It’s a new year
and I hope you’re able to “winter down” and rest today
Dear ones. So many of you I know irl and have the pleasure of being able to call your faces to mind as I write. And! This little community is growing, so I’m delighted to welcome new readers to Take Heart.
I imagine many of you thought about intentions, or themes, or desires for 2023. I did too. Simply put, many of my intentions centered around the answers to these questions, lyrics to this lovely collaboration by José James and Moby:
What do you ache for? What do you breathe for? What do you dream for? What do you reach for?
If you do nothing else with my little missive today, at least click the link and listen to “ache for.” Seriously, I am still swooning, and it helped jumpstart my imagination in the waning days of 2022. One of the things I know I ache for is a renewed, embodied, writing practice, and I’m hoping you’ll join me for the discovery in the days to come.
Yours in wintering,
In Praise of “Gruel”
The last two months of the year were rough and tumble. My house felt like one giant sack of germs, and there was so much sickness ripping through us that I haven’t nurtured this space as often as I would like. But I was making congee— a rice porridge commonly made in many Asian countries—like, a lot.
First mentioned to me by a dearest when they found out I was sick, I saw that it could be relatively simple to prepare, probably everybody in the house would eat it, and I had all the necessary ingredients on hand.
You may have already been making congee for years, either because it’s woven into your own cultural traditions and family memories, or because it seems to have received an uptick in attention over the last decade.
My first bite felt like a revelation. Inherently soothing. Nourishing. And it was just the thing for that frigid bout of temps we had. Just the thing to set the tone for healing our bodies, and probably our spirits along with it.
There are plenty of recipes available out there. NY Times Cooking has a nice one, and I liked the one at The Spruce Eats, too. But this is the sort of the thing you can easily do without a real recipe because porridge is probably something familiar to you already, no matter what part of the world your family of origin hails from. Corn grits, barley cereal, polenta, or millet…they’ve all (noted in NPR’s The Salt) been rather unceremoniously dubbed “gruel,” even if the connotation of that word couldn’t be further from the essence of truth: sustenance is worth celebrating, and maybe worth breaking out your mother’s (or grandma’s or Daddy’s or any other supportive elder in your life) prized, delicate, rose-splashed earthenware bowl for.
Today would’ve been the perfect time to talk about collards and black eyed peas, I know. But, truthfully, even though I grew up in the South, I’ve never once made this for New Year’s Day. I remember my mother saying once that she didn’t like black eyed peas, and that was that. Funny what things don’t get passed down. That’s probably worth an entire essay. But for now, I’ll tell you -
What I did to make congee:
Very basically, you take washed rice and simmer it in water or chicken stock for about an 1 1/2 - 2 hours. I used 3/4 cups of white sushi rice, a carton of chicken broth + 4 cups of water, and popped the carcass of the previous night’s rotisserie chicken into the pot as well.
You can also throw in an aromatic, like fresh ginger. I just peeled the root with a spoon and tossed the whole thing in. Made a tiny pool of salt in my palm and sprinkled that in as well.
You could stop there, or once cooked, add a splash of soy sauce, or chili oil. Maybe top with scallions and a jammy, soft-boiled egg. Voila, you’re done. (After you’ve fished out the chicken bones and ginger root.)
The Porch Gathering
My dear friends and oft-co-conspirators, Gareth Higgins & Brian Ammons, are organizing a retreat (March 9-12) near Black Mountain, North Carolina — there will be movies, music, stories, poetry, and people dreaming together about the common good. I’m one of those dreamers, and I would love to see you there. More details here.
