Keep Going 060
Brought to you by making tamales with your mom, grandma, and sister, til the bowl and your heart are full.
👋 Hello everyone, and happy new year!
This is me, putting a request out to the universe that 2022 is just… better. It doesn’t have to be all sunshine and rainbows, but maybe just a BIT less tragedy and struggle? 2020 was AWFUL. 2021 was also VERY CHALLENGING. I would like for 2022 to sprinkle a bit of fairy dust over the world and make things just a bit brighter.
I don’t really do new year’s resolutions, but I do a few things at the end/beginning of the year:
Review the past year, remember all the big events and accomplishments, and ask myself how those learnings can help me next year
Choose a word to focus on throughout the year (I haven’t chosen one for 2022 yet; my word for 2021 was “coast,” but it sure didn’t feel like I was coasting)
Lay out an animal spirit reading for each month of the coming year
Here’s what that looked like:
I’m starting off the year with the snake, coiled up, full of creativity and charisma, and ready to be awakened. I have so many things I want to create this year, and drawing this card for January just feels so lovely!
What are your thoughts for 2022? Do you make resolutions or choose things to focus on? What are you hoping for the coming months? I would love to hear it. xoxo
What have you been up to lately? I’ve been…
🫔 Eating + Drinking
Breakfast at mom and dad’s: red chile pork tamale, perfectly fried egg, homemade tortilla. Heaven.
Dinner at mom and dad’s: beef and potato guisado (cooked outside on the disco), rice, beans, tortillas, and chips with queso and guacamole.
Brunch by J: broccoli-tomato omelet, fried potatoes, green chile refried black beans, and tortilla. (A visit to mom and dad’s means restocking our freezer with roasted green chile!)
Avocado toast topped with kimchi. Because everything is better topped with kimchi.
After all the amazing food in Koreatown in L.A., I reallllly wanted to have some in Austin. We ordered takeout from… I can’t even remember where, but it was… fine. Just… fine.
Eastside crunch salad (kale, cabbage, parmesan, almonds, roasted cauliflower, crispy seeds, tahini dressing) topped chicken tenders at Lou’s. Those chicken tenders, though.
I randomly came across this old recipe for rice porridge with kimchi and immediately made it. And now I adore rice porridge.
Steak frites via Hello Fresh. Not too shabby.
Butternut squash laksa from Nigel Slater’s latest book (this recipe is pretty close). Holy moly this was good! But then again, anything with noodles and tasty broth wins in my book.
Simple lunch of rice topped with broccoli, soft-boiled egg, soy, sesame oil, and sesame seeds.
I think this was the last packet of soondubu soup seasoning—I just threw in veggies and noodles. (Again, noodles + broth = happy Crystal.)
New Year’s Eve dinner—homemade pitas, which needed something to dip them in, so veggie dal, rice, and raita it was!
📚 Reading
I finished John Green’s book of essays, The Anthropocene Reviewed, and I highly recommend it. He’s so good with words, so good at describing indescribable things like depression, and love, and hope. “We all know how loving ends. But I want to fall in love with the world anyway, to let it crack me open. I want to feel what there is to feel while I am here.”
I’m currently reading One Last Stop, which was recommended by a friend. It is SO funny! The author is amazing at witty banter. The story just took an odd turn into magical realism or something of the sort, but I’m okay with it.
How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope—my sister gave me this book for Christmas, and I have been loving it. If things feel sad or scary or bleak, I read a poem or two.
😂 Laughing
That’s it! Thank you for reading—hit reply and tell me what you’re up to.
--Crystal