All the Anxiety Baking

Let's call this last week a flop. At least that's how it felt to me. Being a creature of routine and control, not to mention the comfort that comes from both of those things last week was hard as the full reality of working and living remote set in. A thought I am clinging to is that this new normal has the possibility to be better than my old normal. In the fall I gave a talk about my career , how it resembles more of a roller coaster and how that was more common than was discussed. In my talk I explain that there are many pivots in life, one is chosen pivot - a choice that you make of your volition. The other is a forced pivot. Where your circumstances force you to make a major change. My forced pivot was being laid off at a job (at the time my dream job) and that pushed me back to PBS, where I had interned, for a temp position. Fortunately that snowballed into saying yes to everything that came my way and I was able to navigate myself to where I am now.

Sometimes your forced pivot is just enough to set you down a path that isn't just okay, or surviviable but, better. Going through something hard, radical and unusual for you, for the world I know will change us and I have hope that it is for the better.

I think we can all agree that working remotely is a forced pivot. Many of us without being prepared (aka home office- what a LUXURY) is, in a word, hard. I find myself at my kitchen table, in a squeaky, hard chair trying to focus. A part of that has been preparing, cooking and baking all of the things. This week's BreadLust is a list of all I've been anxiety cooking and baking so far and what I've got planned for next week.

Last week's recipes:   
Salty Buckwheat Chocolate Chunk Cookies 
Sticky date cinnamon rolls (I made the recipe from this month's magazine, but this recipe looks similar)
Sourdough bagels 
Sourdough pancakes (I love freezing these for an easy breakfast)
Buckwheat sourdough bread
Broccoli Pancakes (more in this in next week's email)
Ricotta (from this post) and roasted mushrooms and onions for toasties  

Recipes for this week: 
Using up the rest of my shallot pasta sauce with pappardelle 
Chicken thighs with artichokes, shallot and white wine
Inside out egg roll rice bowl
Pork noodle soup with ginger and crispy garlic  (this is a maybe if I can find rice noodles, the one thing I'm missing.)

I miss you and I hope you're doing well. Take some time to distract yourself with a little cooking- challenge your brain to make something new and emotionally satisfy yourself with good, tasty food.

Amy