gratifying in the way that all starches tend to be, but their fiber and protein give them so much more…
