Have you ever had trottole pasta? Trottole pasta is a curly-cue pasta shape that looks like a tight coil. Its shape clings to pasta sauce, so you get a perfect distribution of pasta:sauce with every bite. This recipe for trottole pasta is topped with a spicy-ish shrimp marinara sauce. The shrimp marinara sauce is a tomato base, with optional spice, and some quickly cooked shrimp in it for protein. Top this pasta with fresh basil and Parmesan cheese, and you have dinner ready in less than 30 min!
…Mimi Newman Recipe Archive
My recipes, my self: the cycle of indulgence and restriction
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CW: if talk of dieting or ED is triggering or even just annoying to you, please close and move on!
Do other people who work professionally, or side-professionally, in food also have a complicated relationship with food?
I don’t have an insecure romantic attachment style, but I do have a weird relationship with food, made more strange by the fact that it’s apart of my professional acumen today.
Some people grow up in households with mediocre meals, where a primary caregiver made overboiled brussels sprouts served with a well-done, leathery pork chop with a Capri-Sun to drink. Their motivation, if they are into food or cooking now, might be remedial — to make up for 18 years of joyless food.
I grew up in a household of people obsessed with food. Good food. Foodie food. White European-centric, rustic, Italian/Spanish/Mexican/California home cooking.
Caregivers awakened to the gospel of Julia Child and Alice Waters, we made frequent Sunday morning farmer’s market trips. Creamy brie and Chardonnay was snacked on while cooking. Heirloom tomatoes and basil were grown in the garden, harvested in the summertime, and drizzled with rich olive oil and good balsamic. We weren’t super rich – privileged yes, 1% no – food and cooking was just the priority, the main hobby, the thing that time and money was invested in.
My motivation for writing about the world through the lens of food and sharing recipes comes from this abundance, but lately it has felt more loaded.
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Creativity, Income and Personal Power
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Let me tell you a story about asking for a raise.
In 2016, freshly laid off from a seed-stage VC-backed startup, I was unemployed, I had just moved to NYC, and I needed a job. Burned from going out on a limb to a venture that soon proved to be the tech equivalent of a liquefaction zone, I was craving structure. A PR agency I had worked at 2 jobs previously reached out and offered me a role. The catch was that it was a 30% pay cut. Sure, I said. I needed a job.
The first few months I worked back at this agency I was so stunned from the startup falling apart and getting laid off, not to mention the shock of moving across the country while our nation’s democracy fell apart, I’ll be the first to admit that I was kind of clocking in/out. Not delinquent; just not my usual sparkly self. As I regained my mojo though, I felt myself increasingly coming back into my own — my ideas were stronger, my PowerPoint decks sharper, my insights on point. I finagled my way onto a new team within this agency and did some of the best work of my career to date. I identified trends that revealed cultural undercurrents my client was unaware of. I planned a media tour for my client that was objectively baller. I presented a plan for reinvigorating my client’s consumer communications to be more collective-oriented, visually fresh, and in touch with the culture – that too got rave reviews. By 2018, I felt like I was adding value way above my previously negotiated salary, and I knew for a fact the work I contributed to had increased revenue for the agency— so I asked for a 15% raise. This raise would also allow me to actually pay all my bills and have some spending money at the end of it — living in NYC/LA is just more expensive!
Nothing happened. I got flat-out ignored. I got a great annual review, and… no raise.
It was like working on a beautiful hollandaise sauce, and then it breaking right at the end. All that work – it just fell apart. Feeling wronged and craving context, I set up time with HR to talk about it.
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Hero worship: the toxic founder myth we fell for
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Think of a chef. You are likely imagining a rough and tumble sort, tatted, gruff. There’s a deep forehead crease no amount of Botox could fix, and they might have just snapped at a line cook for overcooking the sirloin.
…Healthy Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad
Here’s a recipe for a shaved brussels sprouts salad, that’s super easy to make, as well as low carb/keto and healthy. It’s surprisingly filling — the brussels sprouts are very hearty, and the addition of shaved parmesan, Castelvetrano olives, and toasted nuts really rounds out this shaved brussels sprouts salad recipe. Make it for dinner alongside some roasted garlic bread and serve with some red wine for date night!
…Roasted Garlic Bread on Baguette
Here’s a recipe for roasted garlic bread, made on a sourdough baguette. This recipe could just as easily be for French bread – the proportions work for any long baguette-shaped bread. Roasting garlic infuses a sweet, umami flavor into your garlic bread spread that adds so much depth of flavor! This is a perfect side dish to a hearty salad like this shaved brussels sprouts salad – serve with some red wine, and you have yourself a dinner. I’m obsessed with this baguette garlic bread recipe.
…The Best Banana Skillet Cake
Here’s a recipe for a moist banana cake, seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg. It comes with an optional recipe for a coffee-flavored frosting to go on top. What makes this banana cake so moist and delicious is caramelizing the bananas first in a pan. This technique is a great thing to do when your bananas are not totally ripe. It activates the natural sugars in the banana and makes your banana cake delicious and moist. This banana chai cake recipe will become a baking staple in your house!
…Heirloom Tomato Mozzarella Salad
Here’s a recipe for an heirloom tomato mozzarella salad — perfect for the heirloom tomatoes we see in July and August. Use this recipe as a template for any tomato salad you like — it’s very versatile and flexible to whatever herb or cheese you want to use with it. With bright tomatoes, creamy mozzarella, fresh herbs, and the perfect mix of olive oil, salt, and vinegar, this tomato salad will be a hit. It’s naturally gluten-free and keto, as well, with only 1.5 net carbs per serving.
…On Goya Foods and Hispanic Food Marketing in the US
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…On the LA Times Food Section
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…On Adam Rapoport, Access and Credit in Food Media
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…On the globalization of food and privilege in the kitchen
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…On hating cooking
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…The Best Keto Margarita Recipe
Here’s a recipe for a keto margarita. It uses fresh lime juice, a homemade keto simple syrup, and tequila — that’s it. By forgoing the traditional ingredient of triple sec in a margarita, and instead making a homemade keto simple syrup, you will have a margarita that is super refreshing for happy hour with only 4 net carbs per serving.
…Keto Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
This recipe for Keto Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies is so good! Almond flour creates a really light and fluffy chocolate chip cookie. The recipe also doesn’t spread, so it is a fairly thick cookie! I made these chocolate chip cookies lower carb by using my favorite sugar substitute and low-sugar chocolate chips, so these fit into a keto diet. This recipe yields 1 dozen chocolate chip cookies with 4 net carbs per cookie.
…Grilled Branzino
Here’s a recipe for a Mexican flavor-inspired grilled branzino recipe. Branzino, also known as bronzini, is a Mediterranean fish that is small enough to grilled whole on a grill. It’s really delicious grilled with a slice of lime or lemon inside and then served with a flavorful salsa, since branzino is a fairly mild white fish. Make this recipe when you’re looking for a Mexican fish recipe!
…Mexican Watermelon Salad
Here’s a recipe for a Mexican flavors-inspired watermelon salad. It has watermelon, radish, cotija, and lime in it — super refreshing for a summer dinner or picnic. The recipe is very scalable and can be made for as little as 2 hungry people and as many as you want.
…What Can I Cook with Rhubarb this year?
Here is a list of recipes that you can cook with rhubarb. Rhubarb appears for a few weeks in the springtime, normally around late April/early May, and you can cook with it to make pies, cakes, compotes, and drinks. Cooking with rhubarb is definitely one of the things I look forward to every spring.
…Rhubarb Simple Syrup
Here’s a recipe for a rhubarb simple syrup, with an option to make it keto. Rhubarb reduces down beautifully into a compote, and there is a leftover syrup sauce that has tons of rhubarb flavor and is great for flavoring beverages, like this rhubarb gin sour.
…Keto Lamb Meatballs with Chimichurri
Here’s a recipe for keto lamb meatballs, seasoned with cumin and coriander, and served on a yogurt moat with chimichurri and fresh arugula. These lamb meatballs are a really good party appetizer, shared dish, or snack. This keto lamb recipe is low carb friendly, with 5 net carbs per serving.
…Orange & Rosemary Roasted Salmon (Healthy, Easy, Low Carb)
This orange and rosemary roasted salmon recipe is so easy and you can use any citrus and any herb you want. I used cara cara oranges and rosemary, but you could use lemon and thyme, or meyer lemons and marjoram, or lemon/lemon verbena — the combos are endless. Make this super easy roasted salmon recipe when you want to prepare a flavorful salmon dinner that is impressive + requires little effort.
…Low Sugar Rhubarb Compote (Easy, Healthy, Keto)
Here’s a recipe for a rhubarb compote that is lower in sugar but maintains that delicious sweet-tart balance that rhubarb is known for. Using just water, rhubarb, and sugar or a sugar substitute, this rhubarb compote recipe is ready in about 20 minutes and is delicious with yogurt, ice cream, on toast, or as a chutney of sorts with pork chops or chicken.
…Keto-Friendly Chili Oil Noodles
If you’re a chili oil noodle lover but are trying to cut down on net carbs, here is a keto/low carb chili oil noodle recipe to satisfy your cravings. Using shirataki noodles and your favorite chili oil, this dish is spicy, cool, and crunchy with the addition of cucumbers and peanuts. One serving of these has 2 net carbs.
…A Simple Grilled Zucchini with Ricotta Side Dish
This is a super simple side dish recipe. It’s grilled zucchini with ricotta, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. That’s it! Make this easy zucchini side dish when you’re looking for a low carb/keto side dish or when you have way too much zucchini at home.
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