- We celebrate a mishmash of holidays in our home. As you might know, Tuesday was the first night of Hanukkah. In our house that means we exchange a few gifts, light the menorah, and, most importantly, eat my husband Zach's homemade latkes. It's one of my favorite nights of the year. I didn't grow up celebrating Hanukkah, so for me it's an entirely new tradition forged with my husband. I'm both unfailingly nostalgic and a homebody: creating new traditions is one of my favorite parts of being an adult.
- Leftover latkes are maybe the second best part of Hanukkah. Yesterday, in a moment of inspired culinary genius, I crumbled a leftover latke on my salad. I also topped it with a salmon burger. I am still thinking about that lunch. It had all the right things: a vegetable base for smugness, protein, good fat to keep me going, a variety of tastes and textures, an element of treat-y-ness.
- About that salmon burger. I got a whole frozen pack of them at Costco. They aren't something I'd normally go for, but my good friend Sarah recommended them once and I bought them a while ago. They've been in my freezer ever since. I give them the hairy eyeball every time I see them. I've never had a salmon burger I loved, but I trust Sarah (particularly when it comes to food), and, frankly, I was bolstered by the guy next to me in the meat locker/frozen foods aisle at Costco who said he loved them and they were his favorite lunch. I normally opt for a lunch salad, but sometimes braces make that impossible. So anyway, here we are a month or so later, and man are those salmon burgers good. No weird texture, juicy, totally delicious. I'm going to go make one in a few minutes. You should try them, especially on a salad with a latke.
- Speaking of good combinations, I recently realized that many of my favorite foods involve bacon and eggs: spaghetti carbonara, Cobb salad (sub feta for the bleu), actual bacon and eggs.
- Speaking of bacon and eggs, Zach and I have been watching Parks & Rec on Netflix, from the beginning. I have always loved Ron Swanson, but watching the whole series from the start has made us both fall in love with April Ludgate.
- More about food: I drink coffee at home, and only occasionally get it while out. I usually drink it black, with the exception of sometimes putting milk and sugar in iced coffee. But once or twice a year I treat myself to a fancy Starbucks seasonal latte. I usually go for a peppermint mocha this time of year, but the other day I branched out for my annual treat, and tried the new chestnut praline latte. It was freaking delicious. If dessert, coffee, and Christmas had a baby, that's what it would taste like.
- I went back to yoga yesterday. It felt so, so good. I was pretty involved with my yoga studio back in DC, and I worried about finding a place here that could replicate the environment and feeling I got back 'home'. If I haven't found it exactly, I think I've at least found something close. It's such a gift to have a physical outlet that always feels right to me. Yoga is whatever I need it to be - physical, mental, challenging, gentle - and that's a big part of why I love it.
- But today everything hurts. Eeeeeeverything huuuuuurts.
Yay!
