January Roundup

I’ve decided I’m going to start doing a little roundup at the end of each month — because why not? I’ll share various tidbits of my life from the past four weeks, including things I did, things I ate, things currently on my mind, etc... I’m going to keep the structure loose because life’s short and I want to keep this fun for myself!

So without further ado, here are some things from my January:

I’m not being humble when I say this — I am a historically terrible baker. I love cooking and would even say I’m quite good at it, but for some reason I’ve never had the patience for the exactitude of baking.

When a friend invited me over for dinner this past month and asked me to bring a dessert, I had a wave of ambition and decided to attempt to bake something. Alison Roman has never led me astray, and when I read her Semolina Cake With Lemon And Fennel recipe from her book Sweet Enough, it felt potentially doable.

I was right! It came out great (albeit perhaps a bit too toasted on the bottom) and it was SO easy. There was also no waiting for anything to rise or cool in the fridge, which I never have any patience for. It literally took about an hour total. Next time you invite me to something, watch out — I’m probably bringing this cake.

We ate the cake alongside Forthave Spirits' — a fellow Brooklyn-based brand — Marseille Amaro and although I’m not typically the type to push a pairing, I must say this was an EXCELLENT combo. Especially because I baked the cake for sliiightly too long and the extra lubrication was just what the doctor ordered. I’m sure the contrast of bitter and sweet/herbal tasting notes/etc, etc had something to do with it, too.

My bedroom is quintessentially NYC in size — approximately 96 sq. ft and basically just large enough to fit my full-size bed. Towards the end of last year I had really started to feel the squeeze, so when January rolled around I resolved to make some improvements — no matter how small.

I ended up installing some shelves I found at Home Depot and arranged some of the objects that bring me most joy on them. This not only freed up more space in other parts of my room, but it also means I get to reap the benefits of seeing these cherished belongings more prominently on a daily basis.

The first objects that went up on my new shelves are a set of candles from Copito, which I received as a Christmas present (for any friends/family reading this — if you’re ever stumped on what to gift me, you will NEVER go wrong with a beeswax candle).

Copito is a line of sculptural objects made by hand in Spain by Clara Infante. All of the colors are produced by natural pigments sourced directly from the earth and plants — an incredibly special detail, in my opinion. Their Instagram is also one of my very favorite accounts (come for the process videos, stay for the beautiful photography).

Maybe one day I’ll burn my candles — but for now, I get too much pleasure from seeing them up on my shelf as is.

My friend Adriana is an incredible artist, and her most delicious medium is pasta. A group of our friends have been taking turns hosting nights where we get together to make pasta, usually experimenting with different shapes and techniques.

For our most recent pasta night we played with colored doughs, “dyeing” them with various food powders (beet, spirulina, spinach, tomato). This didn’t change the flavor of the pasta dough as much as it allowed us to create some super fun visual patterns and combinations. I was actually kind of taken aback by how legitimately… stunning the dough was? I wanted to frame some of the sheets we rolled out! But alas — pasta is for eating, and there is something poetic about beauty that is ephemeral (aka eaten for dinner).

If you want to try making homemade pasta yourself, Adriana has an online guide that you can access here! And here is a video that shows some of the pasta-making in action.

I created the above image to post to our Pinterest (yes, I guess we have a Pinterest now) and started writing a caption for it, which ended up spiraling into a much longer ramble that turned into our first journal article.

In real life I’m super extroverted, but online I’ve always tended to be a bit more… introverted. I’ve never felt super comfortable being in front of the camera or putting myself and my words out there, but I think this might be the year that starts to change.

When I posted the article I got some really validating responses, and people reached out to tell me how much some of the sentiments resonated with them. Meeting new people and connecting with others is truly one of my favorite parts of being alive, so if putting myself out there brings more of that into my life — then that’s what I want to do more of.