Closed Loop Cooking Weekly Newsletter 1.27.23

CLC Weekly ✨🍞 Back with bread magic and beyond

January 27, 2023

January 27th, 2023 

It’s been a long year and a half, friends.

I’ve thought about this letter many times–a foray back into food and community that after a couple turns around the sun is finally back in your inbox. THANK JULIA.If you couldn’t tell, I’ve missed y’all, dearly.And what a year and change it’s been. Self recovery / discovery, changing tides, and one resilient sourdough starter that survived it all. That’s right, born of Portland spores, my funk child lives on, making a regular tangy loaf. I’m proud of this LFR (that’s long ferm relationship) and have made sourdough countless times since its inception. It’s one of those recipes you can eventually repeat on muscle memory. No need to refer to the worn sticky note with careful measurements in my silverware drawer. And yet, the smallest changes can take us out of our comfort zone. Tasked with recreating this recipe in a friend’s kitchen, the dough I’d made confidently a hundred times was too wet, too stiff, and finally just two crusty loaf rocks. Disorienting, to say the least. When you’re expecting steamy, well-baked bread magic and end up eating the cooked bits around a raw dough ball in secret shame over someone else’s sink you look at how you got there. All the preparation or recipe adjusting and still, sometimes things just go awry.So we’re cooking with grace in 2023–what will be will be and getting back to a regular weekly cadence to explore new ideas, what’s happening in the plant-based, low waste food world, and sharing plates.This next year I’m cultivating more:

  • experimental ferments, and just letting it happen

  • meals together (keep your eyes peeled for Scrap Supper invites!)

  • creative movement, just for me

  • DIY pasta moments

  • seedlings, even if it’s just an herb garden this year

and doing less of these:

  • reading books I think I should be enjoying

  • skinny jeans–I have fully embraced my wide leg, androgynous pant

  • saying yes. really considering asks before committing

  • recipe intimidation–if it scares me, let’s jump in!

Not one for restrictive resolutions we’ve re-connected with some favorite CLC pals to find out what other folks are making space for and being mindful of this year. We’ve got a great relaunch and I’m so, so glad to share it with you.Stay hungry,Hawnuh Lee | Founder, Closed Loop Cooking

Cairnspring Mill. // @hawnuhlee

The dish >>

Setting intentions. 

In conversation with some of our fav CLC friends, we’re sharing our More / Less lists of the new year. As a list devotee, these low impact intentions offer inspiration for what we can seek out and be more mindful of in 2023. 

Maia Welbel, writer and curator of Plant Matter and CLC acclaim -

More:

  • Trusting myself

  • Trying new things

  • Prioritizing play

  • Community connection

Less:

  • Burnout

  • Letting anxiety limit my actions

  • Conforming to neuronormative expectations 

Alex Gamboa Grand, co-founder of low waste product shop, Way of Being -

More:

  • Supporting regenerative agriculture and baking and cooking with local, seasonal ingredients

  • Unapologetically doing what allows me to feel like I want to feel and be who I want to be

  • Snail mail and phone calls

  • Leadership and education

Less:

  • People pleasing

  • Unreasonable and unhealthy expectations for myself and my time

  • Depression!

 

Sabs Katz, educator, creator of Sustainable Sabs -

More of:

  • Winter walks

  • Trying new recipes

  • Romanticizing my life

  • Protecting my peace

Less of:

  • Waiting to have important conversations

  • People pleasing

  • Expecting perfection

  • Scrolling my phone right up until bed 

Waz Wu, vegan creator, designer, writer, event producer, Veganizer PDX -

More of:

  • Simple, nourishing home cooked meals

  • Daily movement: neighborhood walks, light yoga, and stretching

  • Organize and decorate my home (even if it's just a little corner at a time) to bring joy

  • Approachable goals and checklists instead of big resolutions

  • Make space for rest and down time -- it's okay to do nothing!

 

Sara Weinreb, facilitator, herbalist, writer, and founder of IMBY, a virtual community care center -

More of:

  • Ease

  • Community care

  • Saying “no”

  • Beauty in the mundane

  • Play and creativity

Less of:

  • Forcing healing

  • Hyper-individualism

  • Overcommitting

  • “Charge your worth”

  • Rest for productivity’s sake

 

Maya Oren, writer, photographer, cinematographer, and a brand consultant. Writing On Holiday -

More:

  • PLAY and childlike wonder

  • LOVE and real connection

  • Respect and reverence for our beautiful planet and the beings on it

  • Cozy and respecting my new found introvertedness

  • Beauty. Beauty in my home, curated outfits, intentional dinners with beautiful settings.

  • Focus and celebration on what I did do, and not what I should have done. 

Less:

  • Focus on productivity and ladder climbing

  • Bras

  • Inhibitions

  • Fear and getting in my own way

  • Planning!

 

Moji Igun, writer, founder of sustainable brand consulting company, Blue Daisi Co -

More:

  • Reading

  • Exploring

  • Boundaries

  • Yarn

  • Aerial arts

Less:

  • Rushing

  • Self-rejecting

  • Forcing things that aren't for you

 

Rachelle Hacmac, recipe developer, food stylist + photographer, regenerative seaweed pioneer -

More of:

  • Eating seaweed (check out the Winter Waters fest below!)

  • Fostering kittens

  • Making n/a cocktails at home

  • Following the sun 

Less of:

  • Self doubt

  • Ziplock bags

  • Packaged/processed foods

 

Chloé Lepeltier, found of Conscious by Chloé, championing sustainability through zero waste, slow living, and ethical fashion -

More:

  • Childlike play

  • Cold swims

  • Mending

Less:

  • Consumption

  • Overthinking

  • Screens

Thank you to everyone for sharing! We’d love to hear from you–what are you seeking more or less of in the new year?

Portland friends, make sure to check out the regenerative seaweed festival happening throughout February >> Winter Waters. Sea veg like you’ve never seen before. 👀

Newsletter read while cozied up with cold weather favorite, carrot cake banana bread.

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