We Harvest What We Plant

Hi guys,

How are you?

This month went by so fast and got so insanely busy that I am writing this newsletter on the very last day of it.

Today, April 30th, I will be baking and cooking all day for my Farmers Market day tomorrow (please come visit, I will be selling hardcovers of my cookbook at a special Farmers Market price, and presenting brand new samples of my recipes), but I wanted to check in with you and share a few things I have learned this month.

ps. I will be at the corner of Selma and Ivar from 8am to 1pm.

April has been a month of work non-stop and mostly solo parenting, because of Ben’s traveling. So, pushed to the limit, it was a full immersion into life lessons I thought in my pocket already.

When Ben was in Spain, I had one of the most challenging weeks with Catherine: we fought all the time, it was a constant challenge and bargaining, battles, testing, irritation, frustration, anger, disappointment, exhaustion.

It took me the entire week that followed and talking to some very special women in my life, to understand what had happened, and that it was mostly my doing:

1. I had not taken care of myself. I worked obsessively creating content, reels on Instagram, and recipes, cooking and hustling, doing interviews and obsessing over increasing productivity to the point of my body crashing and my mind crumbling.
2. So self-obsessed and self-centered on my work and my needs, with Catherine for the entire week, I had put out in our world negativity and rush, frustration and discomfort. Guess what a 4-year old responded with?

On Tuesday, April 26th, I celebrated 12 years in America.

When thinking about these 12 years, I couldn’t help but noticing all the times that I put out in the world fear, hate, self-harm, self-pity, desperation, jealousy, pride, greed. Then, I took a look at all the other times when I did the opposite, responding to life with kindness, gratitude, love, pause, a smile.

I could clearly see when my life in America changed for the better, and it had nothing to do with money, house, husband, book deals. My life got better when I put myself in charge of my output in life. Some people call this manifesting, I call it harvesting the fruits of what I plant.

I think that, this month, I got tired of harvesting grim.

We can make this choice every day, and every day turn our life around.

Faced with perspective, I was able to let go of many resentments; faced with opportunity, I was able to go for the learning, the accepting and the trusting rather than the war, the internal one that corrodes every bit of me, slowly and painfully, and the one with those about me, my daughter included.

The week that followed, turned out to be one of the most beautiful ones with Catherine. And I was the only moral adjustment that needed to happen.

A few updates:

• I held my first private cooking workshop on Zoom, and so many people bought the tickets for it! It was a success, so there will be two more coming up, in May and June, maybe one from Italy as well, we’ll see. But for now, THANK YOU to all those who purchased the ticket and participated, cooked with me, and made the evening a magical one.
• On May 7th, my interview with Marci Hopkins will air on WLNY and also streams on HULU. I will share the link in next month’s newsletter.
• I have started a new collaborations with Seela.org and the Hollywood Farmers Market: every week, I create for them an exclusive recipe, as we work toward changing the old idea farmers markets are a privilege, expensive, and only for the few, while highlighting California’s specialty crops.
• Several of my recipes were featured on One Green Planet, and my orecchiette with broccoli rabe was N.1 pick of the day in their vegan section.
• There will be no show on Monday May 9th — with Ben gone for another long stretch — I am taking the long weekend off and heading to a resort with Catherine and with one of my best friends, and her daughter. I need a break (and a long massage).
• My Madri’s Rice Salad was featured on Well Defined.
• We went to Joshua Tree for spring break: loved it!

See you in next month,

Love,

Alice