January wrapped

Everything I've been cooking, doing, watching, listening to, and generally loving this month

I love January, but the end of the holidays can feel like an abrupt drop from nonstop rush into total stillness. Like an all out race to the finish line delivering us to…nothing?The shift is jarring. It can leave me feeling aimless if I’m not actively trying to enjoy it for what it is: slow. Some years, I’ve swung too far in the other direction—diving into hyper-focused goals and routines in a way that leaves me feeling burnt out by spring.

Acceptance is, after all, the key to happiness and we find ourselves in the dead of winter. There’s no way around it. We’re in the thick of it. It’s not the time (for me anyways) to wake up early and workout hard or eat lighter foods or make any major changes to my routine. When I approach the start of the year like that, I end up wishing winter away. I’ll find myself aching for warmer days when they’re still many months away. I want to embrace where I am even if that place is cold at the moment.

Highlights from the month included:

• Feeling super motivated at work! Everything is growing—our customers, menu, and team! And the food has never been better. I feel like we’re finding our groove and really understanding what our customers want, which is so exciting. We also welcomed a new cook to the team, Shea. She will be doing her externship for culinary school with us, which feels very full circle for me and we’re excited to have her with us.

• Snow days and some unanticipated much-needed time off

• Going to Chicago to dress shop for my little sister’s wedding. She got the most insane, sickening dress! If you’re a bride in the Chicago area, you have to check out Glamour Closet. The name is bad but the selection is incredible.

• Getting to hang with my fam

• Learning how to lift weights and feeling very strong

• Turning my attention towards the house and general nesting. It’s exciting to get to focus on the details rather than trying to fill a completely empty home.

Eating and Drinking

Cocktails

Specifically Negronis. In my opinion, the trick to a really good one is in the sweet vermouth. This is the brand to get. It only consists of 3 ingredients, so they all matter. But, I think that the wrong brand of sweet vermouth can really move the needle in the wrong direction.

Whole milk cappuccinos with cinnamon

Nothing new here. This tends to be my go-to. But, I’ve upgraded the whole ritual with one simple item—a shaker for sprinkling the perfect even layer of cinnamon over my foamed milk. Collin got me this one after using them at La Colombe recently. It sounds small, but they’ve elevated the whole experience. I’m partial to this Burlap and Barrel cinnamon.

Making stock every week

I wrote about this recently here, but making a big pot of stock on Saturdays after a trip to the farmers market is the most soothing start to the week. I drink a warm mug of it in the morning before coffee seasoned with a little bit of salt and lemon. Highly recommend. I shared a full recipe in the post I linked above.

Learning to make challah

So far, I’ve been using the recipe from King Arthur Bread. It’s a super straight forward dough and doesn’t require an overnight proof. I’ve found that you need to be patient with the initial proof and careful not to over-bake or it dries out. I use a thermometer to make sure that it doesn’t go above 190°F. If there’s a recipe you love, let me know in the comments!

Tolakangin

Maybe the most random product to ever grace my monthly round-ups. This is a concentrated herbal tea with honey from Indonesia. My family got introduced to it by my parents’ friends from there. You’re meant to drink it to prevent sickness. It smells intense—like liquid Vic’s vapor rub—but it will clear your sinuses right out and is surprisingly tasty.

Juice

This is new to the Scratch Made menu. Specifically I’ve been loving carrot-orange, and beet-apple both with a little bit of ginger and lemon.

Doing

Getting the fuck off my phone

This is the general goal. Last year—especially at the tail end—I was on my phone a disgusting amount. I would hate for you to see my screen time. On January 1st I decided to hit the restart button on my brain and spend a full 24 hours off of social media entirely. The result? I had the best day in recent memory. Go figure. I felt the ripples of that decision throughout the next week, reaching for it less and less. I hate to report that I feel myself slipping back in. Reaching for Instagram for no apparent reason. But, I’m re-setting by trying to do a social media free day at least once a week.

A good old paper planner

Getting a new paper planner has been my new year ritual for a while now. I’ve used the Papier planner for the last two years, but I don’t like that there’s no space for a weekly to-do list. I’m the sort of person who has to make a list in order to get anything done. I need to be able to pull a task out of my brain and keep it on a page for safe keeping or it slips away as quickly as it came. This year I got one from Appointed. It’s perfect for me because it includes a monthly calendar followed by a weekly calendar, each week fitting on a single page so that you can view everything at a glance.

Having what the internet is calling a journal eco system (sorry)

My brother in law made me a leather notebook cover that can hold multiple notebooks. It’s a dupe of ones I’ve had my eye on from Louise Carmen, but couldn’t justify the price. You can find many of them like this on Etsy. I love it. In mine, I keep 3 journals—one for personal writing, one for menu brainstorming, and one for to-do lists. According to Tik Tok, this is my journal eco system. I’ve adorned mine with little brass sun and moon charms from Etsy. You can go down a whole rabbit hole with this and I highly recommend that you do so.

Hitting the sauna

Over the last few winters, I’ve joined a gym for the first third of the year, in large part to use the sauna. I go a couple of times a week (more if I’m lucky) and sauna for about 10-15 minutes, then take a cold 1 minute shower and repeat 3 times. By the third time taking the cold shower, I feel straight up high and enjoy this floaty, blissed out feeling for the rest of the night. Plus, it makes my skin super glowy and I sleep like a baby afterwards. It’s the best. I’m about this close to buying myself a felt sauna hat (specifically this one) to bring with me because the only down side is, the sauna can dry out your hair.

Learning to lift weights

I have a pretty dialed in home gym and this is the year that I learn how to actually use it. Collin helped me come up with two 30 minute workouts that I can alternate between to get me more comfortable lifting weights. I want to stay consistent with it, so I’m writing about it here to hold myself accountable.

The New Year’s Eve spread. We pulled this together after work with stuff that we brought home from the kitchen and very little prep time. It was so casual. One of the most fun nights I’ve had hosting in a while.

Lots of low maintenance, chill hosting

Enough with the themed, picture perfect dinner parties. This year I want more chill, easy hosting where the house is clean but not pristine, I use what I have without wearing myself out gathering a bunch of things I don’t actually need. More paper plates, serving the food out of the same dishes I cooked them in, and actually delegating things like drinks and desserts to make life easier for me.

Crafting

Back on my clay magnet shit and I’m loving it. January is the perfect time for a good old fashioned craft running in the background. I’m thinking about relearning how to knit or embroider next. I want something that I can do mindlessly while cozying up on the couch and watching tv. This kit is all you need to make magnets to your heart’s content.

Puzzles

In my twenties, I went on a date with someone who told me with chilling sincerity that his passion was puzzling (we’re talking the cardboard pieces that make up a picture type of puzzle, just to be clear) and I’ve viewed them with a certain—how do I say this?—loser-y quality since then. But, in an effort to keep myself from scrolling, I’ve turned to a good old fashioned puzzle. It’s cozy and gets my brain to enter that quiet hum where it’s not quite on and not quite off. There are so many good ones out there, but I particularly like the ones of New Yorker covers. Not loser-y at all. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Using and Buying

Blue light glasses

These ones in particular

Bag Balm lip balm

Perfection. I particularly like the mint flavor.

Branches over flowers

For much of the year, I replace the flowers in my kitchen weekly. But, recently, I’ve found myself gravitating towards big wild bunches of branches over flowers and they last much longer. Currently, I have willow branches in a big fat pedestal vase that I got at a consignment shop. Probably a $30 display, all in and it’s bringing me loads of happiness.

Graduating from a random stool to an actual night stand really has me feeling like a woman.

Big girl night stands (finally) and general homey nesting

I searched for over a year for vintage or used nightstands from Facebook marketplace or various consignment shops and came up totally dry. In the meantime, we’ve been using a stool and an old Ikea nightstand and they do the job. But, this month, I wanted to turn my attention to our room and make it look a little more cozy and put together. Ultimately, we went with these guys from West Elm. They’re perfect. Nice quality, the just the right size. After not having a nightstand for many years, I didn’t know how much having a pretty nightstand situation would make me.

Sweet little basket bag

I got this at a home goods store in Richmond, VA. It’s too small for a catch-all work bag, but I love it for traveling light. I’m always a sucker for a basket bag and typically I think of them as specifically summery. But, I love the way it looks with a sweater and a long wool coat.

Tanning drops just to feel something

This is my vain approach to seasonal depression. After years of trial and error, I’ve found that I’m about 50% more resilient and optimistic when I at least look like I’ve seen the sun. A few drops of this in your face lotion and you’re good to go. I get the medium shade and it’s subtle enough to not leave streaks or obvious lines. Overall, pretty hard to mess up.

Laura Mercier powder bronzer

Copy and paste what I said above about the link between the hint of a tan and general happiness. This month I popped into Sephora on the hunt for a powder bronzer. I was helped by a woman with a full face of goth makeup. White powder foundation cut with black and silver contouring. Honestly, gorgeous. “Despite what it may look like, I do occasionally wear bronzer.” She led me to this one from Laura Mercier. It’s the perfect combo of a matte subtle bronzer and rose-colored slightly shimmery blush. It’s been my go-to for a quick winter makeup routine.

Crown Affair dry shampoo

I get the hype. Smells so good, a little goes a long way, and no aerosol.

Sweaters!

It’s sweatah weathah, baby! And this is how I’m celebrating the season. I scored the perfect navy blue cashmere v neck sweater from a consignment shop recently. It’s this one from Vince and it is pricey but It’ also perfect (hate to say). I like to wear it with a white t shirt underneath for a casual outfit or without to dress it up for dinner. While we’re on the topic, my favorite chunky cotton sweater is back in stock in white and black and on sale. I’m just going to leave this here for you…

Reading and watching

Ohio

This novel follows a group of friends from high school in rural Ohio who are brought back to their hometown as adults after one of them dies. It follows the different characters individually and jumps back and forth between past and present. I happen to love that in a book and the writing is so good. It’s dark—don’t say I didn’t warn you— but, very good.

Broken Country

Loved! This is a book that I couldn’t put down. If you’re in a reading rut, I highly recommend this book.

Better Call Saul

After Pluribus ended (devastating), Collin and I turned to Better Call Saul. As our home’s resident tv hound I’m always trying, unsuccessfully, to get Collin into binge-watching culture. It’s a work in progress. But, with this show, we’re getting closer than we’ve ever been before. The casting, the writing, the storyline. Chef’s kiss.

Making playlists

One thing I’ve noticed since cutting back on my screen time, is that I’m craving podcasts less and wanting to listen to music more. During the pandemic when I started working alone, I also started listening to podcasts pretty much all the time. They were my companions on long walks, throughout many hours at the kitchen and while on the road doing deliveries. Even after things started to open up and my work life shifted to include coworkers, my almost persistent need to be listening to a podcast at all times continued. I found that I craved music less and less. It didn’t feel stimulating or entertaining enough. Lately, with the scrolling down, that need is lessening and I’m finding myself exploring old and new music more again. I’ve been listening to these playlists a lot this month. One is my Sunday at the kitchen playlist and one is more for lighting a candle and making dinner, but both are cozy winter mixes.