Happy Juneteenth!

As we head into summer, a busy season filled with camping trips, backyard cookouts, wedding shenanigans, and swimming lessons, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to be an intentional participant in my community. These days, modern technology allows us to streamline everyday tasks, effectively eliminating moments of human interaction. We can easily order groceries from our smart phones and get dinner delivered to our doorsteps without talking to a single person! It’s super convenient, so it’s no wonder that when life gets busy, we tend to lean into these frictionless ways of getting our day-to-day tasks accomplished between our work and extracurricular activities.

Don’t get me wrong, there are moments when these new technologies are incredibly useful. We ordered dinner delivered via DoorDash the night before our wedding weekend kicked off, and it was fantastic! However, leaning too heavily on them doesn’t help us out when it comes to making connections with the people around us in our real lives. We may be in a golden era of technology, but I think that we are missing out on so many opportunities to build community.

My mom is a queen of connection, and you can really see it in the way she carries herself through life. She chats with the butcher at the meat counter, whom she knows by name, and frequently takes baked goods to the receptionist at the YMCA. She compliments gym regulars on their push-up form, and will call restaurants to ask about their hours of operation rather than look at their info online. These simple acts imbue her every day life with a sense of community. I feel like the rampant use of technology to make our lives “easier” gets in the way of all of these wonderful interactions. If you always order your groceries online, you miss out on the opportunity to ask the butcher the difference between hanger and strip steak. I think that when we miss out on these small opportunities to flex our socialization muscles, we start to feel disconnected and lonely. Connecting with real people in real life is an art, and really does imbue our lives with so much more depth and meaning. We have to work hard to keep it alive!

A few months ago, I was in an exercise class with this woman who I couldn’t help but notice was very pregnant. I was so awestruck that this soon-to-be mother was about to do a workout, and she motivated me for the entirety of the class. I’ve even thought about her a few times in especially tough classes since—if she could do it, so can I!

Earlier this week, I was sitting in an exercise class at the same studio, stretching before it began, and I glanced to my right. The woman sitting next to me looked so familiar. She was tall and graceful like a ballerina, and then I realized … It was the pregnant gal, but she was no longer pregnant! She had basically lived a whole life and had become an entirely new and different version of herself. I was in awe! In that moment, I wished I knew her, even just a little bit, so that I could hype her up and tell her how much she had inspired me without even knowing it.

Since that class, I have reflected on how even though I see so many of my workout buddies regularly, I rarely say anything. In truth I can be a little shy in group exercise settings, and can feel nervous to impose on someone’s sacred exercise time. I by no means want to socialize throughout class while I’m sweating my face off, but it really does feel good to say “good morning!” and show some recognition to people we see all the time. These classes are a space to focus on connecting with our own body, mind, and breath. But also, they are an opportunity to try, as gracefully and respectfully as we can, to reinvest in human interactions.

With all of this tumbling around in my brain, my intention for summer is to push myself to incorporate more moments of connection. It can feel a little awkward breaking out from our social comfort zones, and it is a personal goal of mine to wade into that uncomfortability a bit—I want to channel my mom! I want to be respectful of people’s privacy and personal life while also presenting a more open energy. This will look like asking the people working my favorite farmers market stand how they like to use the abundant bouquets of basil. It will look like asking if a workout buddy has a recommendation for a new yoga mat instead of searching for answers online. It will look like knocking on a friend’s door to say hi when I drop off a jar of homemade pesto instead of texting them after I’ve already left. The other night, Cullen and I complimented a stranger on their impeccable parallel parking while we were eating dinner on our front porch. Our journey is underway! In a time when all of the in-betweens of life can happen on our phones, I believe that these little interactions really matter, and that they are the friction that our brains and bodies need to feel like part of something a little bigger than ourselves.

Sharing food with people has always been the most natural means of connection for me. It is like an edible art project that becomes this shared experience, and I love it any way that it happens. In the spirit of connection, I would love to share a recipe for my recent obsession: summery pesto! I encourage you to play around to make this pesto your own, and, if you are able, to share a jar, a conversation, and maybe even your version of the recipe with a new friend. Happy cooking and happy summer!

Summer Pesto for You and a Friend

Tomatoes, peaches, and zucchini get a lot of press during the summer, but I’m here to talk about the herbs, truly the workhorses of summer cooking. Where would a perfect stone fruit and tomato salad be without basil? Exactly! Not only is basil beautifully aromatic, lending its fragrance to so many dishes we know and love, the tender leaves are also full of vitamins and minerals that are so good for us. Quickly blanching the basil will keep your pesto a vibrant green and prevent it from oxidizing without losing too much of its nutritional integrity. I like to use a combination of tender herbs in pesto, as it creates a wonderful complexity and helps to utilize more summer herbs! Parsley is peppery and fresh, sorrel is lemony and bright, and chervil is mysteriously herbal. If you can find Tulsi, or Holy Basil, at your farmers market, use that to make a pesto full of adaptogenic benefits.

Makes about 1¾ cups (420 ml)

1 bunch flat-leaf parsley (or other soft, summer herb), rinsed and dried

1 large bunch basil

2 to 3 garlic cloves, peeled

Fine sea salt

1 to 1¼ cups (240 to 300 ml) extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

½ cup (63 g) toasted nuts of your choice (such as pine nuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, or walnuts), finely chopped

½ cup (54 g) finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Trim the tough bottom stems from the parsley, leaving the leaves and slender stems for the pesto. You should have about 1 packed cup (25 g) of parsley (or other herbs you are using!). Transfer to the base of a blender and set aside. Pick the leaves off of the basil stems, collecting them in a measuring cup. You should have about 1 packed cup (25 g). (Reserve the stems for another use, such as for confit tomatoes or homemade pickle brine.)

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, fill a medium bowl with lots of ice cubes and cold water. Submerge the basil leaves in the boiling water and cook until the leaves wilt and turn a vibrant, wet shade of green, 5 to 10 seconds. Use a slotted spoon, spider, or tongs to transfer the basil leaves straight into the ice bath, stirring them gently to evenly and quickly cool.

In a mortar and pestle, or with the flat edge of a large knife against a cutting board, crush the garlic cloves with a pinch of salt to form a thick paste.

Use your hands to squeeze any excess water from the basil leaves and add it to the blender with the parsley. Add ½ cup (120 ml) of the olive oil and pulse, tamping down the herb mixture with the blender stick, until the texture is somewhere between roughly and finely chopped. Add the finely chopped nuts and ½ cup (120 ml) more of the olive oil, and pulse to combine. Pulsing will help create a more rustic, handmade pesto texture.

Transfer the pesto to a medium bowl and use a small spatula to stir in the garlic paste, followed by the cheese until incorporated. Taste and season with salt if needed. The pesto will be thick, luscious, and spreadable, perfect for loosening with pasta water or spreading on a focaccia sandwich. Add up to ¼ cup (60 ml) more olive oil to create a looser, more pourable textured pesto, perfect for drizzling on veggies, grilled meat, or pizza.

Divide the pesto into two small jars and top each with a drizzle of olive oil. Cover and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. If you freeze the pesto, make sure there is at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) or headroom in the jar. Defrost frozen pesto in the refrigerator overnight before cooking with it. Taste and adjust the seasoning before using.

Variations:

• Substitute sorrel, arugula, chervil, or other fresh, tender herbs you find at the market for the parsley.

• Substitute finely grated Pecorino Romano or Grana Padano cheese for the Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Ways to use:

• Pesto pasta!

• Salad dressing: add good-quality red wine vinegar or fresh lemon juice, olive oil, and a splash of cold water to thin the pesto and transform it into a salad dressing.

• Drizzle over/toss with grilled summer vegetables.

• Dollop on pizza.

• Scramble eggs and swirl in a spoonful of pesto at the end of cooking along with a spoonful of crème fraîche

• Tomato toast or BLT sandwich with pesto

What does one cookbook author make for another cookbook author for her postpartum meal train?

That was the question I asked myself recently, as I prepared to drop off food at my friend and neighbor Kristina Cho’s house. Kristina writes the Have You Eaten Yet? newsletter, is the author of two cookbooks, and is a super talented cook. She meal-prepped for her own postpartum time in one of the most epic ways I’ve ever witnessed. So, the pressure I felt was, let’s just say, NOT nonexistent to deliver something that would be helpful to Kristina and her husband, Reuben.

In the days leading up to my scheduled food-delivery date on Kristina’s meal train calendar, I texted her to check in and see what kinds of things sounded good. She mentioned that Reuben would be heading back to work and she’d be on her own with baby Meyer during the daytime. She asked if I might cook some foods that would make for easy lunches.

Like the true nerd that I am, I LOVE an assignment! And I was grateful to Kristina for sharing her needs with specific, actionable details. (Evidently, she’s already acing this motherhood thing.)

I decided to focus on making protein- and vegetable-centered dishes that would taste delicious eaten straight from the fridge with only one hand. New parents who are caring for a tiny newborn baby need nourishing, comforting foods. They need “fueling foods,” as Lucas Volger brilliantly called them. But because Lucas, Kristina, and I are all food-lovers, we also want those fueling foods to taste great and to reflect the abundance of the season.

Here’s the menu I landed on:

- Olive oil-poached steelhead trout (salmon would also work well!)

- Roasted sweet potatoes

- 9-minute soft-boiled eggs

- A block of really good feta cheese

- Farro salad with too many vegetables

- An almost-there perfectly ripe avocado

- Mulberries from our garden (we planted the tree we planted when our first son was born—sob!)

- A couple of beers (ideally one of them non-alcoholic—Fieldwork makes a wonderful N/A IPA)

If you’re cooking for somebody with dietary restrictions, you can simply swap out pieces as needed. For meat-eating friends, we’ve roasted a whole chicken, cut it into portions, and delivered it alongside homemade Caesar dressing and plenty of cleaned romaine lettuce. For vegans, it’s such an act of love to prep vegetables like cucumber and carrot sticks, blanched asparagus spears, trimmed radishes, sliced bell peppers, etc., which can be eaten with various dips (hummus, muhammara, green goddess). Try to keep in mind what’s looking beautiful at your local farmers markets. Lewis was born at the end of April in California, and baskets of ripe strawberries really cheered me up. Whereas Arthur was born in chilly January, and I enjoyed lots of pre-frozen dumplings cooked in bone broth.

I cannot imagine a bleary-eyed, sleep-deprived parent being anything other than absolutely delighted by homemade chocolate chip cookies. For extra credit, follow Maddie’s recipe and bake off half a dozen to tuck in with your meal train drop-off.

There are many ways to support friends who’ve welcomed a baby into their family, but cooking for them is top of my list. I feel so helpful and needed and part of the community when I make nourishing foods for neighbors. Everything comes back around full circle. I’ll never forget how loved I felt when Kristina dropped off two freezer bags filled with hand-shaped dumplings after Arthur’s birth. As the years go by and we face life’s inevitable obstacles together, I hope we’ll continue texting each other: “food delivery on your porch,” which is really just another way of saying, “I got you. I love you.”

Farro Salad with Too Many Vegetables

Serves 4

1 quart (1 L) good-quality chicken bone broth (optional)

Fine sea salt

1 cup (135 g) farro

½ large yellow onion

1 carrot

2 stalks celery

1 small bunch lacinato kale

1 medium zucchini

Extra-virgin olive oil

½ lemon, for squeezing

½ cup (90 g) Castelvetrano olives, pitted and chopped

In a medium saucepan, combine the chicken broth, if using, and 1 quart (1 L) of water and bring to a boil. (If you’re not using the chicken broth, fill the pot with 2 quarts (2 L) of generously salted water and bring to a boil.) Place the farro in a fine-mesh sieve and rinse thoroughly under cool tap water. When the broth-water is boiling, add the farro and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender with the slightest chewy bite in the very center, like barely al dente pasta, about 30 minutes. Drain and return to the pot.

While the farro boils, prep and cook the vegetables: Finely chop the onion. Peel the carrot, cut it in half lengthwise and then slice thinly crosswise into half-moons. Cut the celery in half lengthwise and then slice thinly crosswise into rainbows. Rinse the kale, remove the tough center ribs, and tear the leaves into bite-size pieces. Finely chop the zucchini.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Drizzle in enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom of the skillet, then add the onion, carrot, and celery. Season with a few pinches of salt and cook, stirring regularly, until softened but not yet golden, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the kale and zucchini and another few pinches of salt. If the pan looks dry, drizzle in more olive oil. Cook, stirring, until the kale wilts and the zucchini has lost its raw crunch, another 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside until the farro is also ready.

When the farro and vegetables are cooked, combine them in either the pot or the skillet, whichever fits your pans best. Mix well. Squeeze in plenty of lemon juice and taste for seasoning. You can add more salt, if you like, and/or another drizzle of oil. The goal is for the farro salad to taste well-seasoned and balanced between oily rich and tart lemon. Mix in the olives. Serve right away or let the farro salad cool to room temperature before transferring to an airtight container and storing in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Hi, Recipe of the Month friends! As promised, this month you get a bonus recipe! <3 Lucky for all of us, Maddie is kindly sharing her version of the ultimate chocolate chip cookie—crackly around the edges, tender in the middle, and emboldened with a hint of rye flour. Do you ever have a moment when you desperately need a warm chocolate chip cookie? Oh, just me? Well, consider these your new go-to cookies to make for birthdays, anniversaries, new parents, old friends, lovers, and anybody who could use a hug in cookie form.

xo Maria

P.S. I was delighted to be a guest on the latest episode of Kitchen Tape, a podcast for people who love food! We talk about what it means to be a steady creative partner, how trust is built behind the scenes, and why some of the most enduring cookbooks are the result of deep, generous collaboration rather than singular authorship.

The warm weather and brighter days of spring have been giving me life. I am inspired to go for long walks in the evenings when I get home from work, and motivated to wake up early to go for jogs around the neighborhood. It is such a luxury to move my body outside. I love feeling the warm sun on my face and breathing the fresh spring air. I also love seeing the neighborhood burst into bloom after a rain. I always take stock of the neighborhood fruit trees (I like knowing who I could ask for a lemon in a pinch and who is sneakily growing passion fruit!) and I have literally been stopping to smell the roses—they are everywhere!

Springtime starts to feel really busy really fast. It’s like everyone slowly emerges from hibernation in late March and starts making plans. All of a sudden, mid-April hits and our social calendars are jam-packed with baby showers and birthday parties galore! It’s such a privilege to celebrate and to make plans, but it’s also really good to remember to pause and give ourselves a moment to ground and be present. I like to think my neighborhood jaunts serve to bring me back to the present, especially when things ramp up.

Spring is a time of renewal, regrowth, and planting seeds to nurture. In that spirit, Maria has been taking a meditation class on Monday evenings. At one point in class, the instructor pulled a blanket gently over Maria to cover her while she meditated. She felt so incredibly comforted, safe, and cared for. It struck Maria: “When was the last time someone has covered ME with a blanket?!” As a mother of two young boys and a natural caretaker, she is usually the one doing the covering, the caring for, and it felt incredible to receive such tenderness from the instructor.

I have been thinking about this so much since she shared this experience and feeling with me. Having the simplest things done for you that you normally do for yourself, like getting covered with a blanket, have the ability to make you feel so taken care of. It is the reason that getting a facial feels so fantastic, that having your back rubbed when you’re upset is soothing. These little acts of service and kindness are so impactful, whether you are giving or receiving.

I have realized since moving in with Cullen that something that I want most often, to feel warm and cozy and cared for, is a warm chocolate chip cookie delivered to me on the couch. And the way we get there is a team effort!

Okay, I know, it’s a little basic, but hear me out. What I do is this: make a batch (sometimes a double) of chocolate chip cookie dough, scoop it into balls, and then freeze them. Then, when I’m PMSing and NEED a warm chocolate chip cookie, I don’t have to make one! Cullen will take three dough balls out of the freezer and bake them for us—one for each of us and then one to split. We both win, and feel cared for.

You may already be on the freezer cookie dough train, but if you’re not, please come aboard! I cannot begin to tell you how amazing it is to have HOMEMADE cookie dough in the freezer, and how many times I’ve thanked my past self for hooking it up. When my sister Jo got engaged to her fiancé, Cory, right after Christmas, I didn’t have time to make dessert for their surprise celebration. Instead, I brought a tray of cookie dough balls I had ready to go in the freezer, and we baked them off after dinner. I’ll never forget sitting around her dining table with both of our families, reliving their proposal story while eating warm chocolate chip cookies.

I hope you all are able to take a few moments to slow down this month, even as things start to speed up, preferably while tucked under a blanket and eating a warm chocolate chip cookie!

Whiskey and Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies (for Now and Later)

I know I’m asking a lot of you to make cookie dough now and freeze it for later. Trust me, it will be well worth it when your body and soul needs a warm and gooey cookie and you remember that you have a whole batch of homemade ones that will be ready to bake as soon as your oven is preheated! It’s just like planting a garden—work a little now to reap the benefits for weeks to come! These cookies are not revolutionary, but they are everything you want from a chocolate chip cookie: crisp on the edges, slightly soft when you bite into the center, with a hint of rye flour to add some depth of flavor and a splash of whiskey for fun. If you don’t have any whiskey or bourbon on hand, you can simply omit it. My hope for you is that, even if you make the dough, someone else might bake one of these for you and serve it to you straight from the oven alongside a glass of cold milk.

Makes 25 cookies

1 cup (225 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup (213 g) brown sugar

½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 2 large yolks

1 tablespoon rye whiskey or bourbon

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla paste

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

¾ teaspoon baking soda

1 ¾ cups (218 g) all-purpose flour

½ cup ( 52 g) rye flour

9 ounces (255 g) chopped bittersweet chocolate (60-72%), plus extra for topping

Flaky sea salt

Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter with both sugars on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the whole egg, mixing until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl then add the yolks, mixing until fully incorporated. Add the whiskey and vanilla and mix until combined, scraping down the bowl again. Sprinkle in the salt, baking soda, and baking powder, and mix until incorporated. Add the all-purpose and rye flour to the bowl and mix on low speed until almost combined. Add the chopped chocolate and mix until no flour streaks are visible and the chocolate is evenly distributed throughout.

Use a 3-tablespoon cookie scooper to portion the cookie dough, placing each scoop on the prepared baking sheet. If you run out of room, lay a small piece of parchment on top of the first layer of cookie dough, and continue stacking the dough balls. If desired, press a few extra chocolate chunks into the tops of the dough balls. Cover with plastic wrap or place inside a large plastic bag and refrigerate overnight. This is to hydrate the dough before freezing it, as well as make the dough less sticky for when you put it in the freezer bag.

Lay a large gallon-size zip-top bag (preferably for freezing!) on the counter. Place the dough balls in the bag in the same way that they were lined up on the baking sheet. This helps them preserve their shape in the freezer as well as store easily. Seal the bag and freeze.

To bake: Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove as many dough balls as you like from the freezer bag and place on the prepared sheet with plenty of space between cookies for spreading. When the oven is ready, place the sheet in the oven and bake until the cookies are golden brown and set in the middle, 15 to 18 minutes. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt the minute they come out of the oven, let cool for a few minutes to set, and eat while still warm.

When I visit Los Angeles these days, I have two rituals, both of which involve scrubbing. The first ritual is I try to find my way to a Korean spa. There are many wonderful options around LA, specifically in Koreatown. I’ve tried Wi Spa (before my wedding, with my maids of honor); Hugh Spa (delicious dumplings cooked by the spa owner’s mother); and most recently, the women-only Olympic Spa (10/10 stars).

When you arrive at a Korean spa, you’re given a robe, a set of slippers, and a locker to stash your belongings for the day. Typically, there’s a steam room, a wood-paneled hot stone sauna, various jacuzzi hot tubs set to different temperatures (hot, hotter, hottest), maybe a cold-plunge pool or a chilled room that invariably makes me think of myself as a cabbage or cauliflower sitting in a giant refrigerator. There are rooms for specific healing purposes, such as a salt room that has large chunks of pink salt scattered across the floor for you to relax directly on top of and absorb the minerals through your skin. There are also ambient-temperature rooms where you might enjoy the best nap of your life.

I like to start with the full-body scrub, an experience that involves lying completely nude on a plastic-covered table while a Korean auntie dumps buckets of warm water on you and uses a rough mitt to clean every inch of your body. Optionally, she will also massage your scalp and wash your hair. After that, I move on to a rotation of steam room, chill room, hot tub, sauna, rinse and repeat. I love how the Korean spa is filled with a cross-section of LA women. You see girlfriends relaxing together, grannies who have clearly figured out the secret to a long life, and healthy bodies of all skin tones, shapes, and sizes. We are all together, united in our spa day. I always leave feeling invigorated in both body and soul.

My second ritual is to visit one of LA’s numerous car washes. There’s one on practically every block, and the city’s vibrant car culture keeps prices reasonable, at least compared to the San Francisco Bay Area, where you’re more likely to find a DIY car wash and coin-operated vacuum that only sort of works. Clean car, clean me, happy life—that’s how the saying goes, right?

I’ve just returned from an LA trip (for my sons’ preschool spring break), and we are headed south again soon (for my birthday and I’ll be presenting at the Forbes Under 30 Summit). But before we start our road trip, I wanted to share a recipe for three-ingredient hot sauce. Enjoy and stay spicy! Next week, Maddie will have another recipe for you—an April bonus! Just because we love and appreciate you all.

xo,

Maria

3-Ingredient Hot Sauce

I like making hot sauce at home because, as a self-proclaimed control-freak, I get to control how fiery the chiles are, how roasted or raw the flavors are, and how salty. You can use any dried chile peppers that you love. Most vinegars will work here, but best to avoid balsamic.

Makes enough to fill two 4-ounce bottles

2 cups (75 g) dried chile peppers (ancho, guajillo, and cascabel are all fairly mild)

Boiling hot water, as needed

1 teaspoon (5 g) fine sea salt

1 cup (240 ml) vinegar (apple cider, white wine, red wine, rice, sherry, or a combo)

Pluck and discard the chile pepper stems, tear open the chiles, and shake out as many seeds as possible. (Don’t worry, the membranes holding the seeds carry most of the heat and the seeds can taste too bitter.)

In a large dry skillet over medium heat, toast the chile peppers, shaking the pan or stirring often, until they are fragrant, softened, and change color slightly (some varieties darken while others lighten), about 1 minute. This step is important to boost the chile flavors.

Transfer the toasted chiles to a medium bowl and pour in enough boiling water to cover them completely. Let soak until the water cools to room temperature, a few hours.

Strain the chiles through a fine-mesh sieve set over another bowl, reserving the soaking water, and transfer the hydrated chiles to a high-speed blender. Blend until finely chopped, then add the salt and a splash of the vinegar or the reserved soaking water or both. Blend again, gradually adding more vinegar or soaking water as needed to create a smooth, pourable hot sauce.

Decant the hot sauce into a clean glass bottle or jar, cover with a lid, and refrigerate for at least 1 week before using to allow the flavors to marry. The hot sauce will keep well in the refrigerator for months.

(Optionally, before decanting into a bottle, you can pour the blended sauce into a small pot and simmer for about 15 minutes to intensify the roasted flavors of the chiles.)