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msmoonfire · 5 years

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How to prep for Lammas ❂

I know witchy fellas, it’s boiling hot & sunny out there. But we gotta put it in the effort. All together. Till the end. Till Lammas.

Briefly explained, Lammas or ‎Lughnasadh opens the harvest season around August 1st and our ancestors would know the perfect timing of it by watching the rise of the star Sirius at the dawn after a long while not showing. This sabbat originated by the Celts whom used to propitiate Lugh to ensure sunny weather and a fruitful harvest. He was their god of Light, excellently proficient in all arts & protector of thieves, travelers and merchants. Moving to the southern areas, this celebration was still existing in a more earthy practical variant: mother Earth, plants, fresh produce, seeds and grains were the actual focus. These other people couldn’t care less about Lugh. They only cared about showing gratitude to Nature as a whole, often by baking the first LOAF MASS of the season (Lammas, a bread loaf) after months of summer break - we should stop baking at home from Beltane day till Lammas day, unless we’re home-based bakers and do that for a living;)

So, as usual, in this post I’m going to give you tips & ideas to prep for august 1st. Which means these are not things you should do on the very day, but BEFORE. Don’t rush last minute darlings. We can do this.

Let’s get readayyyy. ✽

1. Local farmers’ markets should become a routine. Ok, hands down we all need the supermarket to survive on a daily basis but you can surely minimize your shopping list, so you can go buy fresh produce at some farmers’ market. Buy organic stuff there, not at the mall. This is a good easy way to re-establish a direct contact with Earth and welcome earthy energies into your life. Plus, it’s going to be a refreshing walk every time.

2. Improve the lighting in your house/room. Besides Samhain, this is by far the best time of the year to purchase new lamps, led lights, lanterns; fix bulbs that are out, remove useless/broken curtains, buy candles, add fairy lights everywhere etc... Being a metaphor of the sunny weather, daylight and artificial lighting in general must be of primary importance in your environment. Enhance natural lighting during the day, set up a nice and diffused lowlight illumination system at night. Don’t forget your backyard ‘cause...

3. You should take good care of your garden. I don’t care how busy you are, we all have at least 5 spare minutes to trim out dead leaves from our plants. If you own a piece of land or have a rather big veg garden, please don’t forget about it. Pay special attention to your plants/trees, do a little bit of cleaning every day, pick what’s ripe, cut out dead leaves, get creative with your lawn mower, water the vases, work the ground... The goal is to have a beautiful, curated garden by august 1st. But if you don’t have a garden or similar...

3.2. Buy your fav aromatic plant & look after it. Choose herbs that you prefer adding to your meals (if you’re a diy pro or make your own soaps etc.. feel free to use that fragrant plant in your products), so that you’ll be able to use it quite often without forcing yourself. I personally do it with basil. Basil is my daily go-to, I love its smell and taste. Again, the goal is to buy a plant in July and prove to Mother Nature that you can nurture it properly until at least august 1st. Get in touch with the “green world” and upgrade your basic skills. In other words...

4. Try to excel in every project/activity you start. Remember what you read earlier? Blame Lugh for this one. Lammas day is like a test: if you want Nature to be by your side during harvest time, you must earn its trust through proving that you’re able to achieve great results - because you’re a hard worker. July is about learning, attending classes, practicing, studying. My advice would be to not start a bunch of random projects now: be picky and commit to only one or a few. Be honest with yourself, modest with timing and consistent in everyday practice so that in august you’ll be skilled enough to unleash your best potential. This is your time to shine!

5. Do your research on baking bread. Yes, exactly. Read recipes, articles, books etc... On Lammas day you want to have fun baking your first bread loaf of the season, so you’d better be prepared. It’s a fun experience even if you’re not a pro baker, at least you can try a new hobby to fill your free morning/evening. But baking a beautifully decorated, tasty, fragrant bread loaf would take Lammas to the next level though.

If you don’t own an oven, purchase a small electric one for less than 50$. It’ll be useful to cook other foods in the future without stressing the hell out of your microwave.

*for our celiac fellas*: grains and gluten are clearly off-limits for you. However, Lammas’ celebration involves CORN as well. Try to make your gluten-free dough with corn flour, rice flour or other ingredients that are suitable for you. Focaccia, polenta and pizza doughs are also suitable for the occasion.

6. Include apples, grapes and corn in you cosmetics or in your diet. Since these fruits are in season, why not take heed of their benefits? Simply buy things like apple shampoo, grape lip balm, apple snacks, grape masks... A BAG OF CRISPY POP CORN...These are valid examples. You have a wide range of choice, you’ve got the powahhh.

7. Grab a book and a glass of Albariño/Pinot Noir/Rosé. That’s how you pamper yourself before Lammas. A rocking chair in the garden, proper lighting for reading, a cushion, your fav book and a glass of fine wine.

Alternatively, you can elegantly snack on grapes or sip some super refreshing apple juice from a chic crystal goblet!

8. Develop a grounding routine. For those who are new to the grounding concept, I’ll break it down real quick. We’re always moving, on the go, running, rushing, driving, working out, traveling, walking, cleaning, fidgeting, passively entertained, distracted by screens or social media etc... The practice of grounding promotes the exact opposite to reach inner balance and fulfillment. Basically, it’s very good to be swift and active, but being incapable of sitting still while quietly dealing with ourselves is a huge, major problem. Imagine rooting yourself into the soil: you can lay down or sit comfortably on the ground without a mat and really feel the Earth underneath. Close your eyes, breathe deeply, choose a meditation method that you like, visualize yourself being as static and peaceful as a tree... Or simply be. You’ll find a way to contemplate these OFFLINE moments away from photos, screens, sounds, people... This routine should take 10-20 minutes of your day. Make sure it takes place in nature, or alternatively in places where there’s actual grass, ground or nearby your (aromatic) plants so you can touch them if you need to.

9. Get creative with corn magic and corn art. Lammas has a solid tradition of corn use for various purposes. As you’re prepping for the big day, start featuring corn kernel/cobs in your magic. If you don’t practice - which is totally fine - carry a small amulet bag with corn inside with you. If you’re an artist or crafter, paint the kornel or use cobs for artwork!

10. Be out in the sunlight, sun bathe or simply breathe fresh air, get outside, enjoy all things outdoors :)

Hope this was helpful and inspirational fo you all, good luck and happy Lammas darlings.

Floods of love, msmoonfire (IG: @msmoonfire)

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wineanddinosaur · 3 years

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VinePair Podcast: Why Restaurants and Bars Should Welcome a $15 Minimum Wage

Are you aiming to cut back on calories and alcohol but still want to enjoy a delicious glass of wine? Mind and Body Wines are your perfect solution. These low-calorie, low-alcohol wines are only 90 calories per serving and are vegan, gluten-free, non-GMO and made without added sugar. With Mind and Body, you can sip without sacrifice. Learn more at mindandbodywines.com.

Among many other actions as our new president, Joe Biden has called to increase the federal minimum wage in the U.S. to $15 per hour and eliminate the concept of the tipped minimum wage. In response, the restaurant and bar industries have largely claimed that such changes would adversely affect efforts to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

On this week’s “VinePair Podcast,” Adam Teeter and Zach Geballe discuss whether there’s any validity to these claims, why the claim that increasing the minimum wage will suddenly cause prices to skyrocket is silly, and why everyone from restaurateurs to diners should support the idea of a living wage for all workers.

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Or check out the conversation here

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is the “VinePair Podcast.” Oh Zach, I feel so good. This is a great week. Feeling really positive. Feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. That’s all I’m going to say. Those who know, know.

Z: Dry January? Almost over.

A: Oh, yeah, that’s what I did. I’m done with that s***. But for those of you that aren’t, you might be interested in this week’s sponsor. Are you aiming to cut back on calories and alcohol but still want to enjoy a delicious glass of wine? Mind and Body Wines are your perfect solution. These low-calorie, low-alcohol wines are only 90 calories per serving and are vegan, gluten-free, non-GMO and made without added sugar. With Mind and Body, you can sip without sacrifice. Learn more at mindandbodywines.com. Yeah, man, I stopped. It was too much. I’m still in moderation, obviously. But this weekend, I did not imbibe, actually. But then on Sunday night, I was making a meal with Naomi, and she was like, are we not having wine? I made fresh pasta and a pasta sauce I like from Franny’s Cookbook. And I was like, “Yeah, we’re drinking wine.” And then Tuesday night, I again was like, “I don’t think I’m gonna drink.” But then Wednesday night, I was like, “It’s the inauguration. I gotta have something.”

Z: What did you inaugurate yourself with?

A: Just a beer, but a delicious beer.

Z: Just a beer? Yeah, that’s good.

A: It was a delicious beer. And then tonight, actually, I’m meeting up with a wine entrepreneur who I really respect a lot, Mary Taylor. I don’t know if we talked about this before.

Z: We’ve had Mary on the podcast!

A: That’s right! Yes. So Mary and I are getting drinks because she lives in Brooklyn, but just sold her place and is moving to Connecticut, and I was like, “I’d love to see you before I leave.” And, she and I are both Stern alums, and I think her wines are awesome. And I think her concept is really cool. It’s shocking to me that she’s the first person to do this. I mean, she’s literally just taking the importer label on the back of the label and putting it on the front of the label. But it’s so smart. And she’s gotten a lot of great pickups. I know the company’s growing a lot, so I’m excited to hear about that, but she was like, “Do you want to get beers?” And I was just like, “yeah.” I guess this is what’s happening. Let’s go sit outside and have a beer. I haven’t had a draft beer in a long time, so let’s sit in the cold and do that. So, yeah Dry January was a nice thing. It was a good week-and-a-half run. I really gave the old college try. But I realized that for me, a drink or two a few days a week is a nice reward. It’s a nice breakup. And I’m healthy. I exercise, I drink within reason. I’m not going to punish myself.

Z: Yeah, fair enough, man. I cannot argue with any of the generals or particulars there, because I just think for me it’s like I’ve just found that I have a harder time doing three or four days a week not drinking. I can do one, maybe two a week, but I hate to reiterate this on the podcast seemingly every other week, but life with kids, man, like I need that drink most weeks, most nights. But January, more than halfway there.

A: You just power through.

Z: Yeah. I mean I gotta tell you, I was very tempted by the inauguration. I was like, well you know if I didn’t drink four years ago at the last inauguration — and I didn’t, somehow — I’m not going to drink this time, either. So I’ll save my celebration for February.

A: I want to make another admission, too, which is that a few nights earlier this week, on one of the nights I wasn’t drinking. We have a SodaStream, and I was making some soda water and I was like, “Hmm. Should I put some bitters in this?” And then I was like, “I can’t do it, I can’t do it, because I can’t tell Zach I did it and liked it! So I’m not putting bitters in this. I’m putting lemon in it.”

Z: Cat Wolinksi, though, Cat is on team bitters and soda now. So she is. Yeah, she let me know. I think she posted on that on Twitter or something about it. I mean, I’ll try this. It’s not my drink. I didn’t create it. I mean, it’s been a restaurant staple, but it is really funny because a thing I learned from talking about this, having it out on the podcast and people responding to me about it, was the breakdown is really stark. If you have worked in a restaurant or you’re connected to someone who has, you are way more likely to have tried bitters and soda, which I guess makes sense because the biggest thing about it is at restaurants. Bitters are just there. Right?

A: Right, exactly.

Z: The s******** bar imaginable has Angostura bitters. And in a s***** bar, they’re probably not using it for anything else. So you can probably just load your drink up with it, your soda up with it. And most people at home, if they have bitters, they think that bitters are something you use two dashes of — which in a lot of cocktails you do, to be fair. But it was just really interesting to me to get the feedback from people that I know or on social media. Yeah, it was very skewed towards the restaurant industry. It maybe shouldn’t have surprised me, but did nonetheless.

A: What is your recipe for bitters and sodas? How many dashes is it, then?

Z: Oh, man. It’s to the point where I’ve stopped counting. I would say it’s probably a good quarter to a half-ounce of bitters.

A: So you’re getting that alcohol in there, then. You’re not doing Dry January! I mean, it’s the equivalent of having a quarter- or a half-ounce of whiskey. Yes, is there some amount of alcohol there? Sure. I’m also for work occasionally having to taste stuff and spit it out. Does no alcohol cross my lips? Of course not. But like, I’m also not drinking seven bitters and sodas in a sitting. I’ll drink one every few days. It’s a treat. Otherwise it’s just nothing but soda without the bitters. Sometimes with flavors. Because that is how my wife and I get through this month. She drinks flavored soda water year-round. But for me it’s mostly a January indulgence. Otherwise, I’m drinking other stuff.

A: I love Spindrift.

Z: Yeah, yeah. Great stuff.

A: Spindrift is my favorite.

Z: That’s the treat for me because it’s got some fruit juice in it. And then most of the rest of the time it’s whatever brand or some combination of the famous ones and whatever ones Kaitlyn orders via Amazon Fresh that show up. I don’t know, they’re proprietary brands that I don’t even remember, but they’re just in the fridge. I just grab one. Are you particular about flavor, though? Because I am very particular on flavor with these.

A: Oh yeah. So for me, for Spindrift, I’m grapefruit all the way.

Z: I have yet to try the grapefruit. They keep being sold out, the blackberry is the one I really like. I can do the raspberry lime which we have sometimes. The thing I can’t do is, not so much with Spindrift, but there’s the whole thing about coconut soda water and I just can’t do it. It tastes weird to me. It’s oily and I don’t dig it. My wife loves them. So they’re all her.

A: She likes the coconut-flavored sparkling waters?

Z: Yeah. And I just can’t get behind it. I like most of them, but coconut just missed me with that one. I like coconut water, I like coconut-flavored things generally. But the coconut sparkling water, it’s a texture thing or a perceived texture thing or something. I’m not sure.

A: That’s crazy, man. So, today we’re talking about minimum wage, right?

Z: That’s right.

A: You want to lead us off?

Z: I do. Because we were talking a little bit about the inauguration, and one of the many things that may change going forward under the Biden administration and Democratic-controlled House and Senate is potentially a pretty fundamental change to minimum wage laws in this country. The minimum wage is $7.25 an hour at the federal level. And it hasn’t gone up for over 20 years, I believe. And I don’t want to get into a whole long conversation about why that is. Other than that, it’s f****** ridiculous that the minimum wage has not gone up in that amount of time. And obviously, there are lots and lots of states and localities that have higher minimum wages. I live in one of them. You do, too. But at the same time, raising the federal minimum wage obviously has a big impact because it’s the floor for anything. And specifically, this proposal would also get rid of the idea of a tipped minimum wage, meaning in places like New York and a number of other states — although not here in Washington — you can pay someone less than minimum wage at an hourly rate if they are making enough money in tips to get to that level or above. And there’s been a lot of outcry from the restaurant industry, from really certain parts of it, that this kind of proposal would greatly harm restaurants, small operators, etc., including the National Restaurant Association. And I will let you give your thoughts, but I will say concisely at the moment that to me that is total bulls***. And it is a particularly kind of heinous and pernicious lie that the restaurant industry has told for a very long time, and I’m happy to explain why in a moment. But I want to give you a chance to talk, because I have my perspective. I was paid an hourly wage for the majority of my life. So I have strong feelings about it as someone who made essentially minimum wage for quite a number of years.

A: Yeah. I mean, so I think it’s criminal that the minimum wage has been what it’s been. So I completely agree with you. I want to talk about this on the basis of just being a business owner. I think what is lacking — I’m not saying that my path was the path for everyone. I’m not saying that. But I guess what I’m trying to say is, I think that there has been a thesis over the last 10 to 15 years coming out of Silicon Valley, coming out of a lot of other places, that “education doesn’t matter” and that entrepreneurs should be able to do whatever they want, and everyone should just start businesses. And I worked at a business that went under. It wasn’t mine, but it was a record label that I loved dearly. And I was there when it went bankrupt. And so for me, I really wanted to understand how you start a business. So I went back to business school. And I learned about accounting, and I learned about business plans and PNLs and budgeting. And what I also learned is if the business can’t make money, you shouldn’t start the business. And I think that there is this idea that anyone should be able to have a business with all of this, like “gig economy.” I’m f****** sick of the gig economy. It’s not sustainable. It doesn’t take care of humans. Have you looked at f***** Door Dash’s stock price recently? It’s insane. It’s f***** insane. I’m just saying. And the people who are running Door Dash who are actually doing the deliveries are making nothing. And the restaurants aren’t making money. Nothing. This is unsustainable. And this is my soapbox to get to restaurants, which is there’s a lot of these people who have models that are sustainable, and others that don’t. And when you sit down and you decide you want to open a restaurant, you’ve got to look at the model and say, can we afford to pay people a living wage with the food we want to sell and the prices we want to charge and all those things? And if we can’t, then maybe we can’t have a restaurant, or maybe this restaurant model doesn’t work for this place. I don’t know how else you do it. We are going to have to raise the minimum wage in this country. We haven’t raised it in decades. It needs to catch up with the cost of living. People haven’t had a pay raise, and everything else is going up. Rent is going up. Gas is going up. So this has to happen. And yeah, I think it’s bullshit. And it’s one of these things where it’s become this narrative that we’re all telling that’s being reinforced by these organizations, as you mentioned. And look, again, I’ve only ever worked — as we talked about in this podcast a lot — as a cater waiter. I’ve never been in a restaurant. I have lots of friends who are restaurateurs. I understand it’s a really hard business. I do not want to be in their position. I think anyone who opens a restaurant is crazy. I love eating at them, but I think it’s crazy. Right? Because it’s so hard. It’s so hard to make a living but yeah, some people really do it to great success, to great success. And a lot of people who do it to great success, too, that I’ve found, have really happy employees. And usually, it’s because their employees are taken care of. And I think it’s unfortunate that we have to force the rest of the country to take care of their employees. But I think it’s the only way we are going to ultimately have a successful restaurant industry and a healthy restaurant industry, especially coming out of Covid. But again, I’ve never worked in a restaurant. So I’m curious, the stuff that I’m saying, is this resonating, Zach? Am I crazy to *say, “Well, look, if you can’t afford this person, then then you can’t have a restaurant.” Is that just me being a mean old business person being like, “Well, look, the numbers don’t work, so go f*** yourself.” Because that’s kind of how I feel. You’ve got to look at the numbers. If the numbers don’t work, the numbers don’t work. But other people would say that’s not fair.

Z: Yeah, well, I would say a couple of things. One is I’ve never owned a restaurant myself, so I will speak at this from my perspective, as someone who’s worked at a variety of different levels throughout restaurants and been pretty involved in opening them and understanding some of how they work. But it’s never been my money on the line, it’s never been my name on the business license, etc. So take that caveat. I don’t think you’re wrong at all. And I think that actually one of the biggest issues we had in the restaurant industry, pre-Covid, was every last person who had a little bit of knowledge, a little bit of maybe some acclaim or at least a little bit of attention and some backing could open a restaurant. And many of them were just never going to succeed. I have been to, I have been offered jobs at, I have dined at so many restaurant concepts that were just so clearly not thought out by someone who understood anything about how a business is profitable. By people who maybe had really, really great food, great bar programs, great wine programs, all kinds of things. But in the end, what they were doing was not going to make money. And then as it turns out, if either it’s just you or your family or you have investors, somewhere down the road you have to make money. And you might have a longer or shorter runway depending on how you’re financing things. But it is not infinite. And as you said, no business concept is entitled to be profitable just because you like it. And one of the most important things to recognize here is that one of the reasons why the tip economy and “tipping” as a function in the American restaurant industry has persisted as long as it has is it served a very useful function for restaurant owners because they didn’t have to pay their front-of-the-house staff very much. And that meant they didn’t have to pay payroll taxes on what those people were making. That is a huge reason why tip culture has persisted as long as it has, because — we’re not going to have a whole conversation about tipping, I don’t think — but tipping is a part of this whole issue, right? It is cutting out the restaurant, and the restaurant owner, and the restaurant ownership, from compensation for a big chunk of their workforce, which is, frankly f****** insane. I mean, again, it’s not how any other kind of business works. I don’t go to the grocery store and decide that, I don’t think the person at the seafood counter did a good enough job picking out my piece of salmon, so I’m not going to tip them, and they don’t make money. That is an insane business concept. The owner or operator of any business should want to have control over their employees’ wages so that they can compensate them adequately and ensure that the person who is working for them’s goals are aligned with their own. And so, there’s this whole long, sordid history of restaurants and restauranteurs underpaying people, underpaying undocumented workers, threatening to report them to ICE or INS before that. There’s just so many things that go on when people are not paid a living wage: no healthcare, people working sick. I mean, think about how crazy that sounds now to us in this Covid landscape that I and everyone I worked with would show up to work when by any standards of the health department, we should have stayed home, but because there’s no sick pay in most places — that’s changed in some places including in Seattle — there’s no vacation time, there’s no policy that allows for someone who should not be working for whatever reason, health or otherwise, to stay home. Someone who’s just had a kid, there’s no paid parental leave. All these things, unless a local or state government has passed these laws, none of that is mandated at a federal level. And very few — some, but very few — restaurateurs will offer that as a benefit just on their own goodwill. And again, it just creates a persistent issue within the industry of people being absolutely on the brink of financial ruin for things that should not ruin anyone. You know, I’m not talking about horrific injury or terminal illness, or I should say potentially life-threatening illness or things like that. That shouldn’t ruin anyone, either. But those are at least huge problems that are hard to anticipate. But I’m talking about someone breaking their arm — a four-to-six-week injury, less than that, really if you’re not doing something really, really intense. And I’ve known people who were basically begging their coworkers to give them money because they had nothing saved because their job barely allowed them to pay for the cost of their apartment in Seattle or in San Francisco or in New York or whatever. We want restaurants in these cities. The people who work in jobs that are still employed right now, who are sitting at their computers listening to this, you want restaurants in your city. You want to be able to order food via these horrific parasitic apps delivered to your door whenever. But the people who make that happen cannot afford to live, not just in the city. In many cases, they can’t even afford to live within an hour. I mean, I was stunned by the end of 2020 how many people I worked with in Seattle who lived an hour, an hour and a half commute away each way. And these are people who are commuting home late at night. Some of them are people who might not be safe commuting late at night on public transit, potentially. There’s just so many issues. And it all stems from the fact that in some way, we societally have viewed restaurant work and similar service- sector work as being “less than.” And that is a fundamental issue that is not fixed by a raise in the minimum wage. But in some sense, it is because, you look at — God help me, Adam you know it’s a curse of mine that I look at Twitter too much. But look at all the people responding, all the people tweeting things like, “Well, why should I pay? Why should someone who’s washing dishes or someone who’s flipping burgers make $15 an hour?” As if doing those things is somehow any less noble a pursuit than whatever the f*** that person is doing with their free time — posting on Twitter, probably. And again, we want these things in our in our communities, whether they’re cities, towns, whatever. We want restaurants, we want the things that they offer to us. That means we have to treat the work that makes them possible as being worthy of a living wage.

A: I mean, look, I got a response to someone who tweets, “Why should I pay someone $15 dollars an hour?” It’s called rising prices, for everyone. So your price has got to rise too, bro — because I’m assuming it was a bro who tweeted at you. You may be making more money in your job. Right? So this person needs to, too, because the prices across the country are going up, and they’ve been going up. That’s what happens, right? Yeah, my grandfather used to be able to buy a piece of candy for a penny — that doesn’t exist anymore. That’s what happens. His salary was also a lot lower, because he could buy a piece of candy for a penny, and then my mom was able to buy a piece of candy for 10 cents. That’s it. That’s how economics work. And we’ve been stuck in a situation where a large portion of this country has not gotten the pay raise they need while other people have. And don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there’s a lot of people that listen to this podcast who are professionals, who also haven’t gotten a pay raise. And I understand that. And that’s why people are moving from cities to other places because of the lower cost of living. And it’s unfortunate that in certain cities, the cost of living has become astronomical. Like New York, like Seattle, like San Francisco. But the least we can do is raise the minimum wage across the country to something that is livable in a majority of places and probably still will not be in some. In New York, $15 is not going to be enough. Right? It’s not. But it’s the least we can do. And it makes up for bad nights. It makes up for less customers. And again, the restaurateur will then have to do a true economic model and really look at their P & Ls to decide, OK, how many employees can I have? What model works? And this is why we talked about this a lot: “How much do I need a somm, compared to just a server,” or, “Should I be moving to more of a counter-service model?” Are people more OK with that? Everyone loves fast casual. Would they like casual dining? Does that mean you walk in like we’ve talked about with Popina before. You order at the counter and you sit in the backyard. You have an amazing meal, and Popina only has to pay a few servers. That’s potentially an option that you can look at. I think, actually, this will create a lot more creativity in the restaurant world, because people will have to think about, OK, so what are people willing to pay for? What are people willing to pay for? Are you willing to pay for a $25 burger that’s a basic burger that has a slab of cheese over it, or, sorry, a $30 burger even, let’s say, and that you could easily make at home in the backyard or on your stovetop? So then if you go out, are you looking for a burger that really is special in some way? It has a special proprietary meat blend, or I don’t know, you baked the buns in house, or it’s on a bun that you wouldn’t think of, or it has more of a gourmet cheese, or I don’t f****** know. Right? So that you can charge $35. That’s I think what restaurateurs are going to have to think about. What does it feel like when you’re there? Does it feel really fun, and are the drinks fun, and is it a great atmosphere? And all those things are things that people will have to start thinking about once the minimum wage is raised. But the pushback against it to me is really cruel. Is really cruel because it’s basically saying, “I get to have a business that I want. Because either I’m willing to take the financial risk of taking out the loan or I know someone who can loan me to start the business or whatever, but I don’t have to pay people a $15 minimum wage. I shouldn’t have to do that.” That, to me, is like, “then maybe you shouldn’t start a business.”

Z: Yeah, and I think it’s also, to be fair, it’s not all on the side of the people who are operating these businesses. There is definitely a segment of the restaurant-going public that is, I would say, adverse, if not outright antagonistic, towards the idea of paying more for anything. And even when menu prices would go up at restaurants I worked at because cost of everything has gone up, not just the cost of rent, but the cost of the produce, the cost of meats, the cost of everything has gone up, and prices would have to go up even to sustain what was maybe not a perfectly healthy business model, let alone one that was actually somewhat profitable. And people would complain. And most people understood this is the deal. And it’s not like the prices were hidden. But every time, for at least some amount of time, people would complain and say, “Oh, well, you know, why is this steak this price when six months ago it was this price?” Or, “I can get it cheaper at my grocery store.” And I’m not going to have a whole conversation about how things are priced in restaurants. Again, that’s another topic, maybe some other day. But I will say that part of it is, as those of you listening who are not part of the restaurant industry, never have been, never will be but are diners or would like to be diners in the future. The reality is that there are exactly two ways this can go. One is that we can do things like raise the minimum wage. And that comes with, yes, somewhat increased pricing in some places. Again, a $15 minimum wage in Seattle wouldn’t make a difference. The minimum wage is already over that here. So it’s not as if that’s going to make an impact here. It’s going to make an impact in some parts of the country for sure, in some places where that might actually be a living wage. But it will cause all wages to go up, at least to some extent. And that means you’re going to pay a little more. It’s just the reality of it. Americans are still, even after the growth of the restaurant industry, still spending a lot less of their disposable income on food than many other developed nations. And that’s just the reality. Food is expensive. It’s literally difficult to produce. A cow is not something you just order on Amazon. And so that’s one path. The other path, and again, I haven’t heard a lot of talk about this. I mean I have, but not from anyone who is in actual power, is we look at a model that’s a little bit more like what is the case in a lot of European nations, where food costs are not all that high, but that’s because the restaurant industry is subsidized by the federal government, by their national governments. They recognize that in the same way that we consider lots of other industries or lots of other aspects of our lives to be important and not necessarily in need of being completely connected to profitability, like the arts, like public transportation, that restaurants and food service and those kinds of things are something that we don’t want to be solely driven by profitability. And as a result, we as a society broadly say, “Hey, you know what? There are lots of ways in which the government could subsidize the cost of doing business as a restaurant.” Could be lower rents for restaurants and for other comparable business uses. There could be subsidies on foods, beverages, things like that. Things that would keep prices down for the end consumer at a holistic level. And I personally think that is a better approach. Now, do I think it is likely to be something that is enacted by the current government? Probably not. But it’s something to bear in mind that either costs can be borne by the people who will be dining out. And there’s a segment of people who think, “I don’t want my tax money essentially to go to something that I don’t use.” You people suck, but you’re out there. Or we can say we consider food to be, and access to food in all the various ways — and obviously access to food for people who don’t have food is the most important thing. But I would say that the ability to go have a meal made for you by someone else in a relatively non-laborious and not incredibly expensive fashion is an unquestionable public good. And if it is, we have to treat it as such, and we have to subsidize it. That’s just the reality. That’s how things work in a society.

A: I agree, man. I think all of this is just something where I think the people who are at all critical of this decision need to just sit down, take a look in the mirror, and think about why. Because I think to the majority of us, I’ve gotten pretty passionate about it, you’ve gotten pretty passionate about it. At this point, it’s a no-brainer and there’s not a lot else to say about it. Right? And I think if you’re someone who’s listening to the podcast and you’re on the fence, I would encourage you to think about why you don’t think people deserve to make at least $15 an hour. Why don’t they deserve that? And what does that say about you that you feel that way?

Z: And if the answer is because I barely make more than that, then you also should make more money.

A: I agree.

Z: That is the thing here, right? Minimum wage applies to everyone. It’s not just restaurant workers, obviously. And yes, costs will go up some. But the whole point here, one of the conversations we are having in this country is there is an unfathomable and, frankly, unconscionable amount of wealth concentrated in the hands of relatively few people. And that is not something that any society throughout human history has been able to sustain for long because the rest of us don’t f****** like it. And you can get riled up about someone who works at a fast-food restaurant making almost as much money as you, or you can go ask your boss why you don’t make more money. And especially if they are someone who, or your business is doing real well — and there are lots of them out there right now — to me, that’s the question we all have to be asking. I mean, I don’t mean to make this overtly political, exactly. It’s hard to avoid with a topic like this. But fundamentally, if someone making $15 an hour threatens your own sense of self-worth from your salary or your hourly rate, you don’t make enough money, either.

A: Look, this is the first generation in history where the kids are going to make less than their parents. The kids in the work are now going to make less than their parents. That is insane. That has not been the story of America. That hasn’t been the story of the world, and that’s what we’re looking at right now. During the pandemic, the top 5 percent of the population made more money than they have made in the past. They’ve done very well. There needs to be an evening out here. I’m not calling for socialism, communism, whatever. I’m just calling for equity. I’m calling for some equity here. Also, that’s a population that eats out the most. They can afford to pay a little bit more on the menu so that people can make $15 an hour. And I think, that’s all there is to say, right? There’s a way that we can start to try to make everyone pay their fair share. There’s taxes that we’ve talked about. We don’t have to get into this here, because it’s not this podcast, as you said, Zach. But, the least we can do as lovers of food and beverage is advocate for people being paid at least $15 an hour. Full stop. All right, man, I will see you back next week. If you guys have thoughts about the podcast, as always, hit us up at [email protected]. We love to hear your thoughts. We got a great listener email earlier this week that’s actually going to turn into a topic for another show about whether, sort of on the same topic, sommeliers and bartenders should think about moving from cities to smaller towns and looking at opportunities there starting their own thing. Which is a topic Zach and I are really excited about. That’ll be coming either next week or in the weeks later. But if you have any ideas, always shoot us an email. We love to hear from you guys, and we love to hear your feedback — not only on this show, but also on things you want to hear. So again, [email protected]. And Zach, man, next week will you be drinking? No, since it’ll be Dry January.

Z: Well, I think when I’m recording, yes, I will still be sober. By the time everyone hears it, I will have had a drink.

A: Enjoy your bitters and soda, man.

Z: Sounds great.

Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair Podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week, please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. Now for the credits. VinePair is produced by myself and Zach Geballe. It is also mixed and edited by him. Yeah, Zach, we know you do a lot. I’d also like to thank the entire VinePair team, including my co-founder, Josh, and our associate editor, Cat. Thanks so much for listening. See you next week.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: Why Restaurants and Bars Should Welcome a $15 Minimum Wage appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/podcast-15-dollar-minimum-wage/

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johnboothus · 3 years

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VinePair Podcast: Why Restaurants and Bars Should Welcome a $15 Minimum Wage

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Or check out the conversation here

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

Z: Dry January? Almost over.

Z: What did you inaugurate yourself with?

A: Just a beer, but a delicious beer.

Z: Just a beer? Yeah, that’s good.

A: It was a delicious beer. And then tonight, actually, I’m meeting up with a wine entrepreneur who I really respect a lot, Mary Taylor. I don’t know if we talked about this before.

Z: We’ve had Mary on the podcast!

A: You just power through.

A: Right, exactly.

A: What is your recipe for bitters and sodas? How many dashes is it, then?

Z: Oh, man. It’s to the point where I’ve stopped counting. I would say it’s probably a good quarter to a half-ounce of bitters.

A: I love Spindrift.

Z: Yeah, yeah. Great stuff.

A: Spindrift is my favorite.

A: Oh yeah. So for me, for Spindrift, I’m grapefruit all the way.

A: She likes the coconut-flavored sparkling waters?

A: That’s crazy, man. So, today we’re talking about minimum wage, right?

Z: That’s right.

A: You want to lead us off?

Z: And if the answer is because I barely make more than that, then you also should make more money.

A: I agree.

Z: Well, I think when I’m recording, yes, I will still be sober. By the time everyone hears it, I will have had a drink.

A: Enjoy your bitters and soda, man.

Z: Sounds great.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: Why Restaurants and Bars Should Welcome a $15 Minimum Wage appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/podcast-15-dollar-minimum-wage/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/vinepair-podcast-why-restaurants-and-bars-should-welcome-a-15-minimum-wage

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silentwalrus1 · 7 years

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Omg can we see some of your morgue files???! I literally love anything you write

oh man the thing is they’re all SUPER fragmented, and i really mean SUPER DUPER. A lot of them are 5-10 sentences long and completely unconnected to anything else, it’s literally just my brain generating one-liners.

that said, here’s a few below the cut:

“I need somebody who speaks French, looks good in a tux and can punch through a cement wall,” Natasha announces, entering the Rogers-Barnes apartment via the fire escape window.

The Rogers-Barnes contingent, currently in some kind of… hug situation… on the couch, both look at her expectantly. “Fluent French,” she adds.

They keep looking at her.

“What, both of you?”

“Take your pick,” Barnes says. “I’m fluent in eight dialects, but you have to kickstart it and sometimes my brain damage likes to play language roulette. This one - “ he jerks a thumb at Steve “ - can speak on command, but only Parisian French from the forties.”

“Both of us can do the wall-punching,” Steve says.

“And it’s lady’s choice as to who looks better in a tux.”

Bucky buys the rope, because Steve has some kind of condition that prevents him from accessing common sense whenever he has to buy something. The shop is in Park Slope, and the tattooed salesgirl assures him it’s 100% vegan and organic and paraben gluten carcinogen free, which, okay, but Bucky would’ve been happy with “won’t give you a rash, probably”. It’s also dyed a soft petal pink. The salesgirl offered him black and red, too, which was probably a reasonable enough guess given his boots and motorcycle jacket, but there’s something about the pink that makes him go a kind of warm inside, just looking at it.

He takes it home and throws it in the washing machine with the rest of the colors, and that’s enough to make him forget about it until Steve pulls it out from their pile of clean underpants.

The now-iconic footage of Iron Man firing his repulsors at Captain America’s shield and using it as a redirect to take out six Chitauri in a moment of perfect teamwork and flawless cohesion is playing again. It looks great on TV and the clip has over nine million hits on YouTube, but what actually happened is that Tony swung around, turned his fire on Steve, Steve raised his shield to cover himself - the cameras entirely failed to capture him bellowing “STARK WHAT THE FUCK” as he tilted the shield to turn the reflected beam away from Iron Man - and it just happened to knock over as many aliens as it did without cooking one or both of them in their suits.

After Bucky watched all the available Battle of Manhattan footage, he’d rested his forehead on the kitchen table for a long five minutes. “It honestly wasn’t that bad,” Steve tried to tell him.

“Shut the fuck up, Steve,” Bucky said.

“No, honestly, after Tony flew the nuke through the wormhole - ”

“Do you even hear what’s coming out of your mouth?” Bucky demanded, sitting up, eyes wild. “How the fuck are you doing it? Where do you keep finding people crazier than you?”

“Are you including yourself in this category?”

“The world may be ready for a queer Captain America,” Bucky says wearily, “but it is not ready for Captain America’s extremely fucked-up homicidal ‘boyfriend’. And the boyfriend,” Bucky continues threateningly when Steve opens his mouth, “Is not fucking ready for the fucking security nightmare that is stepping out to the closet or whatever they call it in the twenty-first fucking century.”

Steve shuts his mouth, looks incredibly mulish for a second, then deflates all at once, curling his arm around his knees. He thunks his forehead against the side of the tub. “Sorry.”

Bucky lifts his pruny flesh hand out of the water and puts it in Steve’s hair, watching the suds drip down his collar as he takes another drag on the cigarette. “What’s that they say,” Bucky says, blowing the smoke out the window. “You gotta do you. Something like that. And I gotta do me.”

”Thought that was my job,” Steve halfheartedly tells his own knees, and Bucky rubs absently at Steve’s nape but neither of them bother to move.

“You really are sorry,” Bucky muses a few minutes later. “You’d have suggested we fuck in the tub by now with your butter-wouldn’t-melt face on otherwise.”

Steve doesn’t lift his head but Bucky can hear his grin. “Why, you wanna?”

“You feel like flooding the downstairs neighbors, Rogers?”

“They’ll survive.”

Bucky squeezes Steve’s nape and shakes him a little. “What day is it, Rogers?”

Steve groans. “Thursday.”

“That’s right. That means my week of nice boring vanilla sex isn’t over yet, and that means until midnight on Sunday you’re going to keep your trap shut about whatever the fuck the internet’s told you to try with your dick next–”

“Fuck you, you loved the thing with the belt - ”

“I’m going to desecrate his grave,” Barnes said calmly. “Ideally I would have liked to piss on his corpse, but not even that is worth digging up the carcass. Also, does anybody know where Arnim Zola is buried?”

“Under forty yards of munitions bunker rubble,” Steve said.

Barnes thought about it. “Acceptable. Pierce?”

Natasha grimaced. “They wanted to put him in Arlington–”

“–but given the fact that he’s the biggest fucking traitor to his country since Benedict fucking Arnold–” Steve interjected.

“– they buried him in his family plot instead. Glenwood Cemetery.”

Sam turned his phone to them. “About an hour from here, if google’s right about traffic.”

It took more like ninety minutes, but that was because, as flying Sam most eloquently described it, DC traffic was its own super special individual circle of hell.

Pierce’s grave was large and tastefully elaborate, the final resting place of a successful politician. The headstone was grey marble slab, Alexander Michael Pierce written across it in engraved gold script. 1948-2014. There were no flowers.

“Want me to draw a dick on it?” Steve offered.

Barnes looked at the Sharpie in his hand, then at the gravestone, then at his metal arm, then back at the gravestone. He threw the Sharpie over his shoulder and crouched down, bracing his flesh hand on the head of the tombstone.

“What are you– wow,” Steve said, as the shriek of Barnes’ metal finger carving into the marble split the air. “That’s… wow.”

“Marker washes off,” Barnes grunted, carving in another letter. “Adamantium is forever.”

“I don’t know whether to be impressed or… no, I’m definitely impressed,” Sam said. “A little scared, not gonna lie, but definitely impressed.”

Barnes sat back. “There,” he said, wiping rock dust off his finger. “Now it’s accurate.”

Alexander Michael Pierce, the gravestone now read, with NAZI TRAITOR ASSHOLE spelled out below in huge, mathematically perfect capitals right below. Barnes blew some more rock dust out of the letters and nodded in satisfaction.

“That’s about right,” Steve said critically, regarding it with hands on his hips. “You sure you don’t want me to add a dick on there? Because I could absolutely–”

“Steve,” Bucky said, standing up, “shut up for a second,” and then he grabbed Steve by the neck, kissed him on the mouth and dipped him backwards like that one picture of the sailor he’d seen from VE day.

“Bucky!” Steve exclaimed, wrenching his mouth away. “Not in a cemetery, oh my gmmmphhh–”

“Really?” Sam said behind them. “Are you for god damn serious right now?”

“Bucky,” Steve gasped, when Bucky came up for air. “Bucky, we are literally over Pierce’s dead rotting body.”

#thank u anon that is very sweet!!!!!#my writing #complete incoherence #this seems almost mean considering none of it’ll never get turned into actual fic...............ah well!!#yap yap

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healthmasterlove-blog · 5 years

Text

chocolate covered katie black bean brownies

Mouth ceased moving mid-chew the moment I started to really taste the black bean brownies. I was attempting to eat just healthy, whole food items, however a severe dessert craving had convinced me to unite black beans with flax seed, coconut oil, maple syrup, and chocolate chips to produce a brownie-shaped thing. Now, standing on a hot oven and also a bowl of steaming material, I had been putting up with the impacts. The recipe also had stated you did not need to dwell at a "fantasy world" to consume certifiably healthy brownies, as those tasted "deep, dark, rich, fudgey, along with chocolatey" --?? Together with "no flour" In fact they wore a brownish, gummy sponge using a couple of chocolate chips sprinkled at the top. I took a second snack in a futile effort to convince myself perhaps, yes, those did taste like dessert, even while I recorded the nutritious ingredients within my own mind, as though this may conserve the taste. I'd only discovered the planet of "healthy" desserts --?? A universe in that a brownie is not only a brownie, also deception works from the service of health. After surviving in this odd universe for a couple of decades, I have realized that the terminology writers utilize within those recipes shows about our tenuous association with food, femininity, and joy since it can in regards to the deliciousness of black bean brownies. Obviously, that's not stopped me by looking recipes, desperate to obtain a more "healthy" dessert which may match my cravings. I thought my sweet teeth could dissipate because I got old, however, mine has just gotten worse. I desire to eat dinner for lunch, breakfast, and lunch. At one point I started developing my own recipes with all the ideal rates of lean protein into fit fats and whole carbohydrates in a effort never to violate the scale. "Perhaps you have been aware about chocolate-covered Katie?" A fellow pudgy grandma asked me within the cookie cutter in a Jewish meet-up straight back 2011. "It'll transform your life" Over anything else, these recipes show tenuous association with food, femininity, along with joy. And, the way it did. On the web, I discovered that an whole globe of healthy dessert blogs and also the ladies who love them Desserts With Advantages, Ambitious Kitchen, Minimalist Baker, That Cake Chick. However, the reigning "queen of healthy desserts" is Katie Higgins, that runs a site named chocolate-covered Katie. She boasts nearly 20,000 followers on Twitter, 156,000 on Insta-gram, and a fresh novel that made Amazon's list of the greatest movies of 2015. I guessed she'd to learn what she had been doing. After Higgins's information, I attempted "healthy" cookie-dough dip, whose recipe reassuringly was featured in Bon Appetit, Shape, Glamour, and much more. I dutifully combined ginger, nut butter, almond honey, milkand baking soda, and salt along with chick peas --?? Wait, chick peas?! It appears to be a toddler hauled his full bowl of baby food to some heap of specialization hummus and a chef made a decision to promote the endproduct. But somehow, its own candy stickiness works. I mightn't call it cookie bread, however: It is similar to compact nut-butter with lots of chips. The very first time that I left it, then I licked the spoon, then and then your whole bowl. Higgins says that she does not wish to distinguish between healthy and indulgent, at a society obsessed with cutting back on refined sugar bad fats, and carbs that are simple, the nutrient part could be the largest fascination in these recipes: They are always sugar free, fermented, and vegetarian, and also typically the very widely used ones hide veggies such as spinach and beets. Why? We millennials wouldn't guzzle some thing like slim fast: The thought of putting artificial flavorings and chemical compounds inside our own bodies turns our stomachs. As an alternative, you wish to consume whole what are beneficial for our own bodies but taste such as piecaken (cake with layers of dish baked in to it) and inhale things from scratch at one moment or 2. For individuals who register to healthy-dessert ingestion, it isn't about carbs; it's all about entire well being. As stories and studies demonstrate a calorie is not a calorie isn't a calorie: The high caliber of the calories you are eating things more compared to the dimension itself. Higgins recently demonstrated that which she eats at one day: three healthy desserts and 3,000 calories. "This green frosting takes three minutes to create, and in addition, it counts for inch of your everyday vegetables" exclaims That Cake Chick about her three-ingredient avocado icing. The recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa banana-bread on Ambitious Kitchen "No oil, butter, milk and made out of healthful gluten-free quinoa & oat flour!" Shape magazine released "1-1 Crazy Delicious Desserts using Hidden well balanced meals," including beet-chocolate pudding, cauliflower rice batter, purple cabbage cake, along with eggplant brownies. (Yes, even eggplant brownies.) These recipes are necessarily sugar free, fermented, and vegetarian, as well as typically the very well-known ones hide veggies such as lettuce and beets. "I will love more comprehending it is fantastic for mepersonally," Deborah Schipper, the founder of this Cake Cleanse diet writes her site, where she's motivates one to bypass the juice cleansing and eat healthful snacks (recipes) Twice every day. Schipper has expunged all processed sugar free and gluten to make the most of her energy and general wellbeing, writing, "Cake Cleanse is about making healthy foods taste good and makes it possible to with just how to take care of cravings" There is an inherent psychology for the preoccupation with healthy eating. After taking a look at some of those recipes, food and nutritionist researcher guru Marion Nestle explained, "everyone loves desserts, also in the event that you're able to provide desserts a wellbeing Ha-Lo, you may convince your self which they don't have any calories, are still advantageous to youpersonally, and also you're able to gratify into the maximum." (Taken too much, it offers a chilling name: orthorexia, or even a unhealthy fixation with eating. Thomas Dunn, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Northern Colorado, says it is all about "treating the human system using only the purest nutritional elements.") However, in a variety of ways, our obsession with all goodforyou foods feels more social than human. Millennials save money energy, time, and money on food than any generation before us It is this generation's stone. A number folks are attracted to restaurants and chefs the others to recipes, but others for the most recent super-food. However around the board, culturally, we are mesmerized by the nutritious chances of food. It's too easy to spend time searching through food pornography around Insta-gram, specially if photos of coffee-fudge frosting made from cashews, espresso, stevia, along with walnut syrup seem to be creamy swirls of scattering beneath a luscious brownie. Just as Dana on the Minimalist Baker exclaims, "Hooray for healthier deception!" Perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority of the recipes seem disgustingly counter-intuitive, which explains the reason on the blogs, there exists a normal story to demonstrate that the desserts taste great: Girl makes dessert. Brings said dessert to bash, at which she leaves it upon the desk with out an indication. Everybody else wolfs the dessert and can be shocked to learn it really is, in reality, manufactured from chick peas, lettuce, avocado, Greek yogurt, or oats. "I can not inform you just how many girls said, 'Ugh I gotta stop eating the material,"" Higgins writes her site about the healthful cookie dough. "After I finally confessed that the dip has been healthy (and that it comprised chick peas!)) , nobody could trust in me" Think about desserts whilst the grownup corollary to parents sneaking broccoli in their kiddies' mac and cheese. While I really don't love several of this terminology around healthy desserts --?? Occasionally, it appears to feed in to the societal anxiety that women feel to be lean, to withstand healthy food items, to be demure --?? Based in my adventures, I also do not see anything inherently wrong with all . Think about these because the grownup corollaries to parents sneaking broccoli in their kiddies' mac and cheese. For a number folks dessert-lovers, it is usually going to become a great deal more pleasing to eat a cake made from bananas compared to a genuine banana. By eating some thing which resembles a decadent dessert we plan to meet this appetite whilst staying true to the health trope. Since Higgins states, her recipes have been "a far healthy alternative, while tasting only as gloomy." After much trial and error, I will report that a number of these other recipes do taste good. Simply take the microwaveable one-minute chocolate cake at a mug --?? Or, as I want to call it, the millennial production's soufflé. It's essentially a flourless chocolate cake with a little bit of batter concealing at the midst and simmer at the shirt --?? An easy method to gratify guiltlessly, not just as the ingredients are beneficial to you personally and the recipe includes builtin portion controller but also since it's only enough for a single individual. "Indulge, no strings attached!" Says Desserts With Benefits writer Jessica about identical recipes on her website, using phrases commonly related to casual sex to eating supper. The thought of healthful decadence, or decadent healthiness, might seem weird for some, however only like Tinder and the thought of "swiping directly" have entered the main stream, thus possess any of these odd recipes and ingredients. (The mug cake me-me is breaking up the internet because we talk) Bakers and chefs are now using different flours and sugars so as to add depth and texture of flavor. Untitled, the restaurant at the Whitney Museum, utilizes fermented bread to produce that which some have called the very best chocolate chip cookie from the big apple, also even Momofuku Milk Tavern has begun baking a cookie cutter with no butter, legumes, milk, or even extra sugar. "Instead of visiting because substitutions," says Claire Ptak, that uses rye, spelt, and buckwheat flours in addition to agave nectar and hands sugar in her London-based bakery Violet Cakes, "they've much to offer themselves. I take advantage of them since the starting place and find what to match their own taste" I actually don't know if she would have the ability to obtain something to subtract the taste of black beans, but also for many years I have been ineffective, my experiments producing heaps of dishes of plaster, putty, or even plastic out of the oven. Until this is, once I followed up a muffin recipe about Ambitious Kitchen which entails for dark beans, coconut oil, cocoa powder, maple syrup, eggs, and vanilla. I pulled off the muffin tin from this toaster, knowing to not expect much. However, those were all different: cakey, dumb, yummy --?? Way over edible. In reality, I ate three, and nearly did not need to feign in any way. Eureka! I am likely to premiere them at a friend's party in a few days: I would bet nobody will guess they are eating something healthy. Read the full article

#blackbeanbrownies #brownies #chocolatecoveredkatieblackbeanbrownies

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nadiafayrosemelham-blog · 6 years

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I’ve retreated to the gorgeous place that is Uluwatu, which is about an hour South-West from Kuta in Bali. I’m sitting at a soothing cafe that preaches the whole gluten-free, dairy free, vegan, vegetarian, green smoothie bowl, catholic school girl, yoga head vibe, and I’m sipping on my green ginger pineapple juice whilst I wait for my lentil burger. Have I mentioned that I’m wearing hippy pants? Yeah, I’m wearing hippy pants. Things really couldn’t get more chill if I tried. I spent the day lounging on the beach, reading my book, and munching on a fruit topped smoothie bowl overlooking the surfers ride the waves in the ocean below. This my friends, is solo travel at it’s finest.

After spending the past week in the good company of Corey and filling our time with endless adventure, I was ready to once again take some time to spend in my own good company. Solo travel is a unique thing. Everyone initially decides on solo travel for a different reason, but once you start the adventure you soon realise everyone is 100% in it together and you are the furthest thing from ‘solo’ that you possibly could be.

My plan from the start of my trip has been to make no plan, and it has been the best mind-set I could have possibly set off with. I barely did any research before starting my trip. I kept it very basic and figured I would research each stop as I moved around but this has rarely been the case. Once you start your journey and meet so many new people with a whole world full of knowledge, you really don’t need any other form of research. It is the nicest feeling to be inspired and guided by other’s adventures, and just see where you end up!

It is important to talk to anyone and everyone, about anything and everything! That person sitting across from you in the hostel common room is a wealth of knowledge and they are more than happy to impart their wisdom on you. From the first hostel I set foot in I’ve been greeted with friendly faces and familiar souls who are only too willing to start conversation and learn about your grand adventure. You find the best hostels, the most adventurous hidden hikes, the funkiest bars, the coolest cafes, and the lushest sandy beaches by doing this. Once you hit that backpacker trail, there is no better way to travel then through the guidance of your fellow travelling buddies.

One of the nicest aspects of going it alone, is the freedom you have. It is so nice to have complete freedom within and control over your day-to-day life. When you’re surrounded by your family, friends, and colleagues it becomes all too easy to fill your hours with things you may or may not want to be doing. They know exactly how to twist your arm to get you out for a few too many beverages, or exactly what to say to get you to masterchef up a nice meal for them (not that these times aren’t wonderful, but please, read on). When you solo travel, every detail of your day is according to your watch. It is my favourite feeling to wake up each day and decide what I want to do, what I want to eat, where I want to go, and when I want to do it all! It is refreshing to think you might end up in Chiang Mai in a few days, then suddenly change your mind and end up in Cambodia the next day. It’s amazing to be able to extend your stay at the lush hotel in Legian because you’re beyond comfy in your nice warm bed. It’s exhilarating to scroll through Sky Scanner and randomly book that stupidly cheap flight to Sri Lanka.

Let me warn you though, making the leap is not all sunshine and rainbows. Have you ever considered solo travel or mentioned the idea to someone, and have been shutdown with fear and uncertainty straight away? I have. Before departing for your adventure everyone will instil the fear of god in you with the following: Won’t you be lonely? I don’t think it’s safe for a young female by herself. What if you get lost or something happens to you? Have you seen the news? What if you hate it?? These questions are all valid, and they all come from a concerned, caring place. But let me answer them for you… No, no, nope, haven’t no, and no. The real answer is you are going to be wonderful! Keep your head on your shoulders, be wise, and you will have the time of your life!

You’ve probably seen those articles scattered around on social media that rant on about ‘Your 20’s are for you, let them be your selfish years’. I’ve pretty much read the title of the article, and ran with it. I refuse to listen to anything else because damn straight your 20’s should be your selfish years! You’ve gotta go be young and wild and free while you can. Drink too many Chang’s in Thailand, get a spontaneous tattoo in Bali, enjoy a summer romance in whatever country it’s currently summer in.

To be honest I’ve never been comfortable with commitment (believe it or not). I’ve never had a phone plan; I want to be able to flee the country at a moments notice and not have to worry about weaselling my way out of the contract. I’ve never taken out a loan; anything I’ve ever bought I’ve saved for in advance. I’ve never leased a unit for longer then 6 months or committed to a life long pet. In fact, locking myself into a 12 month gym membership is the biggest commitment I’ve ever made, and I can’t even begin to tell you the pep-talk I had to give myself before signing that paper! I’m a natural saver thanks to my parents, and I’m always popping some money in the bank even if I don’t quite know what I’m saving for yet. Only once have I been shopping and spent my whole pay check on things I decided I wanted that day, and only because I felt like it had to be done once in my life. The point is don’t commit just yet… save your dollars so that you can really give the selfish years a good crack! In fact, be extremely selfish from the day you hit 20, to the day before your themed 30th birthday bash where your friends will start dressing as embarrassingly old pop artists from the 2000’s as you sit in the toilet stall shedding tears because you’ve realised the time has come to get your shit together.

For some, solo travel and even travel in general is just not quite cut out for them. So I’m definitely not saying that your living your life all wrong unless your out travelling the world. But if you’ve got a lil’ bit of travel bug underneath your skin, itching to escape… then sweet baby Jesus let the travel bug have it’s way! No amount of antibiotics or home remedies or faux fur cushion covers from Zara Home will cure this bug. The only cure is a plane ticket to everywhere you’ve never been.

Now if I’ve just about convinced you to head out tomorrow and buy an inspirational scratch map from Typo and collect every single travel book from Flight Centre’s shelves, then my job is just about done. If I haven’t, then your probably still a little cautious about going it solo. So let me ask… is it safety your worried about? Don’t fret, there are millions of friends to be made on the road who will also become your safety net. Wherever your going, your not the only one! Make travel buddies along the way and stick with them if your feeling sketched out by a person or a place, then once you feel safe again, move on and make new travel buddies. If safety isn’t the issue, are you worried about loneliness? Let me assure you there is no possible way you could feel lonely when every single person that you are surrounded by shares the same passion and mind-set as you do. I actually believe that it’s more likely to feel lonely in your very own home then it is to feel lonely on the road. The saying ‘home is where the heart is’ could never be more true than it is right now. In fact, it makes perfect sense.

Of course it is only natural to feel scared and frightened and nervous and excited about the thought of travelling S.O.L.O. as all of these feelings come hand in hand with leaping out of your comfort zone. Believe it or not it’s actually called your comfort zone because these feelings don’t exist inside of it! However, there is a rational solution for every single doubt inside your head. There is a google search for each and every question your uncertain of, guaranteed. There is a way where there is a will for every dollar you do not have. So if you are willing and able… then leap like Greg Rutherford did in the 2012 Olympic Long Jump Championship, you will never regret it.

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healthmasterlove-blog · 5 years

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chocolate covered katie black bean brownies