Table Stakes
We are nearly four weeks post-surgery for Nova’s knee, and she’s starting to feel frisky. She now nags me regularly to go for walks, but I think it is just too soon to do much of that. We have a FaceTime call scheduled with the surgeon soon. I'm curious to hear what he has to say about ramping up her activity.
Unrelated, but worth sharing: Fate forced me to change how I manage my email, and I’m pleasantly surprised with the result. Hey.com offers wonderful innovations in both email and calendar interface. On the email side, all first-time email senders are screened, giving you the power to reject all future emails from that sender. This has drastically reduced my overall email volume, resulting in a surprising measure of peace of mind.
Yesterday I watched Food Inc. 2, a follow-up produced by Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser that revisits the numerous issues in our system of food production and distribution that result in poor health, lower nutrition, exploitative labor practices and monopoly profits for the handful of mega-companies that sit atop key parts of the system.
I watched it reluctantly, to be honest. Its uncomfortable to be reminded of the many ugly truths, especially when one feels powerless as an individual to affect meaningful change. But my tail was dragging a bit, having received my second dose of the shingles vaccine on Friday. Watching the film fit my energy level and I knew it would yield some good material to write about.
I won’t beat you over the head with all of the negative realities that we must navigate on a daily basis. They are out there, and if you mindlessly buy and consume food, you will reinforce every single one of them. I highly recommend watching the movie, to be a more-informed consumer.
Instead, I will share some simple guidelines that will allow you to “vote with your wallet” and support practices that yield more holistic benefits to all concerned:
To the greatest extent possible, eat minimally processed food. Fresh fruits and vegetables, canned or frozen are fine too. Basic grains and legumes.
Purchase proteins that are ethically raised and processed. No factory farmed meat, poultry or seafood. This can cost more - offset that higher cost with more plant-based proteins.
Buy local and seasonal as much as possible. The outdoor farmer’s market opens soon - make sure to visit it often and purchase a lot of your food there.
The importance of cooking a home cannot be overstated. To encourage this, my Sunday Supper recommendations moving forward are going to focus on easier-to-cook, more modular recipes to hopefully make it a bit easier for you to do this. At the bottom of this email is a list of all the recipes I developed for the Maamos Kitchen meal kit program - email me if you would like any of those recipes, I’m happy to share them.
On the personal health front, I continue to shed weight steadily, and I attribute this to cooking and eating more simply. I’ll take the risk of jinxing myself by sharing that it really has been easy. Its funny how the basic truths consistently yield results. Eat more like your grandparents (maybe even great-grandparents)! Your body will reward you with better health.
Sunday Supper
This One-Pot Chicken Tinga recipe will yield a lot of flavor and volume to jumpstart your week with good food. This Kale Caesar Salad looks great, too - it would be easy to add some cooked chicken thighs or breast to this. (My favorite local source of chicken is Copia Farm - their self-serve market stand is totally worth a visit if you haven’t been there yet.)
Sunday Music
This song came into my head earlier this week. I tried to manufacture a reason for titling this week’s essay In Spite of Ourselves, but couldn’t figure it out. This beautiful duet between John Prine and Iris Dement is so fun, poignant, and real. When John died in 2020 of COVID-related complications, artists far and wide honored him by covering his songs in this NPR Tiny Desk (Home) concert tribute. Enjoy!
If you know anyone who might like this essay, please send it to them.
Have a great week ahead! Offer support to others. Make good use of this day. And let me know how I can help.
Peace & Love,