Tag: dessert

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Sweet

Banana Milkshake

one and a half slices banana milkshake protein powder perelel recipe
one and a half slices recipes local delicious food

Banana Milkshake

I think this is obvious.

But perhaps it is not.

And a run-in with a new acquaintance recently reminded me…

of the simple banana milkshake.

🍌

what you need

1 frozen banana, ideally cut into chunks

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 scoop vanilla protein powder of choice *see note

1 cup almond milk

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

An additional 2 teaspoons maple syrup

*I’ve gone back and forth on protein powders over the years. Currently, I use a protein powder on gym days for an extra boost. There are two that I like and they are both incredibly easy on my stomach with gentle texture and taste.

🍌

1. Perelel Health Triple Support Protein Powder is a plant-based (pea) protein powder with creatine and prebiotic fiber. It has a plain taste and my stomach loves it. It works exceptionally well in this shake.

2. Ancient Nutrition Vanilla Bone Broth Protein Powder is an animal-based protein powder with collagen and a slightly sweeter taste. It emulsifies very well and wins best texture award. It makes this shake slightly sweeter.

how to make it

Utensil: Blender

Place frozen banana, almond milk, and maple syrup into a blender and blend until blended. BLEND UNTIL BLENDED.

Whip the heavy whipping cream into medium peaks, add maple syrup, and whip a moment longer to incorporate.

Spoon cream onto top of milkshake. Optional garnish of freshly grated nutmeg and lemon zest.

*Note: You can make this shake with a date instead of the maple syrup, which I love, but it does ruin the completely white vanilla-ness of the shake unless you soak the date for a while in hot water beforehand so it can completely blend with the milk.

**You can also add some Greek yogurt for additional protein and/or chia seeds for fiber.

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Sweet

Olive Oil Brownies

one and a half slices chocolate cacao bean to bar bean-to-bar beantobar local recipe
one and a half slices local simple recipes food

Olive Oil Brownies

one and a half slices chocolate cacao bean to bar bean-to-bar beantobar local recipe

I don’t really like brownies. But once a year, I’ve got to have them. 

I’ve made these twice so far this year and, I’ve got to say, the recipe is narrowing in on perfect. Chewy but not gooey. Crispy on the edges. Not too oily. Not too buttery. Maybe just slightly too sweet. And, ofc, no seed oils.

It’s got olive oil for skin and health, and tahini for the luteal phase. Texture 10/10

I mean, just look at that crumb.

For those chocolate-y days, you can have this in 45 minutes (you know, the days where your mother buys you a chocolate book for Christmas that makes you crave chocolate things every time you pick it up and you’re the slowest reader ever so it takes you four months to finish it and by the time you’re finished you’ve eaten more chocolate in those four months than you typically do in a year but hey at least it’s better quality chocolate)?

Book recommendation below. Then, the recipe.

one and a half slices chocolate cacao bean to bar bean-to-bar beantobar local recipe

what you need

*note: for baking chocolate and cacao powder,  my go-tos are Guittard and Navitas

2 large eggs, at room temp

1/2 cup (75oz) dark or semi-sweet chocolate

1/2 cup coconut sugar (can sub brown sugar)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons almond flour

1/2 cup cacao powder 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup tahini

1/4 cup good olive oil (that you would eat)

(optional) flaky sea salt, fresh nutmeg, and whipping cream

how to make it

Method: stovetop

Heat oven to 350.

In a saucepan, combine your tahini, olive oil, and chocolate over medium heat. Stir until smooth and glossy (do not let it get too hot), and remove from heat.

In separate bowl, mix cacao powder, almond flour, and salt together. Set aside. 

In yet another separate bowl, beat both sugars, vanilla, and eggs together with a hand mixer for 5 minutes until very fluffy. Pour in the cooled chocolate mixture and stir until combined. Fold in the dry mixture until just combined.

Do not overmix.

Pour into a parchment-lined baking dish of choice (an 8×8 works great. mine was a little smaller, so the brownies a little thicker, so the cooking time +5 mins).

Top with flaky sea salt. Cook in a warm oven for ~24 minutes or until top is cracking. Let cool for 30 minutes before cutting. 

pro tip: like this needs leveling up but do it anyway. take some heavy whipping cream and whip it with some coconut sugar or maple syrup until soft peaks form. spoon it over your brownie and, HERE’S THE HOT TAKE, grate some fresh nutmeg on top. this is a game changer. a flavor changer. an all around good idea.

after all, few things are made worse by freshly grated nutmeg. 

chocolate
Categories
Sweet

Crispy Waffles

one and a half slices local simple recipes food

Crispy Norwegian Waffles

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I like crispy waffles. The fluffy, puffy, overly-leavened Belgian waffle never did it for me. As it turns out, there are many different kinds of waffles: Brussels waffles (puffy), American waffles (think Holiday Inn breakfast), Liege waffles (half-formed super sweet waffle-cookies), Galette or Stroop Waffles (the thin, crispy, sometimes caramel-filled cookies). Until the X French Toast experience, adventures in waffling was my favorite morningtime breakfast activity. Oddly enough, my preferred waffle is a crispy version of a Norwegian or Scandinavian waffle.

A Norwegian waffle is typically made in a heart-shaped iron and is thinner than most waffles. Upon discovering my preference, I was overjoyed to poshly note my predilection for a Scandavian culinary experience. Until the Piemaker informed me that my waffle preference mapped to the all-American Waffle House waffle. I’ve still never been to a Waffle House (don’t want to get mugged), but Googling has confirmed that, indeed, I like Waffle House waffles. Without further ado, I give you my recipe for perfectly crispy, Norwegian, Scandinavian, or Waffle House waffles (made in a heart-shaped, diamond-laden waffle iron from the 1970s, courtesy of the parents).  

what you need

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

Dashes of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup cornstarch (this is what makes them crispy!)

1 cup whole milk (non-dairy milk will work as well)

1/3 cup melted coconut oil

1 egg (this is also what makes them crispy!)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

how to make it

Mix dry ingredients together well. 

Add all wet ingredients and whisk until combined.

Let batter stand 10 minutes (allowing baking powder and soda to activate and bubble). 

Pour ~1/2 cup batter into waffle iron and cook until desired doneness (for me, that’s between 4 and 5 minutes). 

Top with maple syrup, berries, berry compote, and/or fresh whipped cream. 

Note: You are going for near perfect fill levels when pouring batter into your waffle iron. Overfill and your waffles will be spongy and undercooked. Underfill and the top portion of the iron won’t make contact with the batter. Both cases will result in waffles that are not as crispy as desired.

Backstory

Doing a PhD brought many new rituals into my life – not all of them welcome and many of them nocturnal. One such ritual was the routine production of these heart waffles between the hours of 1:00am and 4:00am. The Piemaker made these for me when I couldn’t sleep or when I just had to get up and keep my hands on a keyboard through the wee hours of morning twilight. These waffles were one of many things that got me through. They became synonymous with crisis. Bad day, waffles. Can’t sleep, waffles. Impossible due dates, waffles. Disheartening advisor meeting, waffles. Today, I can happily say these waffles have returned to a symbol of happiness and calm mornings. But every once in a while, like this morning when the alarm sounded at 4:30am to write a particularly pernicious proposal for work, I make it until mid-morning, underslept and overcaffeinated, and turn to Norwegian waffles. For other PhD-related stories, see Mongolian Beef Fried Rice. 

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Cocktail

Butterbeer (iced)

one and a half slices harry potter recipe butterbeer hogwarts winter grog
one and a half slices local simple recipes food

Chilled, Foamy Butterbeer

one and a half slices harry potter recipe butterbeer hogwarts winter grog

Whether you like your butterbeer hot, iced, boozy, or clean, I’ve finally got the recipe for you. Personally, I see no way to drink it other than hot and boozy.

#youreawizardharry

🪄

what you need

1 bottle of cream soda [My brand of choice is Virgil’s Vanilla Cream]

2 oz butterscotch liquor chilled [My brand of choice is Dr. McGillicuddy’s which is, admittedly, quite difficult to find but quite worth the effort of finding it]

*note the use of “liquor” over “schnapps”

1/3 cup whipping cream

1 tablespoon sugar

a dash of cinnamon

freshly ground nutmeg for topping

1/2 tablespoon lemon zest

(optional) 2 oz cognac (or dark rum in a pinch)

how to make it

(makes 2 servings)

Whip the cream with the sugar into soft peaks. Just before it comes together, add the cinnamon to incorporate. A very soft whip works best as it allows the cream to infuse the cocktail more readily.

Add the cognac, lemon zest, and butterscotch liquor to a cocktail shaker with ample ice and shake vigorously.

Strain the mixture into two tall, preferably frosted glasses. Add a few ice cubes and pour the cream soda on top. 

Top with two dollops of the softly whipped cream and grate some fresh nutmeg lightly on top. 

Enjoy immediately, preferably while watching Harry Potter or playing Hogwarts Legacy.  

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Sweet

Banana Bread

one and a half slices banana bread recipe mom
one and a half slices recipes local delicious food

Mom's Banana Bread

This delicious and simple banana bread is the timeless treat you want with your morning coffee, your afternoon tea, or just after dinner. It has a rightful place on my food blog because my mother made this recipe nearly every other Sunday growing up. There would always be a fresh loaf of banana bread in the house – her version has the golden raisins which is how I make it to this day. And it even freezes well! That’s right, throw a fresh (cooled) loaf in some plastic wrap and put it in the freezer to enjoy a few weeks later. That is, assuming there is any left. 😉

what you need

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup flour

2 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

3-4 ripe bananas, depending on size

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

(optional) 3/4 tablespoon orange zest

(optional) 3/4 cup golden raisins

(optional) 3/4 cup walnuts 

(optional) 3/4 cup chocolate chips of choice

how to make it

Heat oven to 350.

Cream butter and sugar using food processor or hand mixer. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat for another 30 seconds. Add bananas, mash them up, and stir until well combined. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange peel, and stir. Stir in flour and raisins/nuts/chips (if using) until just combined. 

Spoon into loaf pan, mini loaf pans, standard muffin tins, or mini muffin tins. Cooking times follow.

Standard loaf: 35-40 minutes (makes 1)

Mini loaves: 35-40 minutes (makes 4)

Standard muffins: 35-40 minutes (makes 12)

Mini muffins: 20-25 minutes (makes ~30)

Enjoy with tea or coffee!

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Sweet

Key Lime Pie

one and a half slices key lime pie florida summer recipe
one and a half slices local simple recipes food

Key Lime Pie

one and a half slices key lime pie florida summer recipe

(refresh August 2024) Let me start by saying that I don’t like key lime pie. Don’t get me wrong, I love pie… just not key lime pie. Cold, custard-y pies have never been my thing. So when a good friend of mine went on a key lime pie baking binge one summer, I wasn’t thrilled. This pie changed my mind. It is as light and airy as crisp, springtime air, with a tangy, vibrant flavor reminiscent of the place where Key Limes originate – The Florida Keys. It also isn’t sickeningly sweet like so many restaurant-grade key lime pies. The luxuriously silky whipped cream topping allows you to control a bit of the sweetness as well. In short, this pie is spring and summer, Florida, and sunshine in dessert form, and it has been made, at this point, over a dozen times. And, yes, you can make it with your run-of-the-mill Persian limes if you can’t find Key Limes.

what you need

Crust

1 1/2 cups finely ground Graham crackers

2 tablespoons sugar

7 tablespoons butter, melted

salt

Filling

1 1/2 tablespoons lime zest

3 large egg yolks

14 oz sweetened condensed milk

2/3 cup fresh lime juice (from ~10-12 Key Limes or 3-5 Persian limes)

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon sugar

how to make it

Make crust. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine Grahams, sugar, and salt in bowl and mix. Mix in butter until all Grahams are thoroughly coated and press crust with fingers into the bottom of a glass or ceramic pie dish. I like to add a dash of cinnamon to my crusts. Bake crust for ~10 minutes until the Grahams begin to darken in color.

Make filling. Beat zest and egg yolks together until the yolks begin to thicken, ~5-7 minutes. Add condensed milk and continue to beat until thick, ~3 minutes. Stir in lime juice until completely combined. Pour mixture into pre-baked pie crust and bake for another ~10 minutes, or until filling is set. Place pie in fridge to cool completely before topping, ~1-2 hours. 

Make topping. Whip cream with desired amount of sugar. Pile and spread cream on top of pie. It is not necessary to spread cream all the way to the edges; just do what you feel. Chill pie an additional 2-3 hours to ensure it is completely cool before slicing. Top with Graham cracker crumb sprinkles, lime zest curls, and/or lime wedges. 

#saltlife

I am from Melbourne Beach, Florida. From a long, skinny barrier island that runs some 100 miles down the East Coast of the state, beginning at Cape Canaveral and the home of NASA and ending level with Lake Okeechobee. Only accessible via bridge (albeit short ones), Melbourne Beach is a magical place in Florida insofar as it is one of the last places in Florida to have escaped abrasively flamboyant tourism. Disney World does not reach there, and it is still entirely possible to find a beach without another person on it and kayak a river in the company of manatees and dolphins. One of the best things about Melbourne Beach (aside from perennial sunshine) is the width of the island itself, at times no more than 1/4 mile wide, meaning you can get from a brackish fishing oasis to the Atlantic Ocean in 5 minutes on foot. Floridians can be a little cultish when it comes to Florida identity. When you live in a place where more than 85% of the population are tourists, it really means something to be a Local.

So let’s talk about some Melbourne Beach gemstones. 

Longdoggers. Longdoggers is the quintessential Melbourne establishment. The original sits right on A1A beachside, but with 6 different locations, you’re never far from killer waffle fries and house-brewed Hatteras Red beer (brewed just across the bridge at Intracoastal Brewing). Longdoggers sells a variety of LOCAL t-shirts and actually lives into that brand, sponsoring many of the local surf competitions and recreational sports teams. It also sponsors local beach cleanups and has a strong commitment to reducing the environmental impact of its establishment. As they say, “we live here.”

Sunrises. Obviously, on this side of FL, the sunrises are better than the sunsets. I’ll keep it simple. Don’t miss them. Head to the beach, consider a sunrise beach run, then over to The Blueberry Muffin for… a blueberry muffin.

German Food. Oddly enough, some of the best German food I have had outside of Germany is served in a house on the riverfront in south Melbourne Beach. Cafe Coconut Cove is local, secluded, authentic, and pretty romantic. 

South Beaches. I’ve noticed that the Satellite Beach and Indialantic beaches have become more and more crowded in recent years, with expanded parking and lower speed limits on A1A due to crowds. For a more secluded beach experience, head south. Beaches such as Ponce de Leon beach will have a fraction of the folks.

Kayaking. There are about 100 places to kayak and paddleboard in Melbourne, but, again, for a more authentic and remote experience, consider heading south. To rent a kayak and head out among the dolphins, you’re looking for Honest John’s Fish Camp. 

Fresh Fish. The freshest fish in Melbourne is obviously caught yourself, but if a fishing charter isn’t on the agenda, there are several places to get fresh catch. (If a fishing charter is on your list, Captain Nathaniel Lemmon’s river fishing charters are solid). Clayton’s in Rockledge or The Green Turtle  on Eau Gallie both have fresh selections.

Causeway Runs. There are three main causeways leading to the Melbourne Beach: 192, Eau Gallie, and Pineda. 192 will provide the easiest run as it is the shortest of all three bridges. Pineda would be the best run as it is the tallest and crosses two rivers: both the Indian River and the Banana River. But there is no sidewalk. Epic fail Melbourne, FL city planners. Eau Gallie causeway is your ticket. At medium height and with ample sidewalk, it provides wonderful views running from mainland to beachside, then on down Riverside Drive. 

Rocket Launches. Melbourne is a unique place to watch a rocket launch. If you’re up near Pineda on the beachside or at one of the Patrick Air Force Base beaches, the sonic boom will ripple the water around your waist. SpaceX is sending something up once every couple of weeks these days and also continuing to practice its re-entry and water landings, which can be fun to watch. 

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Sweet

Pink Cake

one and a half slices pink cake stardew valley videogame recipes media
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Pink Strawberry Cake

one and a half slices pink cake stardew valley videogame recipes media

Disclaimer: this is not my recipe. (but those are my pictures … I made the cake). This recipe is from the forthcoming Stardew Valley Cookbook (May 2024). 

More information:

What is Stardew Valley? Stardew Valley is a farming simulator videogame made by Eric Barone (solo dev) in the spirit of the Harvest Moon series and released in 2016. Since, Barone has released numerous content updates to the community completely free of charge, the latest being the 1.6 update which launched last month. (that’s a big deal in the videogame industry where every substantive addition to a game comes with a $5-$35 price tag).  

Why does a videogame have a cookbook? Because Stardew Valley is about community and it is, first and foremost, a simulation (which I have written about before). That means it is a game that includes aspects of real life, like Roblox or The Sims franchise. One of those aspects is cooking. Now you know how we got here. 

What is the significance of the Pink Cake? Nothing in particular except that it is Haley’s favorite in-game and it is the authoritative birthday cake for the storyline. Also, the game is all about farming and animals so, naturally, the recipe calls for duck eggs 🦆

What about the other recipes? Well, obviously, the cookbook isn’t released yet, but I am interested in what other recipes will be included. This is mostly because the recipes in-game are distinctly Japanese and rather odd… Spicy Eel (which increases your luck at fishing), Lucky Lunch (which increases your luck at everything), Strange Bun, Parsnip Soup, Seafoam Pudding…. you get the picture. Man, I cannot wait to see these recipes. 

The cookbook is a product of collaboration between Eric Barone himself and Ryan Novak, Barone’s friend who authored the first Stardew Valley online guide. Will I post all the recipes? No. Was I dying to post this one because they gave it to me as a thank you for my pre-order? Absolutely. And I totally used the Easter holiday as an excuse to make it. 

Cooking notes: It came out well. Moist, a little heavy, and I definitely should have used all the jam (I only used half thinking it might spill out of the sides. It didn’t.). Highly recommend if you need a quintessential, do-not-argue-with-me birthday cake… especially for a festive holiday, a young girl child, or a fellow gamer like myself. Happy baking!

🐔💕🍰

excerpt from the official cookbook below

oneandahalfslices stardew valley gamer recipe
oneandahalfslices stardew valley gamer recipe
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Sweet

Sweet Coconut Cookie Snacks

one and a half slices valentine's day
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Sweet Coconut Cookie Snacks

Yo, LOVE is in the freaking AIR! It’s Valentine’s Day (or thereabouts) and I made treats / used it as an excuse to be a little extra (remember when I sprinkled the lemonade???). For✌🏼Day this year, I made homemade cereal (yes, you read that correctly), homemade peanut butter cups (because I have issued a blanket moratorium on seed oils in my house), and these adorable four ingredient cookie snacks that are kind of like those samosa Girl Scout cookies. Now before you go off on a V Day tangent, I would like to stress that these cookie snacks are my new go-to, Valentine’s Day aside. They are the perfect dessert. I mean perfect.✨ And they are super easy to make. If you have kids, I ultra recommend these as a dessert option. There is zero sugar as they are sweetened with dates.

💖💖💖

Now, on the homemade cereal side, I forget about once every three years that I do not enjoy self-torture and make the cutest homemade cereal, a la Molly Yeh (champion of all things cute and sprinkles). Is it worth it? Probably not. Do I forget this periodically? Absolutely I do. This year it made for great mailing gifts but, man, is it a lot of work. Hundreds of hand-cut, 1/4 inch hazelnut cookies. In the words of Charlie Brown, good grief.

what you need

(this makes 6-8 cookies)

1 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut <– these words matter

1 cup (~8) pitted, soft Medjool dates

1 tablespoon smooth almond butter

1 cup semisweet or dark chocolate chips + 1 tablespoon coconut oil

(optional) 1 tablespoon honey

how to make it

  1. In the oven, toast the coconut shreds for ~5 minutes on 350, or until beautifully golden brown. 
  2. Use the food processor to process the dates until they are in smaller chunks. Add in the coconut and the honey, if using, and mix until a grainy “dough” forms. Using your hands, form 6-8 little discs, ~1/2 inch high, with the dough. Use a chopstick to poke a hole through the middle. 
  3. Plop the discs in the freezer. Yes, plop.
  4. On the stove, melt the chocolate and coconut oil in a small saucepan or small double boiler (truth: I totally set a bowl on top of a pot with water in it.) 
  5. Once the chocolate is melted, remove cookies from freezer and dip the underside of each cookie in the chocolate, returning it to the plate with the chocolate side up.
  6. Return to freezer for ~30 minutes or until chocolate hardens completely. 

P.S. The homemade cereal contains: homemade hazelnut cookies, tiny amaretto meringues, toasted coconut flakes, mini chocolate chips, and dried tart cherries. 

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Sweet

Crisped Peaches

one and a half slices summer and fall peaches simple dessert recipe
OneandahalfSlices food blog recipes One and a half Slices Virginia eat local

Oven Crisped Peaches

Quite possibly the easiest, most summery, and healthiest dessert! If you just don’t have the energy for my easy stone fruit skillet cobbler but still need something sweet to make after a summery date night dinner such as summer sausage orzo, this is your go-to. 

what you need

2 semi-ripe peaches, halved and pitted

1/4 cup nuts of choice (I used almonds and a handful of pecans)

1/4 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup brown sugar

2-3 tablespoons butter

Sprinkles of cinnamon and nutmeg

Vanilla ice cream for serving

 

how to make it

Arrange your halved and pitted peaches in a small baking dish and pre-heat oven to 350. 

Place nuts and rolled oats in a chopper and pulse several times until chunky. Add in the remaining ingredients and pulse a few more times until the mixture is sticky and you can make it into a ball, like cookie dough. 

Place one dough ball on top of each peach half and then mash it down so it covers the entire top of the peach. 

Bake for 45 minutes, let sit for 5 minutes, top with vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream, and serve immediately. They can be stored in the fridge and warmed oven for breakfast or dessert the following night. 
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Local

Finding First Principles

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OneandahalfSlices food blog recipes One and a half Slices Virginia eat local

Finding First Principles

a novel, feat. summer collage art
one and a half slices oneandahalfslices art collage experience

the autobiography

tableofcontents

forward – written by the author (ironically enough, the novel is written by the same author). 

chapter 1 – Quitting

chapter 2 – Burgs

chapter 3 – Simplicity

chapter 4 – Application

chapter 5 – Dessert

afterward – also written by the author.

forward

#morecreativethancorporate

“Once you see the boundaries of your environment, they are no longer the boundaries of your environment.” – Marshall McLuhan

The recipe is at the end. It’s simple. And it’s dessert. 

The post… well, the post is more difficult to explain. I guess it’s about simplicity. 

Yeah. It’s about simplicity. 

Even though it’s about simplicity, I’m going to throw a lot out there and leave the synthesis to you.

(nobody asked for this)

Stay with me… you’ll really want to make it to dessert.

chapter1.Quitting

Some of you have been polite enough to journey with me for the last two years (year 1 recap | year 2 recap). Thank you. It’s been a ride. And 2023 is turning out to be wild (#yellow2023 –> Saturday Suppers, forthcoming | #iykyk).

Lately, I’ve been wondering,

“how did we learn it, that talent for insatiability?” – Margaret Atwood

How did we learn to always want more, to achieve, to accomplish? How did our minds become capitalists within our own bodies such that our meals have to get bigger and every moment has to be profitable? How did we become so driven to monetize our hobbies to the point of requirement?  

And lately, I’ve been thinking that I don’t want to be on a path. I want to be on a journey. 

So I quit my job.

I quit my job so that I could pursue growth instead of progress. Read that again.

chapter2.Burgs

“it’s just we get so messy, it’s not that we are doing lots of wrong things
Our mind is so messy
We don’t keep it simple
And we end up making the life that we are living, so in-ordinarily complicated
Completely unnecessarily, and it’s such a shame to end up feeling, in a real muddle
When actually, you ought to be having the time of your lives

…

When you came here
You came here with a sense of awe and wonder, dying to just see what it’s about
You know, it’s like, what would it be like?
To be down there?
To be part of it?
And you came here with a sense of wonder
And somehow the wonder of it wasn’t enough
And we stopped wondering and started to wonder about ourselves
And in your wondering about yourself
You forgot what you came here for, what you came to be a part of.”

Burgs

chapter3.Simplicity

You all know that I am fond of First Principles thinking.

“In philosophy and science, a first principle is a basic proposition or assumption that cannot be deduced from any other proposition or assumption.” – Wikipedia

You all know that I like solving problems in the style of Enrico Fermi, e.g., How many piano tuners are there in the city of Chicago? 

“In physics or engineering education, a Fermi problem is an estimation technique designed to teach dimensional analysis or approximation of extreme scientific calculations… The estimation technique is named after physicist Enrico Fermi as he was known for his ability to make good approximate calculations with little or no actual data. Fermi problems typically involve making justified guesses about quantities and their variance or lower and upper bounds.

– Wikipedia 

We all know that good Machine Learning (ML) and good simulation are predicated on accurate dimensionality reduction – the ability to condense complex data into fewer dimensions for computation while still retaining the data’s most important properties. 

You all know that the whole reason I did a PhD in agent-based modeling and simulation is because the mental gymnastics of distilling collective human behavior into a computational model fascinates me (dimensionality reduction and parametrization at its finest). 

Some of you know that the dissertation I wanted to write was on the discovery and evidencing of certain so-called “Universals,” e.g., fractal geometry, the golden ratio, or the presence of negation or incrementation in language. The particular Universal in which I took interest and aspired to propose to the world of academia was a growth and decay function that could be fit to many things, inclusive of birth and death of individual organisms, evolution and extinction of collective species, and the rise and fall of civilizations (the first ABM I ever coded was a rise and fall of civilizations model). As a budding PhD student, I drafted a paper and submitted it to Nature. It was obviously never published. My professors told me this pursuit was a life’s work, not a dissertation, and a topic so new that it would be difficult to corroborate with extant scholarship. This did not satisfy me as a valid reason not to study something… simply because it had never been studied before. Nevertheless, the professors assured me I would not graduate anytime soon should I choose to pursue such an innovative and, as such, easily discredited topic. So I wrote my dissertation on the modeling and simulation of forced migration patterns resulting from global conflict events like the civil war in Syria.

It was a fine dissertation. Not at all interesting. 

So what do First Principles, Fermi problems, dimensionality reduction, machine learning, and quitting my job all have in common? 

Simplicity. 

The art and nuance of taking the incredible complexity of life (of science, emotion, human interaction, ecology, physiology – “the tragic miracle of consciousness” as Steinbeck would call it) and making it simple.

Digestible. Interpretable. Transmissible. Tractable. Repeatable. Intuitive. Balanced. Consistent. 

Reducing its dimensionality.

chapter4.Application

“I don’t want to be on a path. I want to be on a journey.”

“I quit my job so I could pursue growth, not progress.”   

What do these statements really mean?

I don’t want to be on a path that leads to somewhere. I want to be on a journey to discover all the places I could go. 

I don’t want to make progress towards a goal. I want to grow as a person to discover what my goals could be. 

Most of us were there in college – that place of exploration, mostly because we had yet to figure out what else we would do. Or could do. And then we graduated and had to make money, we found jobs, advanced studies for some of us, and then we found “career paths.” And we settled into them. Manager, Director, Vice President, Senior Vice President, Executive. 

And somewhere in following the path through the woods, we forgot how to explore the forest. We forgot about alternate paths, we forgot about making paths (forgot about our machetes and our minds). We forgot about the beautiful nights we spent with friends camping in a clearing with no paths leading to it – just the random place where a group of college kids decided to pitch their tents for the evening and drink beer. 

“…when actually, you ought to be having the time of your lives.” – Burgs 

So how does one go from being on a path to being on a journey? How does one pursue growth as opposed to progress? 

I am not entirely sure but I’ve got some leads. It is definitely difficult to break the habit of progress in the mind; carefree is a difficult art to master. Some of you may have seen my themes from last summer in the Balkans:

“the things we find when we aren’t looking forward, but around…”  

“not moving until you feel where you are truly supposed to be next”

Both of these things in the spirit of journey over path. This year, I’ve spent some time redefining my relationship with silence. And I’ve spent some time re-acquainting myself with stillness. Halfway through the year, here is what I see…

The leads:

  • Be bored. My mom used to tell me when I was a kid that it was good to be bored. The eight-year-old me did not believe her. The 33-year-old me certainly does. Recently, while reading about peoples’ childhoods, I read that “the immersion in boredom is a universal in the biographies of exceptional people.” Not only was I thrilled that it was noted as a “universal” (smile) but I quickly realized precisely how difficult it is to be bored as an older person (#adulting). With kids, jobs, gyms, partners, and extracurriculars, there isn’t any time to be bored. When the room is silent, we put on music or TV. When we’ve got a drive, we make a phone call. Where there is empty space, we fill it. Oh no, being bored was going to require much more than carving out three hours on a weekend afternoon as “time to be bored.” And yet becoming bored I quickly began to view as integral to my journey back to curiosity. By letting the mind first rest, idle, then wander, it would have the requisite space to become inspired, curious, and creative.
  • Get simple.

“it’s just we get so messy, it’s not that we are doing lots of wrong things
Our mind is so messy
We don’t keep it simple
And we end up making the life that we are living, so in-ordinarily complicated.”

Burgs

What do you need (like, really need)? What do you enjoy? Be honest. Really honest. It’s probably things like: 1) to move your body, 2) to physically touch someone you love, 3) to eat nourishing, whole foods for lunch, 4) to drink more water, 5) to stretch, 6) to laugh, 7) to learn something really interesting, 8) to walk instead of drive, 9) sunshine, 10) a slight change of context. 

I heard someone say something interesting the other day. To paraphrase: if a plant doesn’t grow, doesn’t blossom or bloom, we don’t blame the plant. We check its environment. We check the soil; does it have nutrients and water? We check the placement; does it have sunlight? Perhaps we should all check our environments. Change it. More sunlight, more walks, more water. More music, more silence, less supposed to. 

  • Allow yourself to do without purpose. Yep, I’ve been in an art phase this year. It started with painting and then the interest migrated to collage art thanks to a beautiful and super talented friend of mine (<– srsly check her out, @gigiripps) All this from a wholly un-artistic person. I cook. I write. I do not paint or draw or… crochet. Anyway.

What I am learning from art and taking from art is simple: for someone whose every action serves an explicit purpose in life, big or small, taking action without explicit purpose is cathartic, freeing, and integral to what I am now calling the Ecology of the Soul (essay forthcoming).

In example, every job I have accepted in my life has been with the purpose of progressing down my career path. I play videogames with the purpose of finishing the game, adding games played and books read like trophies to my physical and virtual living room shelves. I take classes to learn, exercise to stay healthy, cook to ensure proper nutrition – even watching TV, which I rarely do, with purpose and intentionality to consume a specific thing (this, I would argue, is a good thing).

But what I never do… is do something… without purpose. Until painting. The day I put brush to canvas without confidence that I could paint, without an idea of what I would paint, and without expectation that it be something, was an important day. I thought it would not last more than a couple of hours before it faded quietly from my life, the memory relegated to a forgotten Thursday afternoon one day at home when I was sad. Since that Thursday afternoon, the creativity, joy, curiosity, and focus that have poured out of me onto canvas through acrylic paint, oil paint, and shit I cut out of magazines, has managed to rupture my static in a way that my year deeply required.

This un-artistic girl is now building an art studio in her basement.

Summer Art

the art
the summer
the mind
acrylic on canvas 24x48
acrylic on canvas 36x48
oil on canvas 48x60
  • Open the aperture without committing time and energy. How to explore while still staying simple. How to let everything in without quickly becoming overcommitted, overwhelmed, overextended with invitations, requests, opportunities. Allow things to come and go. Don’t chase people; don’t chase opportunities. Don’t chase. Don’t follow. Be. Open up, let the world come to you, and let it flow through you without grabbing and holding on to any one thing. Be deliberate with your action and with your time. But spend time. Spend time on conversation. Spend time with people. Spend time with new ideas. Spend time in the present without lamenting the past or worrying about the future. Spend time, some times, without purpose.

“If it costs you your peace, it’s too expensive.” – Paolo Coelho

In closing,

How does this apply to food? (because that’s what OneandaHalfSlices does)

Complexity in terms of food is synonymous with “processed.” Lots of flavors, lots of ingredients, lots of preservatives and chemicals to enrich it, to make it last longer, to make it taste better.

You also pay for that processing. With dollars. The more a food is processed (say, from wheat, to grain, to flour, to cracker, to cookie or cereal or bar), the higher the price. The steps to create it are more complex. The ingredient list is more complex. That complexity is what you are paying for at the checkout line. In addition to whatever Organic, USDA approved, shenanigans of a seal or logo some third-party organization has slapped on the box. 

Keep it simple. 

Eat real, whole foods – meat, fish, nuts, grains, seeds, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and things that are naturally sweet (honey, maple syrup, dates).

How does this apply to lifestyle and experience? (because that’s what Merigold does)

You only need a few things. (#measurelesslivemore). These are the First Principles of my life. Find yours.

  • Movement – start with Steph Rose at Phase6.
  • Hydration – two to three liters a day.
  • Nutrition, #eatfoodnottoomuchmostlyplants and nothing that comes in a package (Michael Pollan)
  • Rest, #measurelesslivemore 
  • Balance, #equalpartsdisciplineandindulgence
  • Consistency – to treat oneself with equal parts discipline and indulgence, and to do so consistently. Do it every day.

And I’ll add one more… Community. You can find it in places like #yellow2023, our Saturday Suppers in Arlington, Longstone Farm’s Sunday Suppers, Oktoberfests done right, or right here on OneandahalfSlices. Diversity of thought, of heart, of the collective. We hope to see you around this Fall. 

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“The chance to be part of this happens briefly
The invitation is not to show how inventive and imaginative you are
But how much you can notice what you’re already part of
And appreciate it and share it
And care about those that are around who count for their welfare
While you are looking out for your own, that’s it
And then you’ll get to the end of it, having had an awesome time
Knowing that that is something you’d recommend to others”

Burgs 

chapter5.Dessert

I promised you a recipe. So here it is. A recipe in the spirit of simplicity (oh, also, in that same vein, try my little lemon cake). This dessert is simple. It is exactly the kind of dessert we should be eating. I could eat it every day. And don’t forget to sprinkle your lemonade. 

what you need

6 pitted medjool dates, cut in half

2 tablespoons nut butter of choice (mine is almond)

2 strawberries

(optional) 1 tablespoon cacao nibs

how to make it 

halve your dates.

spread nut butter inside each half.

top with a small strawberry slice and 1-2 nibs.

enjoy deliberately. 

afterward

“Do not eat. Taste. Savor. Relish. Be mindful. But do not eat.” – Ralph Fiennes, The Menu

“I am a student. And then I become the megaphone.” – Jane Fonda

Announcement: with this post, I have launched the Merigold Substack entitled Unrequited Philosophy. The more literarily-inclined and curious are encouraged to subscribe below.