L.J. Keys

Archive - December 2019

Arugula Salad for Life

December 28, 2019
Red Lady J
For Readers

I LOVE ARUGULA!

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I want to admit that I got the idea for this salad online somewhere. I usually pin things and even though I often make changes to recipes, I like to provide the original post so credit is given where it’s due.

In this case, I was furiously googling a simple salad to go with some salmon we already had in the refrigerator. For the sake of providing an original post, I found this one! The first couple times I made it, I included the pine nuts but found them to be relatively unnecessary (though a delightful addition).

Now on to the meat and potatoes! Or rather, the lemon juice and olive oil.

Life.

It’s so simple!

Grab a 5 oz container of arugula and some light extra virgin olive oil. Dump the arugula in a big ol’ bowl and add two tablespoons of olive oil. Mix together! I use my hands so I don’t crush the arugula leaves.

Now, the magic happens.

Depending on what you’re making (or the season), you can add a tablespoon of lemon juice OR a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. I do not jest when I say that this salad goes with everything. Like, I’m pretty sure if you served it with pigs feet, it would be delicious… The salad part anyways.

So, you pick your poison, add that in, mix with your hands again. Grab a couple of bowls (the hubby and I like this salad so much that we’ll split the whole container between the two of us – in a household NOT obsessed with arugula, it would probably comfortably serve 4 people), and divide the arugula between them. The hubby can’t have much salt so I don’t add any beforehand but I’m a salt fiend – actually have a sodium deficiency – so I add a splash to mine and mix it in. Then, add your parmesan. We usually do two tablespoons each.

Then toss that protein on top and boom, baby! As if you’re sitting on a stone patio overlooking the Adriatic Sea, flavor rushing into your heart and enveloping you in its loving arms.

The lemon juice option is almost always lovely paired with a Chardonnay and the balsamic option is almost always delicious paired with a Cabernet Sauvignon (but of course, this depends more on your protein).

Recipe

1 – 5 oz package of arugula
2 – tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 to 1.5 – tablespoons lemon juice or balsamic vinegar (or one of each if you’re feelin’ frisky)
4 – tablespoons of parmesan cheese (shredded or grated)
1 – teaspoon salt (optional)
Add protein on top

Step 1 – Add arugula to a large bowl.
Step 2 – Add 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil. Toss.
Step 3 – Add 1 to 1.5 tablespoons of lemon juice or balsamic vinegar. Toss.
Step 4 – Add 1 teaspoon of salt. Toss.
Step 5 – Top with 4 tablespoons of parmesan cheese.
Step 6 – Top with protein.

Serves 4

The Gifts of Imperfection – Brene Brown

December 28, 2019
Red Lady J
For Readers
2 Comments

The Book That Started It All

I was in a pickle!

There I was, sitting in the chair at the therapist’s office. I had just moved from New York to Texas and felt like I’d left everything behind. I left family and friends, I left my job, I left our neighborhood, I left my childhood behind. If you’d asked me then, I’d have probably told you I left myself in Buffalo.

This!

But I was in Texas. My husband and my dog were in Texas. All my stuff (except my piano – a story for another time) was in Texas. For a few months, I felt like two halves of a tree struck by lightning and tied together with twine. I tried to grow roots but all I found was ash.

That’s when things started to fall apart. There, in that chair in my therapist’s office, everything came rushing out of my heart as if Arwen once again sang to the waters of the Misty Mountains. Each childhood fear, each trauma, each patriarchal dismissal, each time I was “too sensitive”, each time I was “too much”, each time I was not enough, galloped from my lips and dove into the ground like icicles until I found myself in a fortress quite like Elsa’s.

And weirdly enough, I actually did eventually find myself singing that damn song that echoed across the radio waves for months. But I didn’t really begin to let it go until I read a very special book. A book I purchased in January of 2018 at the behest of my therapist and my best friend alike. Enter *the crowd goes silent in anticipation* BRENÉ BROWN! *and the crowd goes wild*

Ok, I know, I know. The whole world is bonkers for Brené. But seriously, a woman who studied shame, is ruthlessly honest about it, and delightfully comical while doing so? A comedy gem of 2019, Amy Poehler’s Wine Country (on the Netflix), tells the truth: of course we all have obsessive love and a zillion questions for Brené. But Brené has boundaries! So instead of trying to have one on one conversations with millions of people every single day for the rest of her entire life, she wrote us a bunch of seriously awesome books to answer the most pressing of our questions.

Rawr. Courage. Rawr.

I highly recommend The Gifts of Imperfection as a starting point. I’m going to say this a lot in this section of the blog, but I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it: this book changed my life. The deep gratitude I feel for the life I have wouldn’t be a thing. And for that, I will be forever thankful to Brené.

I needed to read about courage and compassion. Compassion for others and for myself. I needed to learn about gratitude and what it really looks like. I needed to learn what it feels like to really let go of anxiety. I needed to learn all of it. And of course, I haven’t learned it all yet – but I’m trying. AND rereading.

Hope you enjoy the book! Let me know what you think of it!