life lately

March 7, 2021

tworedbowls

Hello! It’s been awhile, hasn’t it? I thought I’d just pop in to say a quick hello and share a few snippets from life lately, even if I don’t have a new recipe to share. First, the big news—we are, in fact, expecting another baby bowl. It’s going to be another little girl! This pregnancy has been rougher than the previous two combined, but I’m feeling much better and we could not be more excited for B5. Luke is at the age where he likes to kiss my bump and say he loves the baby, which is great until he also sits on my bump and announces, “I squashed the baby!”

So, there’s that! It’s hard for me to believe that it’s been over a year since news started swirling about COVID-19 and close to a year since our lives changed so dramatically. Clara just turned two (hooray) and it reminds us of how, around this time a year ago, we had all our friends and family in LA over for her dol–and how we had no idea that would actually be the last time we saw many of them in person for quite some time. But hopefully we will again one of these days.

On the food front, I really haven’t been experimenting much in the kitchen. It feels like everything I eat has made me feel sick during this pregnancy (although it evidently does not stop me from eating), so it’s been a lot of ginger soups and rice bowls for me in particular. But a few things that have helped me liven things up a bit lately:

Girl & Dug Farm has incredible theme boxes of fresh, gorgeous produce that they curate, along with recipe tips and instructions, to give you ideas for meals. They sent me their Grain Bowl Box recently and it could not have come at a better time–so many beautiful herbs, new-to-me veggies like spigariello and D’Auvignon radishes, Korean beauties like daepa, minari and buchu, and, most excitingly for me, a perfect little bundle of tender pea shoots, my absolute favorite childhood way to eat greens. The spigariello and Korean spinach got sauteed, the minari blanched and mixed with sesame oil to make namul, the radishes pickled, and buchu into a big pile of buchu jeon; it’s all brought so much freshness and new flavor into our food this week. I am so gratified, too, to see these traditionally Asian vegetables brought to a broader audience.
I also recently tried this new brand of frozen bone broths and noodles through a St. Jude fundraiser hosted by my friends at the phenomenal collective Gold House. We’ve been ordering takeout and delivery as much as we can to support our local restaurants, but this was a nice in-between where it feels a little lighter than takeout can sometimes be but still fun and fancy. The coconut lime tom kha-inspired soup is delicious.

I’m also sitting on my hands waiting for Hetty McKinnon’s latest book To Asia, With Love to come out stateside. I was honored to see a little sneak peek of the book and to cook a recipe or two from it, and I will actually share something new with you all soon that’s from her book! It is the best thing I’ve made in years. For now, you can preorder here!

What else? We made the decision to keep Luke out of school a little longer, which was hard for us. It has been a year since he’s been in school, and Clara’s also not in school yet even though she’s now the age that Luke was when he started. But I recognize how fortunate we are to have that choice, and I’m happy that they can keep each other company (even if that company is, frequently, Luke putting his feet on Clara’s head, Clara pulling his hair, or them screaming at each other and crying–or all of the above at once). So, for now, we’re just still taking things day by day, and getting more excited (and yes, maybe a little nervous) for our house to get even rowdier in a few months.

Leaving you with a few snapshots of some of the things we’ve been cooking and eating. Hope everyone is safe and well.