December 17

I heard some good advice today (from the Lazy Genius, of course): when it’s a busy week, make (or buy) food that makes you feel like yourself. Well, I certainly did do that today: I picked two recipes that I’ve never tried before, both of which looked fairly straightforward, but both of which also tricked me (ahem) with their several easy steps. See, every single time I forget that easy + easy + easy (infinity) = maybe or maybe not easy but more time consuming than I thought. Also, thawing. And brining. And peeling the butternut squash. And texting Jason to pick up a couple of key ingredients (and one less essential, but since-it’s-my-first-time-it-seems-like-I-should-follow-the-recipe-exactly ingredient). All of this to say, making dinner today has made me feel very, very much like myself–not at all the most efficient or genius part of myself but so very myself nonetheless. Now I just need to invest a lot of stake in and get my feelings hurt over my kids declaring the meal “not my favorite” and also lose objectivity over whether I myself even like the meal because it’s new! and I worked so hard on it! and that will complete the quintessential Renae-ness of it.