Katie Curtis

Chive, Herb Goat Cheese and Tomato Frittata

26 April, 2016/in humbleonion/by Katie

Spring has finally sprung here! One of the first sure signs of spring are chives bursting up out of whatever dirt they are planted in. I love seeing their determined and totally autonomous efforts peeking out under dead lives and even the last chunk of snow. There have been chives at every house we have ever lived in, so I am guessing I am not alone? At our current house, these huge containers were on the deck when we moved in filled with chives. I will add a lot more herb pots after memorial day, but until then, these have already made their way into our dishes.

I always celebrate spring by making eggs with chives. Usually its scrambled eggs or an omelette, but last week, I wanted to make it even more of a celebration and I made this chive, herbed goat cheese and tomato frittata for lunch and proceeded to eat it for the next 2 days for every meal, it was so good.

I think a frittata is such a wonderful base for seasonal produce, a great way to use up a weekly CSA, fast-growing garden produce or just sad winter root veggies still in the vegetable drawer. At the hight of summer, corn, zucchini and tomatoes are all delicious with your favorite cheese and a sautéed onion. So versatile and so quick.

I really loved using the herb goat cheese in this one. (This trio from Trader Joes is also great to keep in your cheese drawer for when company comes over in a delightfully unplanned event. You can put out some crackers, maybe some jelly on top of the plain one and have a lovely cheese spread). Since I won’t be able to put my herb pots in until after memorial day, having them in the goat cheese was the next best thing to adding fistfuls of thyme and parsley. If you don’t love goat cheese, this frittata is equally good with feta or cheddar.

And spring also means that we return to visiting our favorite farm (Rawson’s Farm Stand in Stratham,NH). Eddie is salt of the earth, thee nicest human. He loves letting our kids feed the chickens:

His feed troughs are always full of squash and corn and bread, so I know his chickens are getting a great diet. I love knowing where our eggs come from and supporting a local farmer. The fact that they make a delicious frittata is a bonus too.

I have one more chive recipe to share with you all this week so look for it to come through soon. In the meantime, happy spring!! xoxo Katie

Tomato, Chive and Goat Cheese Frittata (printer version here):
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion chopped
2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
coarse salt and ground pepper
8 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 oz. of herbed goat cheese (or feta or cheddar)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a 10-inch ovenproof nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add onions and tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and cook about 5 minutes.
Add eggs and season with salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Sprinkle goat cheese throughout, crumbling with your fingers. Cook, undisturbed, until edges are set, about 2 minutes. Transfer skillet to oven and bake until top of frittata is just set, 10 to 13 minutes.
Invert or slide frittata onto a plate and cut into 6 wedges. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Tomato, Scallion and Cheddar Omlette.

Tuscan Pork Loin in Herb Bread

20 April, 2016/in humbleonion/by Katie

This dish is just a gem to have in your repertoire. It might be in the top three for my favorite recipes I’ve ever posted. If it looks rustic and heavenly in these pics, that’s because it is.

It is also a testament to how some things are worth the wait. I first tore this idea out of a magazine years ago, and kept it in my trusty binder of recipes (it was before Pinterest, that’s how long ago it was! But I still love my binder of magical recipes.) The article was on a Tuscan cooking class by the Divina Cuccina, which just sounds like Heaven, right? For those of us who can’t hop on a plane and head over there, this dish is the next best thing.

When the recipe somehow disappeared from my binder, I took to the internet to search for it. Happily I found a new blog to obsess over in the process. But most importantly, I found this long lost recipe.

I love this dish because it is so easy, but it is perfect for any occasion and makes it special. A party, a picnic, the beach, a random Tuesday night (which is when I made it!). It has huge flavor thanks to these:

It is so easy to just sear the pork tenderloin and then lay it in the flavored baguette. The magazine article I read said to tie it with cooking twine, so that is how I did it. The Italian Dish says to wrap it in aluminum foil. I’m not sure it’s going to matter because the end result is this soft, fragrant garlic bread that is very moist, and pork that has been so infused with flavor from the lemon, garlic and herbs. I have to say I really loved the crunchiness of the bread on the outside contrasted with the chewiness on the inside, so I like it with the twine. (It also made for fantastic leftovers, and since the bread was like herb croutons, it was delicious on a salad for lunch the next day.) But I might try it in foil next time and see.

Side note: one of my favorite things at holiday parties is eating filet of beef with garlic bread, so I think this whole operation could be done with a beef tenderloin and some garlic bread. Just saying.

If you do check out the Italian Dish site, notice that she has a link to her baguette recipe which she just whipped up before making this dish. Do not let that distract you or make you think you’re not worthy. You are. It is just fine to do this the easy way and pick up a baguette. I actually love that this has such simple ingredients, you can keep a pork tenderloin and a baguette in your freezer and defrost the night before so you always have it on hand.

Ok, go forth and make this and fit it into your summer repertoire. You will thank me, I promise!

Tuscan Roast Pork in a Baguette

The size of the baguette and pork tenderloin don’t have to match exactly. You will be trimming off the ends of the baguette to fit the meat.

Ingredients:

1 small baguette
1 large clove garlic
1 large rosemary sprig
1 large sage leaf sprig
1 teaspoon course sea salt
2 springs flat leaf parsley
1 lemon, zested
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 pork tenderloin
freshly ground pepper

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Cut the baguette in half, lengthwise. Scoop out some of the soft insides (you can use these for bread crumbs for a later use). Set aside.

Strip leaves off rosemary and sage sprigs. Place the garlic, herb leaves, sea salt, parsley and lemon zest on a cutting board and chop everything up finely.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large fry pan over medium high heat. Season the pork tenderloin well with freshly ground pepper. Sear the pork on all sides in the pan and remove after you have a nice crust formed all over.

Brush the remaining olive oil, 2 tablespoons, onto the inside of the baguette halves. Sprinkle the herb mixture on top of the olive oil. Place the pork tenderloin on the bottom half of the baguette, place the top half of the baguette on top of the pork and cut off any overhanging bread on the ends. Wrap the baguette up tightly in aluminum foil or tie in cooking twine and place on a baking sheet.

Bake for 45-55 minutes and remove. Let rest for about 10 minutes. Remove foil or ties and slice.

Recipe is origionally from Judy Witts and was adapted on www.theitaliandish.com

Asian Lime Chicken with Braised Bok Choy

14 April, 2016/in humbleonion/by Katie

Do you ever grab an ingredient at the store that is totally off-list but you just know you need it and then you get home think, what am I going to do with this? My husband will tell you that I do this all the time. Well,this dish was born out of that scenario. Luckily for both of us, the results were delicious.

I love bok choy in restaurants, but hadn’t made it at home in ages. Of course, when I googled methods for cooking it, Martha Stewart’s braised bok chop came up, so I knew I was in good hands. And this ginger-sesame version looks delicious too, think I might have to try it next time.

Braising is such a great technique to give you lots of options in the kitchen – I recently did these same steps with fennel, chicken broth, and lemon and it was so good I had to force myself not to eat it strait from the pan. The braised bok choy alone is an awesome side dish. But here’s the thing: after I was done braising them, I looked in the pan and I was like, this seems like the start to a good sauce.

So I made one. The result has become one of our family’s favorite dishes, and I have made it at least five times since. My kids love it and I love that it is gluten free, low fat and loaded with veggies.

I knew asian recipes tend to thicken with cornstarch, so I added some to chicken stock and then added my favorite asian flavors:

I also love how good asian cooks pound their chicken to tenderize it. I just lay it on wax paper and fold it over and pound away. #freetherapy

I started by browning the chicken in the soy, broth and butter that the bok choy was braised in, adding a bit more broth when the heat cooked them down. After the chicken was cooked, I added it to the plate with the bok choy while I made the sauce and boiled the noodles.

First I added the broth, scrapping up the browned bits on the pan, then added the corn starch and whisked for a minute, then add the soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and lime juice. (I usually measure them out and stir them together while the chicken is browning so I can just pour it in). Stir sauce together until a thick gravy forms, then add the chicken and bok choy back in. I also added the microwaved vegetables (this was a lifesaver since we had just come from the beach and everyone was hungry, and it shaves at least 10 minutes off the dish. You can stir fry them after the chicken if you prefer).

Then I tossed with some rice noodles that I cooked.

The result is such a tangy, salty, stick to the ribs type of meal. With just 1 T. of fats in the whole dish it is super healthy. And I am just a sucker for making a dinner I know the kids will love. Hope you love it too.

Asian Lime Chicken with Braised Bok Choy (printer version here):

Ingredients:

3 Heads of baby bok choy, sliced in half if large

1 T. butter

¼ cup chicken stock

3 T. soy sauce

3 chicken breasts, pounded and sliced

For sauce:

1 cup chicken broth

¼ cup soy sauce

2 T. rice wine vinegar

Juice of 1 lime (2 T.)

2 t. sesame oil

3 cups of stir fry vegetables, pre-cooked, such as broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, snap peas.

¾ bag of rice noodles

Directions:

Set large pot of water on to boil for rice noodles. If vegetables need to be boiled also, set a second pan on to boil (I used steam-in-bag microwave stir fry vegetables).

Melt 1 T. butter in large pan on medium high heat. Add bok choy and cook, turning once, until it just begins to turn golden, about 2 minutes. Remove bok choy and set on a plate. Add stock and soy sauce. Cover, reduce heat to medium, and simmer until bok choy is tender about 5 minutes. Remove bok choy from pan and place on a plate.

Add rice noodles to boiling water. Cook vegetables in boiling water or in microwavable until tender. Pound chicken with mallet or heavy object. Slice into 1 inch strips.

Add sliced chicken to pan. Cook until golden, about 5-7 minutes, adding chicken broth or water if pan gets too hot and the liquid starts to evaporate. Remove chicken, place on same plate as bok choy.

To make the sauce, first deglaze the pan with 1 c. chicken stock, then whisk in cornstarch, stirring until lumps are mostly removed, about 1 minute. Combine soy, rice wine vinegar, lime juice, and sesame oil in a bowl, then add mixture to pan and continue to stir until it is a thick brown gravy. Add more broth or cornstarch to achieve desired thickness.

Put chicken, bok choy, vegetables into the pan and stir to coat with sauce. Add rice noodles and stir to combine. Serve immediately.

Roast Chicken 2 Ways

8 April, 2016/in humbleonion/by Katie

I’m so excited to be back posting on THO again! It feels like catching up with an old friend. I have been working on my food memoir since October, and I am happy to share that I submitted half of my book to my agents and they liked it! After a few edits they are going to start sending it out. It is also SO nerve-wracking to send out a manuscript, but I have loved reading food memoirs lately so they really inspired me. So, here is to hoping that I can write the second half as fast as possible (or, at least before the kids are out of school!).

Writing about good food has made me miss blogging about it for sure. In honor of resurrecting this space, I am kicking it old school, and re-creating one of the dishes that absolutely made me fall in love with cooking: Roast Chicken. I have heard from so many people that they don’t know where to start in the kitchen, so I just wanted to show you where I started: Julia Child’s roast chicken – it is so easy & so good. If you are already well versed in making this dish, here are two versions to keep it interesting.

The Roast –

My daughter just calls this ‘favorite chicken’. All my kids love the wings and legs. My husband likes the meat sliced with gravy on top. I love it that way too. But sometimes I am in the mood for:

2. The Roast Chicken Goat Cheese Salad –

There is just something about pairing this roast chicken with a salad with goat cheese and champagne vinegrette (and a cold white wine, of course). I actually took the bits of veggies in the pan and scooped them onto the salad. I may have even drizzled a little of the gravy on there too.

Here’s why you want to make this: It teaches you how to roast anything, just adjusting for size and doneness, and then how to make a gravy with the drippings.

When I first started cooking, I followed Julia’s master recipe. Now, I just lay the bird on a cookie sheet. I like to cook it breast side down so that all the juices run down into the breast. If you like eating chicken breast with roasted skin on it, you’ll want to roast it on the back. If you want to get fancy, you can learn how to truss the chicken here. But the point is: roasted chicken doesn’t have to be fussy. It can be totally messy and lazy and it will still taste good. I usually just tuck the wings and legs into the body so they don’t dry out.

I am becoming a big fan of cooking everything on a roasting sheet. See all those browned drippings? Add chicken broth (you can also add white wine), scrap them up, add a pat of butter, salt and pepper to taste, and the gravy is done.

I can’t wait to share some of the other adventures I have had in the kitchen while I was away, but for now I will leave you to your weekend, and hope it is a great one. Thanks for reading! xo Katie

Lemon Thyme Roast Chicken (printer version here):

One 3-4 lb. chicken

2 T. softened butter

10-12 thyme stems

1 lemon

2-3 garlic cloves

2 carrots, chopped

1 onion, chopped

For gravy:

½ Tbs. minced shallot or green onion

1 cup chicken stock

2 T. softened butter

Preheat oven to 425.

Sprinkle inside of chicken with salt, pepper, and 1 tablespoon butter. Slice lemon in half and add to cavity, along with 10-12 stems of thyme and 2-3 garlic cloves. Truss chicken if desired.

Scatter carrots and onion on sheet pan and place chicken on top. Coat outside of chicken with remaining tablespoon of butter, and sprinkle with 1 tsp. salt and ½ pepper.

Roast at 425 for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350. (Julia says to turn chicken every 15 minutes but I don’t do this and it turns out fine). Cook for another 60-65 minutes, basting every 15 minutes, until inside registered at 165 or juices run clear. Let rest at least 10 minutes so juices redistribute before carving.

To make gravy:
Place pan over high heat, and add shallots, cooking for 1 minute. Add chicken stock and boil rapidly, whisking to picking up brown bits. If you have time, let it reduce by half, otherwise just stir in butter, then serve over slices of roast chicken.

Raves & Craves Vol. 1

5 April, 2016/0 Comments/in Uncategorized/by Katie

This blog has been radio silent because I have been in a cave writing my book. It is a good thing to go into the cave, but I also love reaching out to say hello. So feel free to picture me, looking pasty white, eyes squinting from the sun that I haven’t seen in a long time (which is actually true both literally and figuratively. I am looking at you April snowstorm).

Since the work of writing is sometimes heavy lifting, I am going to keep it light here (and I forsee the need for more light blog posts ahead, hence the Vol. 1 in the title. You probably already figured that out though).

And I am also happy to share that I am planning a few Food Blog posts over on The Humble Onion. Writing about food in my memoir made me miss food blogging so much, so I am thrilled to have some time in the next few weeks while I wait to hear back on my recent draft – keep your eyes out or go over and subscribe if you want to get them in your email.

\\ First up, let’s talk about Still Writing by Dani Shapiro – you may have seen me post about it on Instagram over our winter break that I was loving reading this book. I first heard of Shapiro in a Memoir writing class that I took, and Still Writing just sounded like exactly what I needed to read to get me past the first draft of my book and it’s endless questions. Everyone needs a guide or a mentor on their journey and for this book, Shapiro was mine. She painted what my life needs to look like to write well, and it is to go into the cave and write. So I did. 3 days a week, from 9-1. She is such a nurturing, caring teacher. Pretty soon after starting her book, she was the voice in my head that coaxed out better writing.

\\ Mimi Thorisson – Voted #1 Blog for making us all have a case of life envy, I am so happy to find out she is expecting again! Both a baby and a cookbook! She makes having lots of babies and cooking beautiful food look easy. And I just picked up some French wine from the vineyards of the friend and neighbor in this post in Medoc. My local wine store has tons of wine from Mimi’s town.

\\ My Paris Kitchen – David Lebovitz is one of my favorite food writers, and his cookbook is on sale for $1.99 on Amazon for Kindle Edition. Get!

\\ This T-Shirt – is marked down from $2400 to $1200! Oops. My bad. I meant to link to this shirt. I kid you not, the first one is what came up somehow when I went to go search for the JCrew one that I just got. Who has $1200 for a T-shirt!?

\\ Moscow Mules: My husband and I got out this past weekend and I finally had one of these with apricot syrup in it, it was SO good and refreshing. Of course I had to go get the makings for them the next day (not hard, there are only three: Ginger beer, vodka, lime juice, and garnishes like lime & mint.)I also feel like I should show you this picture of one that is NOT in a copper mug so you don’t feel like you have to go out and buy them to make this. Jelly jars will work just fine:

The Ginger Beer I picked up had alternative recipes for the Mule which only involve using a flavored Vodka. Blueberry vodka + blueberries with the lime, Raspberry Vodka with Raspberries. I also saw one called the “Mexican Mule” using tequila instead of vodka, which sounds yum. I love having options, and this drink is just in time for summer, which feels like a bitter, distant memory since it snowed today.

\\ Have you seen Zootopia? We saw it as a family recently and I’ve been obsessed with this song running ever since.

\\ Whine About It by Matt Bellasai – Have you seen this show on Buzzfeed where comedian Matt Bellasai drinks wine and sits at his desk and whines about stuff? My best friend showed them to me when we were on a recent trip together and we basically cried until we had to go to the bathroom. Warning: he definitely swears and gets drunk so if that is not your thing, you may not like it. But I totally feel like it pulls out some funny, uninhibited truth at times. If you are willing to let decorum go in the name of funny, then prepare to watch them back to back, with tissues for the laughing tears and probably a glass of wine.

Ok, I am going to go for a run if it warms up a degree or two. Hope all is well in real life land for you, and I hope to see you here in blog land soon. xoxo Katie

Small Victories

4 March, 2016/2 Comments/in Uncategorized/by Katie

I am flying down the snowy trail behind my daughter, Lucy, our first run of a gorgeous day. The spring skiing conditions today at Wildcat – our home mountain nestled in the heart of Pinkham Notch, New Hampshire – almost make up for all the icy, cold, snowless days we’ve had during one of the toughest ski season I can remember. The sunshine is intoxicating and the snow feels like butter under my skis. In a flash, I see her brother, RJ, bump into Lucy, who crashes. When I reach her she is crying and pointing to her leg. I un-click her skis, and we scoot to the side of the trail, out of the way of other skiers.

She’s not seriously hurt, just upset. A ski patrol happens to pass by, and he is silly and distracting when he chats with her. After promises of hot chocolate at the bottom of the run, she clicks her skis on.

Back in the lodge, hot chocolate steaming under her nose, she begs me to let her be done for the day.

“Lucy, we’ve only taken one run. It is our last day to ski on our vacation, and we have only skied two days. We finally have a sunny day.”

“But my leg hurts. I don’t want to.”

Though I generally attempt to see things through my kids eyes, this time I knew I needed to get her back out there, to not be afraid, and to enjoy the beautiful day. Cue the getting back up on the horse speech. I opened the map of the mountain, and showed her the trail we were going on next.

“It’s green all the way down, I promise. It will be really easy to ski.”

She wasn’t happy, but she came back out with me. Flashes of her teen years ran through my head.

We road up the chair lift with my husband and other two children behind us. We all turned and headed down Polecat, the longest green trail in the East at 2.75 miles long. A gorgeous view of Mount Washington weaves in and out as you wind your way down, with Tuckerman’s Ravine – the famous huge white bowl that zealous skiers hike up and ski down to earn bragging rights – taking up a third of the sky. (My husband skied it three times last year, he would probably want me to casually drop here). Having grown up in the Midwest, it is impossible for me to take this view for granted. The fact that my kids get to fills me with a kind of breathless gratitude.

We eased our way down the hill, and the conditions were just what I thought they would be. We were floating on hero snow, so you could get into a rhythm and let your mind wander along with your skis. It was such a contrast to the icy and cold and bare runs we had been skiing all winter. We had had a few inches this week, the mountains had made what snow they could, and all of our shlepping skis and kids and gear finally paid off to get to this day.

I skied a little ahead of Lucy, gushing about the sunshine and the mountains and the snow. She barely cracked a smile. We got to the end, and we didn’t ask her if she wanted to go again, we just got in line. I waited for her to protest, but she didn’t. When we got to the top, her dad and siblings wanted to go down another trail, but I told them I would go with Lucy down Polecat, because I knew she needed easy.

My husband’s passion for the sport had infused first me, then our oldest son and daughter with a strong love for skiing, all of its ritual and tribe and tired muscles at the end of the day. I know there is a chance that when Lucy grows up, she might not have the same passion that we all do. (I comfort myself with thinking that if that happens, she is passionate about cooking, and perhaps she will have a delicious dinner waiting for us if she doesn’t want to ski.) But right now, I was going to do my best to try to show her the joy of skiing.

We kept traveling down the trail, and as I looked back at her, her skis gliding easily under her, shoulders square and in control the whole time, I smiled. Hero snow makes everyone ski well. I gushed some more when we made turns that opened up new views of the mountains.

“Hi Mountains! Hi Trees! Hi Sun!”

I saw her crack a smile.

“Wait a minute. Is that a smile? I think I see a smile.”

We raced down the last stretch of the trail, and met up with the other part of our family in front of the chair lift.

“They want to go in for lunch,” my husband said. We had started the day late, and each run was a solid half hour, so their bellies were pulling them. But the gorgeous day was pulling me.

“I’m gonna take one more run,” I said. My husband and I always tried to let each other take solo runs when we were skiing with the kids so we could go as fast and hard as we wanted. “Go ahead, Lucy, you can take of your skis and go with Dad.”

And then it happened.

“I wanna take one more run too,” she said.

I stopped and turned. Small victories.

I reached to give her a high five. “Well alllright. Let’s go,” I said. “Lucy and I will be in after one more run.”

One of the best thing skiing teaches me is how to overcome fear. An icy ledge to negotiate at the top of a trail. A tight mogul patch your only option down. Getting up after you take a bad fall. Seeing my kids learn this too makes every early wake up, every two hour drive, every ride up the magic carpet, totally worth it.

We rode to the top of the mountain, the whole valley stretching out below us. We took off again down Polecat. Flying down the snowy trail behind my daughter, her blond hair flying, looking as golden as the sun to my happy heart.

What’s In You

5 February, 2016/0 Comments/in Writing/by Katie

As I ease back into a regular running routine training for the half, I am so so thankful for the gift that is moving my body + endorphins + better sleep. If you have never run before, check out this novice post (I promise all my posts won’t be about running, but if you can’t stand hearing people talk about running, you know where the close button is so click, click.)

I started checking in regularly with one of my favorite writers on running , Kristin Armstrong. I can’t read one of her posts and not go for a run that day. If you have ever met me in person and we have gotten into one of those soul searching conversations, chances are I have mentioned her at some point, because that girl gets deep. And she gets happy too.

When I opened up her new post, I was so glad to see she has not slowed down in the wisdom department. If anything she has gotten even better now that she is getting a degree in counseling. This post revolved around a comment her yoga teacher made at the end of class: “What would you do if you fully understood that you already have everything you need to achieve your goals?”

Umm.

Well.

I had to think about that one. This is so contrary to my normal inclinations. I’m always thinking about striving, growing. Becoming more. What do you mean I don’t need to add to myself?

Of course, I had the formula inverted. All that growing is just becoming who we were meant to be. It is so much more about letting go, and so much less about acquiring anything that could possibly contribute to our worth.

For some reason, it got me thinking about an interview I listened to with Mary Karr on NPR. I had to rewind one section three times to think through exactly what she was saying. Karr said her main problem was herself, what she projected onto life, and the more she spent time praying, the more that projection improved.

Somehow these two ideas are intertwined. Our mind can guide us to our goals, or hold us back from them. So figuring this out would make us…a badass, basically.

And then I experienced this in real time. I had an epiphany while running; I recognized the source of a ghost lurking around most of the corners of my life, the one that whispers you’re not good enough. You don’t measure up. I figured out exactly where it came from, how I fueled it, fed into it, let it diminish me. I was using a script that was a lie, and I was projecting it onto life. Not all the time, of course, but enough to rob me of my full joy and confidence.

Dropping that script feels like the universe shifted. It is a kinder, gentler, more forgiving world. And I am less afraid. Of course, the world didn’t change, only my projection onto it. Now I know how to silence the lies and how to let them go. And you know what? It totally makes me feel like a badass. I was projecting onto this life something that was excruciatingly painful – that my worth wasn’t up to the task at hand- and it was dragging me down. And now it’s not. Cue this song.

So I am working all this out while I put in my miles. Sure, I might fall into old thought patterns, when I am tired or freshly wounded. But if I am taking care of myself and my people well, working hard, running, and as Karr said, praying, then my projection stays hopeful.

How’s your projection going? What’s holding you back? If it’s fear, what would you do if you weren’t afraid? Let’s change our screens, ladies and gents. Life is too short not to, and you’re too beautiful.

A Day in the Life

27 January, 2016/0 Comments/in Writing/by Katie

Photo Source: Pinterest

I love reading these from other people. And some days look very different and way less productive then this one. But I am so thankful for all that this life has led to – the hard, the heartbreaking, and the good.

A Day in the Life of a Writer Mom:

5:30 – wake up, turn on coffee that has been prepped the night before because I just can’t even.

5:35 – run 3 miles. hate the first half of them, love the second.

6:15-7:14 – get kids breakfast and on track to go to school. smile over the top of my coffee cup when I catch my kids cracking each other up with jokes.

7:15 – get the kids on the bus, shower and get dressed.

7:30 – check email, read something inspiring (Blessed Is She has been really reliable).

8:00 – make cheesy eggs for a toddler who will only eat cheesy eggs.

8:02 – realize I’m hungry too, make more eggs.

8:15 – eat breakfast with toddler and sing “Feed the birds” from Mary Poppins eighteen times.

8:30 – send Andrew off to pre-school thanks to an amazing teacher who picks him up!

8:45 – switch laundry. decide to write at Barnes and Noble since I have 4530 birthday presents to buy gift cards for for upcoming birthday parties.

9:00 spend an hour trying to tidy your room/closet/bathroom since I never have time.

10:00 finally head to B&N.

10:20 spend 10 minutes checking out the books and cookbooks laying out on the tables. tempting, always.

10:30- 10:40 find a table at the Starbucks at Barnes& Noble. sit down and turn on computer. wait for it to load while sipping a coffee you definitely don’t need after your last four cups but feel like you have to buy something.

10:50 decide the ladies across from you are chatting too loud. go to the music section to buy ear phones since you forgot yours.

11:00 return to computer. open ear buds only decide they have the Fort Knox packaging on them.

11:05 get up and ask a barista for some scissors while you both share a joke about how easy it is to cut fingers on all that plastic packaging.

11:06 open ear buds. cut finger on the plastic. get napkin around your finger. start typing and sigh in relief that the cut is not affecting your work.

11:10 Realize you have done very little work and your writing day is half over. sit down and write everything you can in remaining 1.5 hours.

12:45 head home, call husband who is traveling this week, and negotiate 3 hours on Saturday since you had so many things to do you couldn’t write. vow to write at home to save time.

1:00 throw together a sandwich for lunch, then pick up Andrew. talk about important things like doing “oh-ga” at school (aka yoga) and as we cross over the lone set of tracks in our town, “TRAIN TRACKS! MOMMY THOSE ARE TRAIN TRACKS!”

1:30 put Andrew down for a nap. one of my favorite times of the day since he loves books. and snuggles.

1:45 check email before kids get off bus at 2:10

2:10 INTENSE CHOAS as everyone asks you for something the second they walk into the door.

2:15 remind everyone to pick healthy snacks as they reach for the ice cream.

2:18 remind them again.

2:20 throw something in a crock pot for dinner from this book while we chat about their day.

3:00 interview experts for upcoming freelance article while older kids take a break after school.

4:00 help with homework, then get dressed for karate.

5:00 Sit in car while toddler watches Dora because he is too loud to go into the dojo. think about vacuuming out car at car wash next door but call best friend instead. those goldfish crushed into the carpeting will still be there tomorrow.

6:15 pray, eat, and love the faces around the table in between talking about their day and instructing them how to eat not like a wild animal. try to clear table and do dishes while play-yelling reaches a frenzied decible.

7:00 watch a family tv show, basking in the silence. Master Chef Jr. has been a huge favorite as of late.

7:30 brush teeth, pjs, books and bed.

8:00 as the last bedroom door is shut, take an inventory on energy level as I head to bed. low = watch TV, high = actually read one of the 50 books on my nightstand. (Two weeks ago I would have included a third option, zombie level tired = wine, but since I have been getting up and running I am off to bed!)

9:30 watch Colbert on demand, do the Examen and get ready to do it all again tomorrow.

Notes on Winter Writing

20 January, 2016/0 Comments/in Uncategorized/by Katie

Picture Source: Pinterest

“I’d lowered myself to the notion that the absolute only thing that mattered was getting that extra beating heart out of my chest. Which meant I had to write my book. My very possibly mediocre book. My very possibly never-going-to-be-published book. My absolutely no-where-in-league-with-the-writers-I’d-admired-so-much-that-I-practically-memorized-their-sentences book. It was only then, when I humbly surrendered, that I was able to do the work I needed to do.” – Cheryl Strayed

I have a confession: I don’t hate winter. Sure, it is cold and there’s the constant fear of slipping on ice, or your kids slipping on ice, but all those hazards gives us an excuse to do exactly what I love: pull inside, find some books, light a fire, and make soup. And there is something about winter that naturally lets you slow down to a pace that is excellent for writing.

I should throw out the caveat that we travel up north to the mountains every other weekend to ski and breath fresh air and shed cabin fever. So my official stance is ‘I love winter with some scenery change’. And wine. Of course wine. But on the days the writing needs to happen I wave goodbye to my kids and husband as they ski and I sit by a fire with tea and write.

If you are one for personality studies, such as the Myers-Briggs test, which The Atlantic explained very nicely here, you may align your feelings about winter hibernation accordingly. I am an ENFP, the most introverted of the extroverts, which means I love hanging out with people, but my introverted intuition makes it ok if the people I hang out with are in books. So I my brain gets tricked into *thinking* Ann Patchett, Anne Lamott, and Flannery O’Connor are my friends. There are worse things that could happen.

Right after I started this post on winter writing, my friend sent me this article in the Portsmouth Press Herald about a writer in Maine, Lily King, whose fiction I can’t wait to read. The end of the article quotes her by saying: “Winter is good for writing, she said. “I love drinking tea and putting on a couple of sweaters and sitting at my desk and not feeling like I am missing anything by not being outside,” she said. She also says that writers who are at their desk at 9 every morning don’t have kids. Love her.

The only problem is once you are on a roll with writing, you never want to stop. So the balance between the creative energy and the constant interruptions of life with kids starts. This is not easy. It seems you go through every emotion writing, and the trick I think is to just show up and do the work despite the emotions. Right now I am about a third of the way through the food memoir, and I am polishing up what I have to send out some initial pages. I love polishing up writing. Editing makes me feel like a painter. Moving words around to make the picture clearer to the reader is just about one of the best things I know in this life. I am thankful to be moving forward, knowing that I can always revise to improve writing, but if there is nothing on the page, there is nothing to revise. If I let myself linger in emotions like fear and elation, I would never get a word down.

That is why I don’t love Elizabeth Gilbert’s podcast “Magic Lessons”. It hangs out in the emotions of writing a little too much for me. I haven’t read the book Big Magic, but I listened to the podcasts while walking the dog or doing the dishes. Perhaps she will help someone overcome their writing blocks or creative blocks, but I feel like I learned a long time ago that writing has to be a job, one where you show up and do the work, try to get better at your craft, but don’t romanticize it. Some writing advice even says, “Do accountants get accountant blocks? Do teachers get teaching blocks?” Writing is hard work. The ones who do it are driven – as Cheryl Strayed says – to get the second heart beat out of their chest just have to get the work done.

So for now, my life goals are to do well at my job as a wife. A mom. A writer. A friend. I will keep running since it helps me process what I am writing, and helps me sleep. I will steal whatever chunks of time preschool and babysitters and Paw Patrol will give me to write. And at 4 o’clock I will be in my kitchen, making dinner, helping kids with homework, thinking about what I got to write today or didn’t get to write today, and holding gratitude in my heart for it all.

The Gifts of Motherhood

16 December, 2015/0 Comments/in Uncategorized/by Katie

^Baby Slinging With A Smile

It is almost Christmas, and lately I feel so blessed to go through this season with little people. All the magic of hope, all the moments of joy. It got me thinking about the times that motherhood hasn’t been this sweet. When Christmases were a blur of newborn baby or everyone was sick.

Before I became a mother, I looked at the role with reverence and awe. Being a mother seemed powerful to me. So much potential in your words and actions, how they scattered on little people like rain on fertile fields. To be a mother seemed sacred and purposeful. I was very content to work- I loved teaching philosophy and learning and writing. But to be a mother? That was a calling.

Fast forward to actually being a mother. When my second baby was a glorious, pink, ten pound girl with a name I adored and eyes that I adored even more, she had a weak valve in her stomach so that she frequently emptied her tummy full of breastmilk all over me (projectile vomiting is the official term). When she was two months old she came down with RSV, a virus requiring many babies to be hospitalized. She stayed healthy enough with just a nebulizer treatment at home every four hours. So she was eating every three hours, but if she threw it all up she was hungry again in two, and needed a breathing treatment every four. I had an 18 month old who woke up at 6 on the dot (still does) and I was flying solo with a traveling husband. No matter how many times you crunch that equation, it adds up to no sleep.

Where was all the power I had seen mothers have? All the purposefulness? I was mostly aware of the fact that the laundry basket got filled with my clothes, my daughters clothes and whatever blanket we were laying on three times a day, that my postpartum clothes didn’t fit, that I would trade my wedding ring for sleep, and that my oldest son was cute as a button but a runner. I barely left the house.

I know that many mothers encounter far worse scenarios for far longer periods of time, but I point to that moment in time just to say that motherhood can break you. Some parts of it are really really hard. And when it does, right when you think all is lost, and your life is in shambles just like your house and you can’t go on another day – make that another hour – you find out what you are really made of. You dig deep.

What I found out was that motherhood seemed powerful to me because mothers had to find that strength inside them. And it seemed purposeful because the only thing that really gets you through the hard times is being aware of your sense of purpose. But they don’t come first. They come later. They’re the fruits of hardship and sacrifice. They’re the gifts of motherhood.

But of course I didn’t know that. Instead I kept thinking it was going to get easier. It took a long time to realize it wasn’t going to, and that I had to change.

So I went through the usual rituals of adulthood: I lowered my expectations. I stopped worrying about what other people think. Really. Like, deep down stopped worrying. I celebrated small victories like making dinner and taking out the trash. But most of all, I had to become my own best friend. Because the only thing that makes this motherhood journey harder is if you don’t have your own psyche in your corner. Rooting for you, championing you, showing you the grace and mercy you deserve. If you are doing all the hard parts and dealing with a mean voice in your head that says your not good enough, tall enough, thin enough, rich enough, smart enough, _____ enough, then life takes on the bitter taste of resentment and despair. And watch out: mean voice can be sneaky. Wherever you are weak, which mothers are often, that is where it will work its way in.

So here is to the gift you can give yourself – wherever you are at – of kindness and compassion. Because you SO so so so so so so so deserve it. Really. Honest.