January has been a month that has been simultaneously both incredibly slow and impossibly busy. One might hope that there would be balance, but instead the pace has vacillated between careening wildly down a steep hill and a dead stop.
You would think I would have much to report. I do not.
I made jars of marinated feta for my book club. I used citrus peels, bay leaves, red chiles, and pink peppercorns for the aromatics. The technique was from Samin Nosrat but everything else was a riff. I’ve already eaten my jar and made myself some more.
I twisted my knee, and have since been battling an ongoing sinus headache. For a while I thought I was coming down with something but that something simply proved to be badly impacted sinuses, my ongoing sore throat due to annoyingly slow sinus drainage. Bah humbug.
The 2025, “let’s grow out the hair” project finally came to a conclusion. I am really happy with the results. I don’t have the patience to dry my hair as nicely as they do at the salon. But that’s okay. I am content with my own sometimes frizzy version of the bob. Well, I guess you don’t see the hair as it blends into the darkness of my closet, but it is amazing how hairstyle and standing straight affect my ability to feel like myself.
I’ve missed a couple of fabulous concerts and events I was looking forward to attending due to the above mentioned clumsiness and sinus theatrics, but I know there will be other concerts, other events, etc. I did make it to the Q series concert on Wednesday however, and was thrilled by the contrast of the music, from two pretty contemporary pieces for wind quintet, and a Haydn quartet that was just beginning to bridge the transition from classical to modern quartet form. It was an emotional exploration from jagged disconnection to calmness. A concert to remember.
Mundane as it is, I’ve also been happily employed pursuing basic home related tasks, from cleaning out closets, to pantry cooking , to even taking time to restock the freezer with time saving little hacks that make life easier.
I never manage to get through a package of bacon, and buying a slice or two at Whole Foods makes no sense to me. The alternative? I buy a bulk pack at Cosco, 32 slices, and then roll each slice individually on strips of parchment into little ribbon-like rolls. My freezer box holds 30 rolled slices of bacon. Two slices for breakfast and I can freeze the rest, making it simple to pop a slice or two of bacon out whenever I want it. Easy peasy and no waste.
What is going to happen next week, the last week of the month? Who knows. Am I on the fringe of the big winter storm or in the midst of it? While everyone in town was stripping the stores clean of bread and milk, beer and soda, I bought mirin and cooked pork belly sous vide. There are three large jars of different aged kimchis in the refrigerator. It sounds like the perfect winter weekend for kimchi jjigae. I suppose we will each weather the weekend in our own way.