Welcome, 2022
Another year shot to hell, as my father would say. How do you welcome in the new year?
Benjamin and I ended 2021 with a quick trip to New York City.
Highlights:
Interviewing Mayukh Sen, author of Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America, James Beard Award winning writer and entirely delightful person.
Hugging friends. Zoom is good. Hugs are better.
Seeing Caroline, or Change and David Byrne’s American Utopia.
Attending Plantbased World Expo Trending: plant-based fried chicken and vegan milk chocolate. For those of us into whole foods, mushrooms and sea moss are — yay — having a moment, too.
Enjoying oat milk cappuccinos in every coffee shop I hit.
Somehow timing our trip right before Omicron.
But two weeks later, the new variant is everywhere, so now what? We know so much more than we did when Covid first hit two years ago. We know vaccines and face masks protect you and protect the people you love. A new study confirms what I’ve long believed — eating plantbased ups your immunity and reduces your risk of Covid. And what luck, it’s Veganuary, your month to get all the tips, hacks, recipes, support and cheering on you need to fully embrace s plantbased life. And it’s free! Sign up. Eat plants.
We could all do with a little pleasure, a little comfort. They’re trending, too. Be part of the trend. Sign up for my pasta and soup classes happening this month. Deets below.
January Calendar
January 1 New Year’s Day means hopping john for luck, plus it’s damn delicious, good for you, it’s affordable and awesome. I could eat hopping john every day of the year.
January 12 — 7pm ET Don’t miss the Pleasure of Pasta, Three pleasing, plant-based pasta dishes, two instructors (myself and Plantbased for Life's Jay Ziebart), all in one delicious virtual class. Pleasure guaranteed. Sign up here.
January 17 Martin Luther King Day Together, let’s make Martin Luther King Jr’s dream of equity, of justice, a reality.
January 20 — 6pm ET Simple Soups, Learn the secrets of making soups that are simple, but deeply flavorful, comforting, nourishing, and satisfying. Transform basic, accessible affordable ingredients — even stale bread — into two different but easy-to-make soups. Free and open to the public, hosted by Miami-Dade Public Library System.
January 27 — 5pm ET Simple Soups, the encore class Free and open to the public, hosted by Miami-Dade Public Library System.
There are good things coming in February, too, including:
My February 21 virtual chat with delightful person Mayukh Sen, hosted by Books and Books, and so much more. Can’t wait to share.
Till then, happy 2022, dear friends. Be good to yourself. Please do everything your power to keep safe and well. You know how I worry.
Some parting words from the late Joan Didion:
"I’m not telling you to make the world better, because I don’t think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I’m just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment. And if you ask me why you should bother to do that, I could tell you that the grave’s a fine and private place, but none I think do there embrace. Nor do they sing there, or write, or argue, or see the tidal bore on the Amazon, or touch their children. And that’s what there is to do and get it while you can and good luck at it."
~ Joan Didion