Reflection

Happy New Year. This has been a welcome week of reflection - I spent the last evening of the year writing down my favorite memories from 2020 and thinking about my personal goals as I look ahead. As challenging a year this has been my gratefulness for just being alive is endless. To all those in my community that help make my life what it is, thank you for your love, support, humor, and kindness.

Looking back on my 2020…

January 25 - My brother C got married to my epically awesome now-sister-in-law B…

Sandwiched between my two brothers

February 1 - Painting with lime wash in our nearly finished backyard studio…

February 19 - Ready to occupy…

March 9 - Two days before I had to close my studio, I took a walk with my client/dearest friend R. I didn’t know this would be the last time I would see her for the year. It makes me smile just thinking of when we will be together again…

March 30 - At home filming a Pilates video…

May 9 - Sunset at home with my boy - 8:46pm…

June 8 - My second day back at the studio since March…

August 10 - The Bon Appetit smash burger of our summer…

August 14 - One of many by-appointment trips to the nursery…

August 20 - Our first family backpacking trip…

September 9 - Remote school…

October 10 - We finished our backyard!

November 26 - Thanksgiving. Beef tenderloin, my favorite swiss chard gratin, the best mashed potatoes, green beans and greens with fried shallots and Lambrusco…

December 17 - Endless cookie making and cookie deliveries…

Eggnog snickerdoodles (everyones’s new favorite), triple ginger from Tartine All Day, oatmeal creme pies from Bravetart, pistachio, lime + matcha snowballs from my GF baking bible Alternative Baker. Also from Alanna, hazelnut biscotti. Bakery boxes from here…

December 23 - Sunrise 7:51am…

December 27 - Solace with epsom salts and Rachel Naomi Remen’s excellent book Kitchen Table Wisdom…

With love and light as we move forward.

December 11

Hello December once again. The sun rose this morning at 7:48 and the sun will set very soon at 4:19. One of my favorite moments of the day is when I wake up around 6:30, take a shower, and then turn on the Christmas tree lights and sit quietly reading in this spot before the rest of my family gets up…

My favorite ornament is this stick of butter (that was on my wishlist last year) that my bestie gave me just this fall in anticipation of the coming season…

As per usual, the “Vince Guaraldi Trio Holiday” station plays nearly every waking hour. This weekend I am making orange and clove pomanders for the first time…

Photo via Gardenista

I still need to figure out what holiday cookies I’d like to bake this year but these brown butter and pistachio sablés from Bon Appetit are on the short list…

We repainted our dining room dark last week (Benjamin Moore City Shadow) and I am smitten with how it turned out…

I’ve been lighting candles nonstop, mostly ivory pillars in simple glass hurricanes. I needed a few more and have been using these Weck jars which are inexpensive and still look lovely…

We just finished this really fun Lego Minifigure puzzle…

I’ve been eating a lot of Ramen lately and this Jade Pearl one is delicious. I cook it for 4 minutes, drain off most of the water, add the seasoning and doctor it up with toasted sesame oil and my favorite kimchi hot sauce. If I have leftover steamed broccoli in the fridge, I’ll throw that in too for a really satisfying lunch (or breakfast)…

Speaking of broccoli, I just harvested the first ever head of broccoli from my garden last week. I can’t wait to plant more in the spring…

Today marks the 24th day of my daily Pilates practice. It has been transformative. I have never had a daily practice in all my years doing Pilates and it feels different in the way that I am approaching it. I am paying deep attention to what my body needs on any given day. There is no judgment, just curiosity and I am enjoying the journey…

Way back in high school (in the analog 1990s) one of my favorite things was getting a brand new planner for the new year. I will forever be a paper and pen kind of person and looking forward to a new planner never gets old. This Moleskine one is my favorite…

All Hallows' Eve

It is a gorgeous cool and bright Halloween here in Seattle, perfect weather for trick-or-treating in any other year. Tonight we are just hanging at home, hiding Twix, Reese’s cups, and Sour Patch Kids in the backyard for my son and sitting by the fire.

I made chocolate cake this morning in my skull cake mold…

I’m really in the baking groove and might make this Apple Cider Doughnut Loaf Cake from Bon Appetit tomorrow…

Photo by Laura Murray via Bon Appetit

Tomorrow with the daylight savings change, the sun will set at 4:51pm. My plan to usher in the darkness is to sit by the fire and finish Case Histories, the first book in Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie series. It’s so good…

I spotted this Everlane oxblood sweatshirt today which is going on my wishlist…

Also these Trader Joe’s freezer to oven croissants are a wonder and I’ve been making them for my son in the mornings. You don’t have to proof them overnight (you don’t even have to preheat the oven!) and they’re ready in 28 minutes…

It’s going to be a wild week with the election. Remember to breathe and abstain from doomscrolling. And if you can, find ways to laugh. My favorites this weekend were found on McSweeney’s…

A few favorites: In This House We Believe, Captions From My Parents’ Museum of Conceptual Art, and Horror Movies for Toddlers.

Or you could just go all in and watch Dave Chappelle’s latest on Netflix…

Also, On Being continues to be a bright light in my life. I never listen to an episode while I am doing something else (besides driving which isn’t as much these days). So if I’m at home, I put headphones on and sit quietly so I can take it all in.

Her lead in to the most recent episode…

“This is always a starting point for meaningful change inside ourselves and our families and communities: We pull up stories we’ve been raised on in the light of what we know now. We see what was not being said, hear the questions we scarcely allowed ourselves even to think. We recover lost chapters. My colleague in radio and podcast, John Biewen, has been doing this with the interwoven questions of what it means to be human and what it means to be white. In a series called “Seeing White,” to which many people have turned in 2020, I think John has modeled something. As a documentary investigative journalist who’d covered race with the best of intentions and rigor, he realized he’d been turning to others — people of color — to be searching about racial rupture and healing. He then turned the lens back on himself.

So that’s the conversation ahead between me and John Biewen. It starts simply — tracing the racial story of our time through the story of a single life. It’s an exercise each of us can do, beginning with a curious eye on our childhoods and hometowns. And if we do this searchingly, it becomes a step towards a more whole and humane world, starting with ourselves.”

And later on this…

Tippett: Do you know Ruby Sales? She’s a civil rights elder, theologian; wonderful, one of the elders who’s with us. And she said to me in 2016, “There’s a spiritual crisis in white America”; that it was a crisis in white America. And she said, “There’s nothing wrong with being European American. That’s not the problem. It’s how you actualize that history and how you actualize that reality.” And she said, “It’s almost like white people don’t believe that other white people are worthy of being redeemed.” She was looking at our electoral — because this has real world political consequences, especially in our current political crisis. I also think of James Baldwin writing that “white people in this country will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other. And when they have achieved this, which will not be tomorrow” — this was in The Fire Next Time — “and may very well be never, the Negro problem will no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed.”

Biewen: Wow.

Tippett: It actually is a truth of life, if you can’t love yourself, you can’t love anyone else. And if white people can’t figure out how to care about each other’s well-being — that that’s part of this reckoning, as well.

Listen to the whole conversation here.

October 29

The temp has dropped here in Seattle and now it really feels like fall. I am learning how to build a proper fire and chop wood. The wood chopping needs some work but it is super satisfying. I snapped this shot on my way out yesterday…

You can’t see them well in the photo above but my super cool Vans are these from Hedley & Bennett…

We have this beautifully simple, made-in-Seattle Filson log carrier to haul all that freshly chopped wood…

Over these last several months at home, I lost the desire to drink alcohol. I didn’t make any big decision, it just happened. And when I thought about it further it became clear that my desire for a cocktail to mark the evening or enjoying a beer after working all day in the yard was about the ritual or celebration and not the alcohol itself. However, most non-alcoholic beverages seem to lack that special something that a proper drink has when it comes to marking an occasion.

With perfect timing, Julia Bainbridge’s excellent book Good Drinks came out last month…

She writes in the introduction: “It can be difficult to snap a backbone onto a mixed drink without wine or spirits. Alcohol provides structure and complexity, and it’s often pleasantly bitter and bracing. Remove it from a cocktail, and you’re left with sugar, acid, and some cold water…Until recently, nonalcoholic mixed drinks have been treated as afterthoughts. A higher level of effort and care anoints them as proper drinks. Good Drinks.”

She also wrote Pleasantly Bitter and Thoroughly Grown-Up, No Alcohol Needed for the NYT this summer. Mentioned in the article is For Bitter For Worse out of Portland. My favorite evening cocktail fireside these days is this negroni style deliciousness…

4 oz The Saskatoon

1 oz simple syrup (or juniper syrup)

1/2oz - 1oz lemon juice

Shake over ice in a shaker, and as the bottle states “serve over ice with style and intention.” (I like a big ice cube like this.)

Another one to add to your bar cart are the SOM vinegar cordials created by Andy Ricker of Pok Pok fame…

“You get something sweet, tart, in some cases savory, and in some cases tannic, all in one pour,” says Ricker. “You don’t have to make a simple syrup or add a botanical to it or muddle anything.”  SOM and soda make a fantastic savor-worthy beverage…

A few other things bringing me joy these days…

YNAB! You Need a Budget. I wrote about YNAB here four years ago and have mentioned it a few times since. I am an unabashed YNAB pusher and think everyone should use this amazing life-changing tool…

We are going through a lot of soap these days and this everyone foaming hand soap is our favorite for the bathroom…

I like this liquid version in the kitchen. Their lemon coconut hand sanitizer and wipes are great as well…

The Dream Pant from Everlane is really good. Soft, midweight fabric and an excellent cut makes for great loungewear that is really pulled together and smart looking…

Over the summer we made a lot of pizza. We’ve had a little Ooni pizza oven for the last few years but only really pulled it out one or two times a year which was a shame. It is so easy to use and we really put it to work this summer. Even with the cooling temps we plan to keep her firing all through the fall and winter.

We have an older model but this Ooni Koda is comparable…

And Joe Beddia’s Pizza Camp is my pizza bible. The perfect dough, sauce, and technique are all found here. In fact the technique he teaches uses a standard home oven so if you don’t have a pizza oven definitely don’t let let that stop you. We use both the Ooni and our kitchen oven with excellent results.

One of the many restaurants to close in our city due to the pandemic is the acclaimed Tilth. I thought chef Maria Hines’ words in The Seattle Times were beautiful…

But Hines also holds hope for the future. Of “the heart and soul” of an enterprise like Tilth, she says, “My love and my creativity and my desire to share happiness with the world through my craft - all of that still is there. It’s just that the vessel is going to change. Whatever form that takes, you can’t take that away.”

Seattle fans who’d like a last taste of Hines’ shared happiness in its current incarnation can still try for takeout or day-of patio reservations, weather permitting, through Oct. 30. Then Tilth goes dark. But Hines calls the restaurant’s last days a celebration. She continues, “There’s this sense that it’s ending - that there’s a finality to it… we really need to look towards the light, and think about all that light we still have in us. Don’t let the temporary darkness block that out.”

Ken Lambert - The Seattle Times

And I’ve been thinking about this quote…

“Hard times are coming, when we’ll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We’ll need writers who can remember freedom—poets, visionaries—realists of a larger reality.”

— Ursula K. Le Guin

Learning Comes from Doing

As most of us are now weeks into being locked down at home, I’ve been thinking a lot about learning and doing. In her On Being conversation, the poet Marie Howe said - “When you’re very sad, the only thing to do is to go learn something.”

I think learning something is especially important not just in sadness, but during times of uncertainty and upheaval.

The photo above was taken the month before the current stay at home order. Our backyard studio (i.e. my husband’s new workspace) was nearing completion. We had no idea then that this would soon be shared creative space!

As work has now stopped for both of us, we are collectively planning and strategizing about moving forward. We are finding “strength in the places we’d never thought to develop, spaces we didn’t know we’d occupy, room to reach beyond ourselves,” and are focusing our energy into learning how to do new things.

My husband is learning how to use his shiny new power tools by building things. He built shop tables for the studio…

And this beautiful Donald Judd inspired chair out of leftover wood from the studio construction…

@aaronleitz

I’m learning how to do Pilates videos for my clients. The challenge for me is not in the logistics of the curriculum, but in getting over my fear of the camera and finding my voice so that it actually sounds like me and how I teach in person.

Accepting that I’m not going to be an expert right out of the gate is something I’ve always struggled with.

I have to walk my talk and “Respect the Process” (which is the mantra I continually espouse) and even put on the Pilates Everyday “about” page:

“Prioritize repetition over perfection. It isn’t going to be good right out the gate. Don’t worry, just keep at it and do your best. Through repetition and deliberate practice it will start to come together. Just move. Pay attention. Don’t rush. Enjoy yourself. Repeat. Respect the process.”

Creating videos and expanding my practice online had always been on my mind but seemed like a far off consideration in the context of my normal life/work routine. I felt like I didn’t have any extra space or energy to devote to it.

Our friend Alison Pickart posted this quote last week which I printed out and put on my fridge…

“The amazing thing about human nature is that people find themselves gravitating toward things that they innately know how to do. For some very lucky ones, they will discover a passion that now has the time to be realized, which may inadvertently become a new life’s work. Great things come out of crisis, often because they have to.”

— Alison Pickart

Seth Godin nails this idea (and also accurately conveys the level of work required) in his blog post But what could you learn instead? .

“Learning takes effort, and it’s hard to find the effort when the world is in flux, when we’re feeling uncertain and when we’re being inundated with bad news. But that’s the moment when learning is more important than ever…This shift is difficult to commit to, because unlike education, learning demands change. Learning makes us incompetent just before it enables us to grasp mastery. Learning opens our eyes and changes the way we see, communicate and act.

It’s way easier to get someone to watch–a YouTube comic, a Netflix show, a movie–than it is to encourage them to do something. But it’s the doing that allows us to become our best selves, and it’s the doing that creates our future.”

Read Seth’s entire post here.

Learning something doesn’t always have to be a BIG thing. There is so much joy to be found in the process of learning small day to day things.

My fridge looks a lot different these days than it did in January…

I have pretty good chops in the kitchen but I am learning new ways to make use of what we have in the pantry and freezer, substituting ingredients, using recipes as inspiration rather than rigid instructions and trusting my instincts. Forced to simplify, this time has unlocked a new culinary creativity.

I am starting seeds inside, something I have never done before…

The sewing machine is out and being put to use making masks: the perfect project to hone my sewing skills acquired last spring at Drygoods Design’s beginner sewing series.

Repetition is the mother of all learning - Repetitio mater studiorum est.

All this learning of new THINGS is really learning a new way to BE. Attentive. Deliberate. Comfortable with discomfort. Intentional. Grateful.

March 26

A small collection of things enriching my life at home the last few days…

From Nitch

Everything I Know About Parenting in a Crisis, I Learned From My Mom

“But then comes the magic moment when you realize you don’t actually have anywhere else to be, most days: You just have to be present, and to love them.

I’m lucky. My children are small, they’re not missing major exams or life events. I’m not stuck in the house with two surly teenagers who cringe every time I speak. I’m fortunate enough to be able to put work on hold for now, even if it means flattening the curve of my own career.

I know, better than most, that these things are temporary. And I know that next week, when our son has his (surprise!) Zoom birthday celebration, he’ll remember that all of his friends and family ate chocolate chip pancakes in tandem. He won’t remember that he didn’t have a party this year. Because like all hard times, I suspect, his enduring memories of this time will be of our love, and his joy.”

— Priyanka Mattoo

Read the whole article here.

Prepping my garden beds I discovered a few potatoes carried over from last season. Back into the dirt they will go…

Rebecca Solnit’s conversation with Krista was one of the very first ones I listened to when I first discovered On Being. It has been a useful conversation to revisit as we navigate these uncertain times…

“When all the ordinary divides and patterns are shattered, people step up to become their brothers’ keepers,” Rebecca Solnit writes. “And that purposefulness and connectedness bring joy even amidst death, chaos, fear, and loss.”

Also turn off the news and build a garden…

Seth Godin is one of the wise and generous thinkers that never ceases to inspire me. He is calm and clear and holds us accountable to think bigger and outside the box, and be better humans. From his daily blog today…

Donald Robertson is an excellent example of someone who thinks outside the box and has carved his own path. I really loved his “Painting and a Story”…

The Kid Should See This is a wonderful resource for watching and learning about all the cool things…

And because we all need to keep our humor during times like these…

Apart But Not Alone

What a time we are in.

It’s hard to articulate so instead of fumbling for the words I will give you this from the ever-wise Brené Brown…

This is truly a both/and moment: both frightening and formative. Both uncertain and hopeful. And despite the legitimate troubles for so many unsure when they’ll be able to work and earn a paycheck, there is still so much goodness if you look for it.

We watched the Seattle Symphony livestream Mahler Symphony No. 1 all together curled up in bed last weekend. Metropolitan Opera has nightly free streams for the duration of the Met’s closure. I have never seen an opera before and I’m so thrilled for the opportunity to see some of the best…

Yo-Yo Ma is playing music for us…

So is Ben Gibbard, live every day at 4pm for the next two weeks…

Donald Robertson is giving these fantastic quick art classes…

Ryan Holiday wrote a great post on the Daily Stoic a few days ago Remember: You Don’t Control What Happens, You Control How You Respond.

“The single most important practice in Stoic philosophy is differentiating between what we can change and what we can’t.

Use your time wisely: don’t let the possible weeks or months of isolation be for nothing. You can’t control how long you’ll need to engage in social distancing, but you can control if you spend that time productively. The version of you who steps out of quarantine at some future date can be better than the version that entered it, if you try.”

Experiencing hardship has the power to nudge us and give us “strength in the places we’d never thought to develop, spaces we didn’t know we’d occupy, room to reach beyond ourselves.”

I can’t work from home teaching my clients like I’ve always done. But I am finding a new way to be useful and share what I know.

“We think the future is something that happens, rather than something we make.”

— Ryan Holiday

I started a YouTube channel Pilates Everyday. The first video is a 5 minute basic Pilates mat that my clients are to do everyday. If you have never done Pilates before, start there and keep it simple: Prioritize repetition over perfection. It isn’t going to be good right out the gate. Don’t worry, just keep at it and do your best. Through repetition and deliberate practice it will start to come together. Just move. Pay attention. Don’t rush. Enjoy yourself. Repeat.

Take care of yourselves. Practice self-discipline. Be kind. Look for the good.

A New Year...

Happy 2020! As wonderful and welcome as the holiday break was, it felt so good to step into a new year and do some thinking about intentions and goals for the year ahead. I love this passage from one of Ryan Holiday’s Daily Stoic emails last month on how we are what our choices make us…

“The Stoics believed that a beautiful life was the result of beautiful decisions. They also believed that the only way to freedom, to strength, to wisdom, was through continual effort. ‘Progress is not achieved by luck or accident,’ Epictetus said, “but by working on yourself daily.’”

This year I will to continue to simplify. To remove (or just as importantly to not add) what is not necessary. Beyond the obvious like having less “stuff” at home or in the closet, this also includes choosing where I direct my attention, what I read, what I allow into my headspace, being thoughtful about commitments, and continuing to create quiet space at home for cooking, reading and contemplation.

I think Derek Sivers writes beautifully on this point:

“No amount of adding will get me to where I want to be.

The adding mindset is deeply ingrained. It’s easy to think I need something else. It’s hard to look instead at what to remove.

The least successful people I know run in conflicting directions, are drawn to distractions, say yes to almost everything, and are chained to emotional obstacles.

The most successful people I know have a narrow focus, protect themselves against time-wasters, say no to almost everything, and have let go of old limiting beliefs.

More people die from eating too much than from eating too little. Most of us have too much baggage, too many commitments, and too many priorities.

Subtracting reminds me that what I need to change is something already here, not out there.”

One of the greatest benefits of going through this process of deliberately simplifying where my time and energy are spent is I have more time and energy to do the things that I truly enjoy like cooking at home.

Many people that I admire are amazing at doing weekly meal planning (I’m looking at you Pamela Salzman) and even show you exactly how to do it. It is always something I’ve wanted to do but it felt too overwhelming to get started.

But these last two weeks I made the time to get my meal planning, food prep and grocery shopping system dialed (or at least version 1.0)…

I organized my recipes and went through my go-to cookbooks and flagged the pages. I cleaned out and organized the pantry and also the fridge…

There is now always something healthy and satisfying to eat in the fridge or take to work, and I do only one trip to PCC and Trader Joe’s each week.The other huge benefit is hardly any food gets wasted.

I also learned about these great Vegibags (also available on Amazon) from the latest issue of Bon Appétit. Now vegetables skip the plastic bags at the store, get washed at home and put into the crisper bags and into the fridge. The extra-large size holds four big bunches of kale FYI…

The latest Bon Appétit is really great and full of recipes I’d like to make starting with the chicken-lentil soup on the cover, this cauliflower bolognese and this kale pesto…

And what a lovely surprise to turn the page and see this sentiment…

I think cook the way you want to feel is a great general “rule” to follow when it comes to feeding ourselves. I can’t think of a more powerful tool to change the body, how it functions and how we feel, than food. When we choose to “restrict” our eating in some way (no wheat, dairy, sugar, grains, whatever it may be) the response too often is “well what can you eat?!” The chef Seamus Mullen gives a perfect answer to that in his book Real Food Heals that I wholeheartedly agree with: Cooking nutritious food is not more restrictive. It’s more creative. We have to expand our minds and our repertoire by thinking outside the box and then a whole world of options opens up.

Also on the home front, our backyard studio is nearing completion and we can hardly contain ourselves. This dream has been years in the making…

We also gave the dining room a little refresh with some lime wash paint from Colour Atelier and a little Noguchi magic…

I love this quote from Helena Bonham Carter…

And these Stop Talking cards (which I bought locally at Peter Miller Books)…

“The problem is no longer getting people to express themselves, but providing little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to say…. What a relief to have nothing to say, the right to say nothing, because only then is there a chance of framing...the thing that might be worth saying.”

— Gilles Deleuze

October Recap

After several weeks of rain the sky has cleared and the temperature has dropped. If the forecast holds, we are looking at pretty perfect conditions for trick or treating this Thursday…

With the drop in temps I’ve been craving a bath at the end of the day. I love a straight up epsom salt bath or Dr. Singha’s Mustard Bath…

Beanies are back in the mix and I’ve been wearing my favorite Everlane cocoon coat, Clare V Midi Sac and pink Nike Blazer sneakers on repeat…

I love this Nordic Ware skull cakelet pan and I’ve been playing with different glazes. The perfect chocolate cake recipe comes from Simple Cake…

Our little studio project is also progressing!

I’ve been making chicken stock and big batches of soup weekly. This crazy easy tomato soup and this celery root, cauliflower + fennel are still two of my favorites. I store the soups in wide mouth mason jars with these new leakproof lids from Ball…

Both soups mentioned above are also pureed which means they are perfect for sipping out of a mug (which comes in handy if you want to deliver something hot to your rad construction crew on a cold day)…

I have a pair of black patent leather Loeffler Randall boots from a few seasons ago that I would like to put into more regular rotation. I just ordered these white Everlane straight leg crop pants to create the look below…

One of my clients told me about this No. Green deodorant from Corpus which is my new favorite. It smells amazing, works like deodorant should, and has no white residue…

These little Mighty Patch hydrocolloid patches are amazing. If I have a blemish that needs extracting (or I pick at my face more than I should) I put one of these on the "wound” before I go to bed. They prevent unsightly scabs from forming and they speed the healing process…

Those little patches work so beautifully I added these hydrocolloid bandages to our first aid kit…

I’ve been creating more time to read these days and recently finished Deep Work by Cal Newport. I first learned about Cal several years ago when he was an MIT student and wrote about deliberate practice on his blog. Deep Work is full of well articulated ideas that you’ll want to write down and think more about like this one…

“People who multitask all the time can’t filter out irrelevancy.”

I also just finished Esther Perel’s Mating in Captivity and cannot recommend it enough. I mentioned Esther here after listening to her On Being conversation. Her podcast “Where Should We Begin?” is incredible too…

End of Summer

School started again last week and just like that we slipped into the September groove. There is still sunshine but a definite chill in the air, and even an epic thunderstorm over the weekend to boot. The garden looks amazing in its lush overgrown state…

The squash and potatoes have been harvested, new kale starts have been planted and we are enjoying the last days of the sungolds…

With cooler temps on the way I likely won’t get a chance to use it until next summer but I just picked up this beautiful little pool from local Seattle company Mylle…

And don’t knock it ‘til you try it, Spaghett is the late summer beverage we’ve been sharing with our next door neighbors. We’ve made a few tweaks to the recipe:

12 oz Miller High Life

2 oz Aperol

Juice of one lemon

Serve over ice.

I implore you to go and make this one pot chicken from Jamie Oliver as soon as possible. Watch this video and yes it really is that easy. Make it even easier by subbing a handful of already peeled garlic cloves for the whole head of garlic.

And with the end of summer comes the changing light. As the sunrise creeps ever later, I’m looking forward to trying out the Casper Glow Light to make waking up in the dark a little less jarring…