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As I write, I’m visiting Fox Point Farms, a gorgeous regenerative farm in Encinitas, CA. I’ve been meaning to come here for over a year, and finally, today felt like the day.
There’s something that happens in my body, my heart, and my nervous system when I’m around farms, local produce, handmade products (like soaps and pottery), wood paneling, and natural fabrics. My body says YES—like a giant green check mark from the universe.
There’s a soul-level resonance here that feels like potent medicine. Like magic. Not everyone feels this spark walking through a farmers’ market, and that’s okay. I get it. We’re all wired differently. Some people feel their cosmic connection staring up at galaxies. Others find it in numbers, formulas, or code.
For me, it’s heirloom tomatoes and wooden farm tables. For you, maybe it’s camping, cooking over fire, waking up with the birds. Maybe it’s knitting, letting your brain rest while your hands create something beautiful and useful.
These days, life is busy. Social media and TV gobble up so much of our time. My plea? Keep exploring. Try new restaurants, new ingredients, new corners of your own city. Hang out with friends. Your grown-up self deserves playdates too. Go find them.
Best Recipe Mess Around:
Miso Soup and Spinach Gomaae
Coming off a couple of days of eating some heavier comfort food, I felt the need to eat lighter for a bit. I’ve been documenting my meals on IG to show people how I cook for my family with simple riffs, using whatever’s in my fridge.
This meal felt a little special because it was a craving I couldn’t quite shake. Specifically, I was out of bonito flakes to make the miso base. I like to always keep tofu in the fridge because it’s a versatile, light protein and my kids love it.
Miso soup is one of those restaurant dishes that’s so easy to recreate at home it’s almost a crime to pay $4 a bowl with your sushi. I frequently do because it’s just a bowl of joy. If you’ve never made miso soup at home, I recommend giving it a go. Just steer clear of those powdered miso packets, they’ve disappointed me every time.
Using kombu and bonito flakes makes a silky, flavorful broth. It’s not hard, you just have to have the ingredients on hand. Luckily, they last forever in your pantry.
And miso is definitely one of my fridge staples, it lasts forever and makes everything taste better.
Spinach gomaae is a dish that blew my mind 16 years ago at Izakaya Meiji in Eugene. It had that trendy, small-plates, open-late vibe, and the kind of food that was totally new to me at the time. I fell in love with sesame flavor on sight. Toasted sesame, to be specific.
Traditionally, gomaae is made by blanching spinach and tossing it in a sesame dressing made from freshly ground sesame seeds, soy sauce, and a touch of sugar or mirin. But I had baby spinach on hand and wanted something quick, so I gave it a light sauté instead.
I tossed it with tahini and toasted sesame oil, then realized at the last second that it needed a splash of rice wine vinegar for balance. (The kids were starving, so…next time.) It turned out delicious and nutty, but I’ll take it a step further next time and play with the texture and sauce.
Spinach is something I frequently have on hand, and sesame is a forever favorite. It’s a quick, satisfying way to add dark leafy greens to dinner when you don’t have a game plan.
Try these recipes from Just One Cookbook:
IMPROVISE WIN
Cheater au jus
Because sometimes the sauce deserves its own applause. Chicken stock reduction, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, onion powder, fresh thyme, beef pan drippings, and white pepper.
Quick, easy, delicious.
I had a beautiful Prime Ribeye NY Strip from Rocker Bro’s Meat that I’d covered in a spice rub and left uncovered in the fridge overnight to dry slightly. The next day, I seared it in light olive oil, and popped it on a rack to bake low and slow at 300°F for a couple of hours.
Just because I was cooking a gorgeous piece of meat didn’t mean I wanted to make an elaborate dinner. Plus, I had a craving for French dip sandwiches (I’d just been talking about them with a friend). So we grabbed fresh-baked bread from the Italian market next door, whipped up a garlic-mayo spread, charred peppers and onions, toasted it with provolone, and added a little kick with spicy English mustard. Simple, satisfying, and especially divine dunked in the cheater au jus.
FAVORITE QUICK LUNCH
Tinned Fish Salads
A lunch that feels fancy but takes less effort than opening your inbox. Recently we picked up some fancy jarred tuna at Costco, which of course led to a tuna-salad situation. When that was gone, we had a thought to swap in smoked salmon: smoked salmon salad, same tuna-mayo base but punched up with spicy English mustard, capers, red onion, lemon juice, and a little mayo. We served it as a dip with sesame crackers, chef’s kiss.
Why keep tinned fish around?
SOCAL SEAFOOD
I bought my first California rockfish from my trusted fishmonger, Lucia Barracuda, and it was surprisingly delicious. My heart is so bonded with Pacific Northwest seafood that I’m admittedly a little skeptical toward these tropical waters, but this one won me over.
The rockfish had gorgeous coral skin (one of my wedding palette colors!) and the flesh was remarkably tender. The flavor was milder than I expected, especially since I let it hang in the fridge for a couple of days before cooking—sorry, fish. And yet she still outperformed my expectations.
Lucia’s boat catches on Fridays, and sells the haul at the Saturday Vista farmers market. If you’re not living near the coast, find your local specialty vendors. Shopping seasonally and locally adds deeper sense of appreciation and connection to your surroundings.
NEXT ADVENTURE
Recently I discovered there’s an open-air local seafood market in Oceanside on Sundays—basically a farmers’ market just for fish. Ever since I heard about it, I’ve been craving seafood.
FRESH seafood is such a luxury, but it’s rarely convenient. Usually, I have to go out of my way to buy it—from the farmers market or a premium fish shop 40 minutes away—and even then, not everything is top-notch. I haven’t been to an open-air seafood market since Pike Place Market in Seattle, so I’m excited to explore it soon and share what I find.
LOBSTER SEASON
Lucia Barracuda has been posting about California spiny lobster season opening early October so that’s something fun to look forward to!
In Puerto Vallarta I stayed at a villa with a full house staff and when the chef learned that I’m also a chef he went on a super early morning dive for spiny lobster and made us incredible lobster bisque. They were spotted and so different than what I was used to. It was such a delightful treat, a once in a lifetime experience.
PINOLE
This was a seriously exciting discovery for me. Brace yourself—she’s going into another story…
In Puerto Vallarta, there’s a little restaurant across from the pink church in Old Town (I can’t remember the name) that serves some of my favorite food ever. They make an incredible atole, a warm, comforting drink that’s thicker than cocoa and lightly sweetened. There are different flavors: cinnamon, vanilla, chocolate, fruit, but I had atole de elote, a corn-based version that totally stole my heart.
I’ve been chasing that flavor ever since. It’s not on menus anywhere. Not even at street vendors, yep, I asked.
Last week I was walking through a Mexican market and spotted a bag of pinole near the pumpkin seeds and nuts. I thought it was a nut flour, so I grabbed it along with a few conchas (sweet bread). When I got home, I Googled it and realized pinole is the sweetened, roasted cornmeal used to make atole.
The next morning, I heated milk and stirred in the pinole, topped it with cinnamon, and wow. Comfort in a cup.
Fun facts from an atole admirer:
Pinole (also known as pinol) is made from roasted and ground maize, often sweetened and spiced. It’s rich in complex carbs, fiber, and antioxidants and has been used for centuries by the Tarahumara (Rarámuri) people for endurance and sustained energy. Modern nutritionists might call it the world’s original performance fuel.
I’M A PLANT MOM AGAIN
Inspiration can gang up on you from different angles. I’ve been meaning to leave room in my cart at the farmers market for plant starts for months. Then I stumbled on an account called @blossomeffect_, and she’s a hardcore plant mama. Suddenly I wanted that, too, a little jungle of my own. Edible is my garden of choice.
Over the years, I’ve had lots of different kinds of gardens, some big, some small. About 13 years ago, I lived on a ranch in Oregon and built 3 large raised garden beds from reclaimed wood on the property. I think the deer there ate more than we did.
Later, in the Seattle suburbs, we had a house with a long raised rock wall that I planted herbs, tomatoes and lettuces in. Currently, I don’t have much backyard space for raised beds. But you know what we do have here in SoCal? Sunshine, and lots of it, year-round. So we’ve got that going for us and I’m happy to plant in cute ceramic pots.
I planted lovage, watercress, oregano, chives, thyme, sage, and arugula. After rearranging her garden, my friend Claudia gave me a couple basil and serrano plants, mature, and in pots, I hope you have friends that gift plants!
What I DIDN’T see coming was my 8 year old’s nurturing side coming on strong, as I was picking out my plants at the farmers market, he was picking out how own. He selected a mature strawberry plant, paying $8 from his allowance, and another $8 for the pot at Lowes. I water mine, he waters his. He’s so excited about his strawberries, I frequently catch him outside talking to his friends about it.He THEN spent $35 from savings on a large houseplant as I was buying my own. The agreement was that he needs to leave his plant next to my plant so they can be friends, and I don’t want him moving it around the house.
He has a little Nate Berkus decorator inside of him that loves to organize my kitchen drawers and rearrange furniture. When I setup my planter garden, he moved it from the South corner of the patio to the West. He thought they looked better against the house than the fence. Gotta love the initiative. Side note: last week he quietly (when I wasn’t looking) rearranged the plates and pasta bowls from Left to right in the cabinet. Not sure why he felt like this was a priority, it’s literally just a swap, but I love him for it.
Pro Tip: get your plant starts from a small nursery or farmers market since they will have healthier plants and way more variety!
Planning The Next Community Dinner *
*If you’re new here, here’s a little backstory. I live in a gated community with 72 houses. My neighbor and friend Claudia and I host dinners and events for the neighborhood, funded entirely by donations.
It’s looking like the next one will be a holiday-themed event with an ugly sweater contest, photo booth, pop piano musician, lively vibe, and possibly karaoke. We’re tossing around lasagna made with fresh pasta for the main, and a s’mores cake with toasted meringue on top. Last event was our first, and we had 80 people attend, a bunch of those kids.
We’re expecting about that many for this next one, maybe up to 100. Most of the heavy lifting has been getting our communication systems figured out, so now we can focus on planning the menu, instead of chasing down contact info and dietary restrictions.
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FAVORITE SNACK FOOD MADE
Spiced Seedy Granola
On the full moon, I caught a cooking bug and went for it. Granola, overnight oats, red lentil dal with tomatoes, and forbidden rice drizzled with spiced ghee.
I riffed off a granola recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, Good to the Grain, and swapped the mix-ins and spices.
A little worried my kids wouldn’t love the spice, I reminded myself I don’t pander to picky eaters, and if it’s sweet, they’ll usually love it. They loved it. Granola isn’t something I typically buy, so I was surprised how much I liked it. I made it for the boys’ yogurt breakfast bowls, and ended up eating a fair amount myself.
Here’s the thing: making granola is pretty darn satisfying.
Side note: Some of the expensive store versions that are low in sugar contain erythritol, a sugar alcohol. It’s known to cause bloating and it really hurts my stomach, maybe yours too?
Pro tips:
You weren’t but I’m going there anyway…
BEST BELLY LAUGHS
The Great British Bake Off Season 13 on Netflix, Episode 1 SPOILER ALERT.
This guys landscape-themed showstopper cake was literally having a landslide moment off it’s stand with piles of chocolate frosting cascading down. I DIED laughing, tears streaming down my face as he used his hands in a desperate attempt to cup it and stick it back on top of his continuously melting cake. It was HECTIC to say the least. He fought off a meltdown. Used critical thinking and pulled it off, the judges were none the wiser. Man, I love that show.
The SmartLess podcast episode with Kate McKinnon. I think most people know her from a decade of cracking people up on SNL. She also had a genius episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfield. This actually was her first podcast episode ever and she was adorably nervous speaking in deep character voices to soothe her nerves. The comedy and chaos between Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Sean Hayes and Kate was wildly entertaining. If you haven’t ever listened to the SmartLess podcast that features Jason, Will, Sean and their adorable bro friendships, I can’t recommend it enough. They also entice this strange sort of laughter where I didn’t see it coming, it’s a belly laugh with surprise, hesitation, and delight. Over and over again.
Give it a go!
Working With Your Pantry
There’s a voice that tells me to shop as soon as I run out of a handful of staples. But I’ve learned to resist that urge (unless it’s milk, eggs, or coffee, those are non-negotiable). Waiting forces me to look again and consider the less obvious choices. My cooking philosophy heavily encourages variety.
It’s great for:
When I talk about stocking a pantry with lots of variety that looks like:
If you’re running low on jasmine rice, can you plan a meal around another rice you do have, even if it might not be your go-to? On many occasions we’ve subbed in specialty varieties, and it usually makes for a more delicious pairing. That’s the thing about substituting, it empowers you to get creative when you have successes.
The next time you’re running low on some favorite staples, dig to the back of the cabinet and look for what you do have. Think of it as reducing waste, offering variety, and getting creative.
Cooking from your pantry isn’t about deprivation or “making do.” It’s about noticing what’s already here and finding new ways to use it. There’s power in the pause before you rush to the store — that’s where the magic happens. Dig through your shelves, get a little scrappy, and you’ll probably realize you’ve got dinner handled. Turns out, “nothing to eat” is often just code for “I forgot how resourceful I am.”
