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Life is Short- Eat the Pie

Ahhhh, long-awaited January 2021. Fresh starts and new beginnings. Have we ever needed it more than this year? Don’t let the door hit you on the way out 2020. Traditionally, this season is about goalsetting, structuring new routines, recommitting to all our most important priorities. I’m just not so sure about all that this January. We’ve expended so much energy on ‘getting through’ don’t we deserve a reward for dragging ourselves across the finish line into 2021? A participation ribbon is in order at a minimum.

The pace of life is different. The usual rhythm to our days and weeks is disrupted. We are adapting our expectations as best we can and with distractions stripped away, values become clear quickly. What do I truly need?  What do I really want? What will I learn from this time? Do I really miss running into random people at Target or eating dinner in my car or having evening commitments five nights a week? No. No, I do not. 

We have developed more appreciation for simple things. Long walks. An adoring pet. Spending time with family. Arguing with family about who will take the adoring pet on a long walk. 

Being home a lot more than usual started out as the productivity Olympics here. We organized closets, made 12 ingredient green smoothies, crafted, Zoomed, biked, gardened, painted walls, detailed cars, and attempted to catch up on ten years of yardwork.       

My productivity phase is over. I’ve shifted into the liberating phase of enjoyment. I’m laser-focused on hunting down very good takeout, reading in front of a roaring fire, and curating an impressive loungewear collection. I now own ‘day to evening’ sweatpants. With limitations and restrictions and cycles of opening and closing all sorts of businesses, life has become a question of  ‘What CAN we do?’

Let me tell you, we can eat. With enthusiasm.

I can’t remember a year when I had ample time to make sourdough bread from my own starter. Or try three recipes for the same kind of cookie in the same week. I’ve made cherry pies, blueberry pies, strawberry rhubarb pies. I’ve made apple crisp and peach cobbler. I’ve made so many Dutch baby pancakes topped off with raspberry jam, I’ve lost count. I’ve had luscious desserts from numerous restaurants within a five-mile radius and I’ve picked them up curbside in my pajamas. 

We’ve brought boxes of fresh doughnuts to many of our neighbors to cheer them up. If you want to endear children to you and feel like a hero by doing next to nothing? Bring children doughnuts on a whim during a pandemic. 

We purchased a portable bonfire. It’s great for warming up outside but also for crafting oh so gooey s’mores made right on the ice rink. Two of our neighbors invested in smokers. If it’s the weekend and over 20 degrees, you can inhale a pungent blast of slow-cooked pork shoulder standing in our driveway.

My friend up the street makes his own marinara sauce. And his own pizza dough. He’s a pizza genius. He brought us sauce, dough, and even loaned us a pizza stone. He gave me such explicit directions on how to make the pizza, you’d think I was launching a rocket. He talks about his process of making sauce with reverence and poetry. And I have to hand it to him, the end result was delectable.  Special.

The holiday season brought family food traditions out of the archives. People had more time to make old favorites. I had friends making lefse. I had friends making rugelach. I have a friend who mailed flaky buttery baklava to me and it would bring tears to your eyes it was so delicious. And I glammed up my French toast using brioche and egg nog batter. 

Nothing brings comfort quite like food. Excellent sweatpants with a non-gripping waistband are a close second. And they go hand in hand. 

In a typical winter, Minnesotans love fat-tire bikes and treadmills, free weights, spiked running shoes, and cross country skis. We greet winter head-on and that is all good and healthy.  But can we give ourselves a bit of a break this January? Our resolution can be to move forward and embrace the joy on the plate right in front of us. We can get svelte in February.

Life is short but so sweet. Eat the pie. Cheers to 2021-may we all enjoy it down to the very last forkful. 

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