Things I Learned This Month | February 2019

WOW this was a full month. I spent a whirlwind long weekend in New York for an event celebrating the mark of 100 days before Charlie's class graduates from West Point - one of the crazier good decisions I've made in the last few years. I'm so proud of my big little brother. And he got me flowers. Major brownie points.

I also got to meet the wonderful, beautiful Ellie, my best friend Liza's daughter. Also seeing Liza was super. She's a wonder woman - flew up to NY from SC solo with an eight-month-old.

Anyway. This monthly post has turned into an excuse to share the photos I would have written posts about if I had my life together, but the actual purpose is to share a handful of the things I learned this month with y'all. So. Without further ado, some things I learned this month.

1. Samin Nosrat, the author of the cookbook Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, had enrolled in a program to get her MFA in poetry when she learned that she had the opportunity to apprentice under a famous Italian cook in Florence. The rest is history. There's a strong connection between poetry and recipe writing, y'all - economy with words, vivid descriptions - I'm not even kidding.

2. Tossing a spoonful of baking soda into the cooking water for dried chick peas makes them heavenly. I got this tip from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, and those chick peas were melt-in-your-mouth tender. I never would have thought I'd get excited about a new method to cook dried beans, but I so am.

3. The Greatest Showman soundtrack is superb. I'm super late to the game, I know, and I still haven't seen the movie. But Charlie's pals played this music nonstop during the weekend I was at West Point, and I love it. I will forever associate "A Million Dreams" with a bunch of cadets singing their hearts out as they prepared a spectacular brunch for their dates and friends.

4. "Tradition is to communities what memory is to individuals." This is a quote from Irish poet John O'Donahue that has me thinking quite a bit.

5. There are lyrics to the traditional clock chime. You know, the chime that you think of when you think of Big Ben or any church tolling the hours. This one. The words inscribed on a plaque in the Big Ben clock room are:

All through this hour
Lord be my guide

That by Thy power

No foot shall slide.

I learned this from a recent episode of Emily P. Freeman's podcast, The Next Right Thing. Which, by the way, is one thing I look forward to every single week. She's actually the inspiration for my monthly practice of sharing what I've learned.