Welcome to the February 2025 version of RPL at House, the place I share what I’m as much as after I’m not within the kitchen or in entrance of the digicam. 

Everybody appears to be on Substack nowadays, and I’ve briefly thought of it, however between the weblog, our present e-newsletter, YouTube channel, meal plan subscription, and extra, I’m not positive there’s room for yet another ball (platform) to juggle.

Anywho, let me know your ideas within the feedback if in case you have any options!  

🧘🏽‍♂️📱What I’m engaged on in life 

Distancing myself from social media. Particularly, Instagram, as I don’t use TikTok or X, or Fb (an assistant manages my Fb enterprise account). 

Again story: Again in fall 2023 / winter 2024, I took a hiatus from Instagram, the place not solely did I not put up, I didn’t even open the app for 4 months. 

I finally returned to the app (it’s kind of a part of the job), and as I equipped for my cookbook launch in September 2024, I discovered myself utilizing Instagram far more than I might have favored. 

By final fall, the state of zen I had loved throughout that four-month reprieve had largely disappeared, regardless of me having higher social media boundaries and a extra subtle understanding of how the app affected my temper, power, and productiveness. 

That realization, plus the nonstop election cycle and the following outcomes, made me reevaluate my relationship to Instagram but once more. 

I discover myself typically questioning whether or not it’s doable to be a “content material creator” who creates content material however doesn’t take part in all sides of its dissemination.

God, simply studying that sentence, you’ll be able to inform I was a nerdy lawyer who’s most likely not reduce out for the world of content material creation within the first place 😅

However in all seriousness, I do take into consideration my position and duty as a content material creator. As a lot as I really like sharing recipes and meals content material, I don’t need to be a part of a system that has created an precise dependancy for tens of millions of individuals, an app that typically leaves individuals much less joyful and extra anxious than they have been earlier than they picked up their telephones. 

There are definitely shiny spots to social media and I’m so grateful that I’ve been capable of construct a constructive group there over the past eight(!) years, however the best way the apps are designed—to make infinite scrolling and sensory overload inevitable—makes these shiny spots more and more arduous to search out. 

Anywho, I’ve been making an attempt to get to a spot the place, if it’s a day the place I’m not posting a video to my Instagram feed (which is most days), I merely don’t open the app. If I need to put up a narrative or reply to a couple messages, I give myself 10 minutes day (or fewer) to spend on the app. 

And I’ve been counting on one in every of my assistants to assist with social media administration so I can spend much less time engaged on the precise creation of the content material. 

I’m not absolutely there but, however the days the place I don’t open Instagram, I really feel a lot better: extra energetic, extra enthusiastic about work, extra centered, and properly, simply happier. Which, in flip, offers me extra time and power to (a) work on the issues I do love and (b) to hang around with the individuals I cherish (like my foolish mother). 

What I’m watching, listening to, and studying

📺 Watching

My favourite TV present from 2022 was the Netflix comedy-drama sequence Mo, so I used to be past thrilled when season 2 lastly dropped final month. 

The present is loosely based mostly on comic Mo Amer’s life as a Palestinian refugee who grew up in Texas, and it was co-created by Ramy Youssef, star of one in every of my different favourite TV exhibits (additionally titularly named, Ramy). 

What drew me to the present is that it’s not like something on American TV. Sure, Mo and his household are refugees who’ve been searching for asylum for 20+ years, however they’re additionally laugh-out-loud humorous and entrepreneurial (Mo hustles between promoting merch from his automotive, working as a strip membership safety guard, working a falafel taco meals truck, and no matter job is open to him as a refugee with out papers). Mo’s love curiosity is Mexican-American, and Mo effortlessly lays down jokes in Spanish, English, and Arabic.  

The present touches on deep subjects and it’s typically heartfelt, however the humor is all the time current. And Mo’s indomitable spirit—all the time hustling, all the time resilient—is an attractive testomony to the higher facet of humanity. 

Watch the season 2 trailer right here. 

📚 Studying

When the New York Occasions issued its 100 Greatest Books of the twenty first century final yr, I spent an obscene period of time studying that listing, marking the books I had learn (not almost sufficient to my chagrin), and researching the books that sounded attention-grabbing to me. 

Listed here are three books from the listing I’ve lately learn (and beloved). 

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward. I’ve talked about this in a previous version of RPL at House, however Jesmyn Ward is my favourite up to date author. And for good cause. She’s simply 47 years previous and is the one writer on the above-mentioned NYT listing with three books on the listing (and was the the primary girl and Black American to have gained two Nationwide E book Awards). 

In Salvage the Bones, Ward, who grew up in rural Mississippi and survived Hurricane Katrina together with her household by sheltering in a truck, tells the story of the bond between three motherless kids within the days main as much as the hurricane in a poor bayou city. As with all of her books, her prose is intoxicatingly stunning and the storyline will immediately hook you. 

The Transient Wondrous Lifetime of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. This novel, which had been on my listing for years, combines many alternative themes and types: it’s a coming-of-age love story, there are science fiction references peppered in with magical realism, and there’s a beneficiant quantity of Spanish slang plus Dominican historical past (the latter felt like a free schooling in a subject most of us won’t ever be taught at school). 

The mix works brilliantly, because it weaves by means of the lifetime of Oscar Wao, a nerdy, chubby hopeless romantic who navigates unrequited love and third tradition child experiences in New Jersey and the Dominican Republic. The narrator’s voice—uniquely humorous and biting but eloquent—makes this a simple and extremely pleasurable learn. 

Random Household by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc. Whereas I lean in direction of fiction (the actual world is a scorching mess, I want an escape!), I often dabble in nonfiction, notably books that may educate me about worlds I’ll by no means know a lot about. And Random Household is the right instance. 

Utilizing greater than 10 years of immersive reporting and analysis, LeBlanc introduces us to an prolonged Puerto Rican-American household dwelling within the Bronx between the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties as they navigate the sophisticated worlds of affection, household, medicine, and incarceration. This e book options equal quantities of empathetic storytelling, rigorous reporting, and stunning revelations that make you need to maintain studying. 

PS: Should you’re the type of one that likes to learn at evening and/or in mattress, I can’t suggest this e book lamp sufficient. It attaches to your e book and casts a heat orange glow in your e book—shiny sufficient to mean you can learn however not so shiny that it’s going to disturb your bedmate or maintain you up at evening. 

🎧 Listening

The perfect podcast sequence I listened to lately is The Good Whale, and I’m assured that whether or not you’re an animal lover like me or not, you will discover it fascinating. 

It tells the story of Keiko, the orca who impressed the hit 1993 movie, Free Willy. It’s poignant, unhappy, stunning, and hopeful all on the identical time. 

And it’s a part of Serial Productions so you realize it’s properly executed (sure, the authentic Serial podcast that took narrative podcast storytelling to the subsequent degree). 

✈️ Enjoyable Issues

 As I sort, we’re flying again from Australia! That is my fourth go to in the previous few years, as Max’s grandparents reside there and we love spending time with them.

Although it’s more durable for them to get round bodily nowadays (grandpa is 92, grandma is 89), they continue to be upbeat, humorous, curious, type, and considerate. They’ve been married for over 65 years and proceed to carry fingers and make one another snicker. They’re the mannequin couple, and actually simply mannequin human beings. 

This time, we spent most of our time within the space they reside, the Adelaide Hills (the attractive mountainous areas surrounding town of Adelaide and populated with charming little cities).

Highlights included spending time with the grandparents, Max’s cousin Sophie and her husband Josh and their new child (named in honor of grandpa’s initials!), in addition to my very own first cousin Isha (she grew up in India however coincidentally moved to Adelaide a number of years in the past).

And the meals! Even in small cities within the Adelaide Hills, you will discover no less than just a few good vegan choices. And I imply good. 

As an example, at this informal espresso store and cafe, I used to be handled to a scrumptious stack of fried salt-and-pepper tofu, well-seasoned veggies, roasted pumpkin, native sourdough, candy potato crisps, all drizzled with chili oil. On the native lodge, I dined on (truly good) vegan pizza one evening; the subsequent evening, watermelon salad with peanut-ginger-sesame dressing and a vegan poke tofu bowl.

And on the warmest, sunniest restaurant, Marshi’s Kitchen, the place we met the stunning Marshi—a gifted chef who grew up in Sri Lanka—and her equally pretty husband, I dined on a pink lentil curry bowl full with kale sambol, braised cashews, spiced beetroot, and papadum. 

After the Adelaide Hills, we spent just a few days in probably my favourite metropolis, Melbourne. Positive, it doesn’t have the romantic appeal of Paris or the wild affordability of Bangkok (two of my different favourite cities), but it surely does have probably the very best vegan meals scene on the planet. 

I’m engaged on a information to Melbourne (what to eat, the place to remain, what to do), so keep tuned for all my suggestions!

Okay, that’s it for this month! Drop me a line beneath and let me know what you’d prefer to see within the subsequent version 🙂