Weekend stuff

Brunch: crescent rolls with ham, and some with nutella, plus coffee with soy milk and vanilla sugar (made by my friend Cheri, from vanilla beans she brought back from Dubai!).

Roux wanted to go outside with Justin.

But instead he took a nap with Little.

Well! I didn’t plan to take a blog break, but I suppose I needed it. I took a break from lots of things this week, but I think I’m ready to re-join the world.

I thought about a few things:

  • I want to appreciate my life more. Lately I feel like I’ve been negative, whiny, unhappy with what I have, always wanting more. I think a gratitude journal would help, though I think I really need to somehow write in it all day. In those moments, say, when it’s 10pm on a Friday night and I’m still at work, schlepping computers from one floor to the other, I want to remember that I’m grateful that my coworkers are fun to be with, that I have a job, that I have a comfy bed to go home to, and that at least I didn’t have to work on Saturday or Sunday. You know what I mean?
  • Justin works with a lot of chefs and food people in his design work. One of his clients, whose restaurant I adore, who makes amazing dishes and does amazing things, said something like, “I want people to stop overanalyzing the food. I just want them to come eat dinner.” That really resonated with me. I’m tired of the pressure to be a food critic, an analyzer, a reviewer, a foodie. I just want to eat dinner, whether that be from a package or from a farm, from a restaurant or from the freezer. I want to somehow remember that in the end, it’s just food.
  • I want to eat at home more. This is really hard for us, because so many of our friends work at restaurants and bars. So if we want to see friends, it’s a no-brainer to go eat at their restaurant. But I miss being home. I miss simple food. I think if I simplify our meals, make them easy and fun and tasty, it will be easier to get back in the habit of eating at home. Rather than starting with complicated recipes, I’m going back to the basics. It’s just no fun to get home late, and then realize that you have to chop 84 vegetables and saute tofu and cook noodles and make a sauce and dress a salad and steam broccoli. So for now, I’m going to just make dinner.
  • And just in time, just when I feel ready to go back to the good, simple foods that I grew up with, my mama mailed me a package of all her recipes. We’re talking pot roast, beef soup, squash and corn with Velveeta, red enchiladas, chicken spaghetti, and Mississippi mud cake. I can’t wait!

So that’s it I guess. I dunno whether Daily Eats will really be daily, or if it will really be everything I eat, but I miss the journaling aspect of my blog, being able to look back and remember meals and days and fun times. So here we go!

10 responses to “Weekend stuff”

  1. morning dear!
    welcome back to your blog, where you can do whatever you want to and still make us pretty happy just to have you “near” 😉
    re the eating out/eating at home thing… i’d say just try not to over plan.
    instead, live one day at a time and if you wake up feeling like eating in, grab your mum’s wonderful recipes and have something that feels like home. if you are not in the mood to take a picture of it, fine! and if you and justin want to go out and meet some friends that happen to work in the restaurant business, why not?
    you shouldn’t struggle with anything. as you said, enjoy your life! it actually is pretty special as it is.
    xx

    1. I could not have said that better. That is great advice.

    2. Thank you so much. You know me so well. 🙂

  2. Yay Crystal, welcome back:) I say the above advice is great, alot of times I get in these routines where I have to make a menu plan and schlep to the grocery to buy everything (when I really dont feel like it) and it ends up not being used and so much is wasted. If I don’t have the energy or want to do it, then I need to not do it and take a break. I actually did that last week and lo and behold we didnt starve, we managed to eat and it wasnt all that bad.

    1. Thanks, Lexie! I agree, right now we’re on an “easy peasy food” break, and it’s working out well.

  3. I’m just glad to hear from you and about your life; it’s pretty interesting to me! So go out there and live it, then come back and tell us all about it ;D A gratitude journal is a good idea!

    1. Thanks, Wei-Wei. Of course I’m thinking of some kind of gratitude blog… 😉

  4. it really amazes me that Justin is sitting outside barefoot. If I tried to do that now I’d come back sans 2-3 toes. I know it’s just weather and I shouldn’t be shocked- but when you’re surrounded by cold for so long, it’s hard to remember that it can be warm

    1. Aw… sending warm thoughts your way. 🙂

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