April Diet
Green Lunch, Helen Garner, The Whipped Cream of Yogurts, Spring Walking Uniform
Here is my monthly “diet” of things that have either occupied my thoughts, moved me in some way or just felt special enough to share; what I was reading, watching, eating, wearing and visual research that shaped my month.
Last year’s April Diet included cinnamon affogatos and my favourite ice cream topping (salt!), the best rhubarb cake, picnic inspiration from A Room with a View, a daffodil diary, eclipse reading and the best knit tanks for spring layering.
Below you will find: eating notes (my latest salad obsessions and “the whipped cream of yogurts”), my uniform for spring walks (including a very reasonably priced wristwatch from one of my favourite stores, and my current favourite lipstick recipe), reading and viewing recommendations, a gentle spring playlist etc.
Green Lunch
Spring is finally happening for us here in Toronto. The trees outside my window are full of these glorious fresh green puffs and I’ve transitioned out of my favourite winter orange mush and into GREEN mush. Now lunch is all about Canal House’s “fresh” (ie frozen) pea soup and salads.
For salad, I’m specifically making the Wilted Spinach Salad from The Greens Cookbook by Deborah Madison. It’s a big spinach salad with red onion, mint, olives (Iately I like to use Moroccan), feta, garlic and sherry vinegar. The “wilted” part comes from tossing the salad with very hot olive oil, which cooks the spinach slightly and brings out its sweetness. I like this salad with pretty much anything, but love it especially with either hard boiled eggs, Jacques Pepin’s Chicken Persillade or hot smoked trout.
Another very well-used cookbook is Rose Carrarini’s Breakfast Lunch Tea. (I just bought her new Breakfast Lunch Tea with Children, which I am VERY excited about). Now that it’s spring I’m revisiting a favourite salad recipe, Asparagus and Almond Salad with Chicken:
April Viewing and Reading
An Unmarried Woman, 1978
This month I made a return to the cinema, not only to watch, but also to introduce (!) Paul Mazursky’s An Unmarried Woman. It was screening as part of my friend Haley Mlotek’s Divorced Women’s Film Festival, curated for the press tour for her beautiful new book, No Fault: A Memoir of Romance and Divorce. I was so honoured she asked me to do this and agreed because I thought it would be good to go a bit outside of my comfort zone.