The Weekly Recap #110
This week has felt heavy. Everything thus far has felt exciting and fun but once we started pulling everything out to sell, shit got real. I was excited to sell everything, really, but all the thoughts of “my last xyz” started to seep into my brain. We had Mom’s Chicken Soup from the deep freezer multiple nights and it helped. Me being me, I added one more recipe to send out next week to distract me from the madness. It’s a really yummy recipe using cherry tomatoes that actually can not wait until I am back in September.
Kitchen Club reminder: I will be taking the month of August off from creating new recipes to spearhead this move. All paid subscriptions will be paused and you will not be charged for the time I am not sending out Kitchen Club recipes. The Weekly Recap will stay the same. Thank you for subscribing, reading, and cooking with me!
I’m writing this on Monday which is usually the day I am the most productive. I have a long list of tasks to get done but I have too many thoughts jumbled in my head. I can’t get myself to start, and stay focused, on any of them. The Miso Leek Salmon newsletter hasn’t been written and the video content for Instagram hasn’t been shot. I have to get those done today. In true Marcella fashion, I have decided to send out an additional recipe before the break but I have already packed up half of my kitchen. The other half needs to be packed by the end of the week. So I really do have a lot that needs to get done today and no later.
Instead of jumping into my to-do list, I am sitting on the couch. I sit on the left side leaning on the arm and my laptop carefully balances in front of me. This is the same spot I have sat in almost every morning since we brought the couch home. My living room is still set up the same but the items around me have changed. Instead of our personal items that called the living room home, the bookshelf and credenza are lined with stuff we plan to sell. Vases, plates, a fancy gold pineapple cocktail cup, a Canon printer with brand new ink, unread books, and so much more crap. Where does it all come from?
I’m sitting on the couch because it is raining. It has been over 100º for the last three days and overnight clouds took over. The temperature has dropped to a tolerable degree and it has been raining since we went to bed. From inside it feels like fall and it has brought a comforting melancholy feeling to me. We don’t get these kinds of summer storms in California and I can’t get off of the couch because I have realized this is the last rainy day I will probably have here.
Coincidentally I am drinking a peppermint pinwheel Nespresso pod with cocoa powder sprinkled on the bottom which is giving me Christmas in a cup. It was one of four pods left and after tomorrow we will drain the machine fully to pack away. On top of that, the living room is filled with a deep woody pine and citrus aroma from a Winter Balsam candle from Banana Republic. My plan was to save it to burn next winter but decided to use it up now instead of lugging it across the country.
These things happening at once have me deeply confused about what season it is. At the same time, it feels like an escape from the craziness that is my life currently. Being curled on this couch has been one of my favorite places for the last few years; today I just can’t get up.
When the lily magnolia had its second bloom a few weeks ago I took an extra minute to take in its beauty. I took note that this would be the last bloom I would witness and audibly thanked the tree for being so beautiful. I did this with the two fawns behind our fence and when the pink hydrangeas, that we planted shortly after we moved in, bloomed this season. I wish I would have one more fall to take in the amber colored leaves while we walk Josie, to say goodbye to the horse at the farm where we get our pumpkins, and to pick apples one more time. If I would have known all these things would have been our last maybe I would have appreciated them more. Spent one more minute taking them in and taking one more photo to remember them. But probably not.
Marco and I talked on our walk last night and agreed that although these years here brought lots of loneliness, they also brought the most wonderful times. This was our pandemic palace. A place where we had no rules and did anything we wanted. Like teens home alone for the weekend. This move is exciting but today I feel sadness. Sadness that the memories we have here are already memories.
After the sale of our belongings this weekend we will have just under two weeks to make the most of it. Did I mention the buyers of our home are buying half of our furniture? I’m equal parts flattered that they like the way I set up the house, happy to have furniture until we leave, and kind of creeped out at the thought of people living in “our house” with “our stuff.”
So while we drink cocktails and dance around the empty living room, we will still have our bed to sleep in…our dining room table to eat at…and our den to watch TV in... Maybe we will lay in our driveway and watch fireflies while getting eaten by mosquitos. Or ride the moped through the neighborhood to watch the sunset from the top of the hill. Like teenagers let loose, we will make the most of it.
For now, I’m finding peace curled in my spot on the couch surrounded by the chaos of my life spread around the room.
What Kitchen Club subscribers made this week…
British-made Ecovado offers low-impact alternative to "unsustainable" avocados *That’s gonna be a hard no from me dawg
Boycott. Support. You Decide. *About Martin’s potato rolls
The Jewish Deli: An American Tale Told in Pickles and Pastrami
Cold Steak Salad With Cucumber and Ponzu-Mustard Vinaigrette Recipe
Unripe Nectarine Slaw with Chile, Fennel, and Blue Cheese !!!
An important conversation around the stereotype that MSG is “bad” or “dirty.”
I’m equally parts horrified and impressed at this mass production.
I would be remiss if I did not mention that Marco had a birthday this week. We spent the first half of the day kayaking one last time before we sold them in our sale. Then we headed to The Town Company for dinner. Richard, the owner of Big Mood, has been telling us to go for months and he was right. We both deeply regret not going sooner.
The Town Company is located in Hotel KC and opened during the pandemic (that’s why we haven’t been). We had everything that was “Marco Friendly” – melon salad, scallop crudo, octopus and potatoes, pork chop for Marco, and not “Marco friendly” corn dumplings for me. All hits. The flavors were balanced perfectly and more layers would appear as we ate each dish. Make sure to sit at the chef’s table where you watch everything go down.
Everyone and their mother tried to buy my clock but unfortunately for them, it was not for sale. Here is the story with this clock, back in 2016 when Marco and I were both getting our butts to work at the crack of dawn, I would yell “WHAT’S MY TIME” while we got ready to run out the door. Marco got tired of it and we bought this clock. We placed it in a central location and from any angle in the apartment, you could lean over and check the time. It’s digital, bright, and crystal clear.
We brought it to this house where it lived in the kitchen and is integral to my cooking. It is beyond useful to look up when you are in the thick of things and note the exact time.
It’s coming with us to our new house and we will find a spot for it. If you want one (you do) here is a similar version to the one I have, which is no longer available.
Lily intensely watching the Miso Leek Salmon.
Toward the end of the week, life threw us another big curve ball…I can’t wait to tell you about it next Sunday. Talk to you then, Xx, M