February: A Strange Month in a Blog Post

Hi Guys! 

How are you? 

I had a planned a celebratory mood for this month’s newsletter, until February 23rd, when everything I wanted to talk about became suddenly trivial, superficial, unnecessary.

Since the age of 10, in 1992, when from the coast of Puglia I witnessed boats of Albanian refugees crossing the Adriatic Sea fleeing war, Third World War has been one of my biggest fears. 

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I don’t know why, whether because in Italy we study war a lot, the history of it, so that — hopefully — history will not repeat itself, or because I am a woman and I always fear rape, which is, for women and girls, a direct consequence of war. But when Russia attacked Ukraine, that fear was triggered all over again. I went back to 1992, and to feeling the impeding doom that, to this day, I live with, what I learned to call, in therapy, negative compound.

I want to tell you all the good stuff that happened this month, but I want you to take the paragraphs that follow, not as indifference or superficiality on my part, but as a fleeting moment of respite, a glimpse of positive, which is necessary if we are to actively help those in need, whether they are refugees, neighbors, friends, or family members, if we are to make our voice heard, if we are to do our part.

I must start the good news with the book, that came out on February 8th, and that has been so far a success! It was pick of the week for Publishers Weekly, that defined it a “stellar debut”. If you have’t already, you can buy it here.

If you have bought it already, it would be very helpful to receive a review on Amazon and Bernes & Noble, or wherever you have purchased it. Exclusive signed hard copies will be soon available at the beautiful store Lost and Found, in Hollywood, hopefully before the end of this week.

My Valentines’ Day KTLA segment about plant-based aphrodisiac food was a triumph and I hope to do more of those in the future. You can watch it here if you missed it. The book launch at the Hollywood Farmers Market was another triumph: it went so well that I may add a second date soon.

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In order to offer samples of my recipes for people to try, I baked everything and prepped for two days before the event. I turned the camera off, played The Cure for hours on shuffle, and baked, cooked, created. I was alone in the kitchen and I was in a blissful meditative state I can only find when cooking.

I couldn’t have done all this without my wonderful friend Alison. With her company Jybe, in fact, she supported me and the book, by joining forces and being my rock. Please, do check out her amazing work in eliminating single-use plastic from this world.

On the big day, the 20th of February, people loved the food so much that they wanted to buy trays of my hazelnut tegole with vegan buttermilk and a pinch of turmeric. The menu offered also: lemon crackers, earl grey almond cookies, apple pie in a cookie, peanut butter and jelly cookies with rosemary, and sweet taralli with red wine and caramelized fennel seed, all vegan, all so good, all from the book.

Parents and teachers from Catherine’s pre-school showed up, so did friends, and lots, lots, lots of people who discovered me there for the first time. The Seela.org team was welcoming, helpful, generous, loving; I would not change one thing of that day.

It took me days to recover, however. I gave it all, and I have to learn how to regulate and balance my energy level. 

But how happy it made me to meet friends from the Instagram show in person! I want to work on doing more of these events in other parts of the country, to meet as many of you as I can. 

And here we get to the end for now.

I know this newsletter is dry and short, but this is all I can give you at this time. I think I am also feeling a little dry. And February is a shorter month. I have been really busy with the book, the filming, the editing, parenting, promoting, creating, figuring it all out, and I have barely updated this website. But rest assured that every word your read is always 100% real and authentic.

I think I must go back to stop hustling so much in life and just let it flow, this is the intention I am sharing with you today, to be held accountable when I see you again, at the end of March.

Now, a few updates:

I went to my first show on Friday; Ben played with Eddie Vedder last week; it was amazing! Not ready for crowds, though, I was lucky to watch from the side of the stage, and surrounded by very few people. Catherine is still unvaccinated and we are being as safe as we were a month ago.

February has been a month of migraines and headaches, of hormonal stuff going on, and of cold sores.

We re-landscaped the garden, transformed it into a drought-tolerant oasis and I love it.

On February 19th, we celebrated 7 years of marriage.

The website got a little makeover: go enjoy the new colors.

Love,
Alice