Life is life-ing!

And candidly, I’ve hardly been in the kitchen these past couple of weeks. We’ve had some big life changes, and some exciting things coming up: We bought and moved into a house! We are leaving tomorrow for a week in Switzerland! Poppy’s almost two! Life is feeling very full right now in many lovely ways, but it’s been at the expense of time in the kitchen, trying out new recipes, and researching new recipes to try. So, in lieu of my usual line-up of two recipes to cook this week, I’m sharing a few food-related things I’m looking forward to.

An easy build-your-own soba noodle salad dinner with peanut sauce.

• Spring veg! I suspect we’ll start to see asparagus starting to pop up at the market in the next couple of weeks and despite my qualms with spring cooking, this winter lover is oh-so-excited for some warm weather and color to reenter the world.

• Cheese in Switzerland. Whenever someone asks me what my favorite cheese is, my answer is always the same: it’s too hard to pick just one, but alpine-style cheeses are my favorite. What’s an alpine-style cheese? Semi-hard cheeses like Gruyère or Comté that historically have been made from the milk of cows out to pasture at higher altitudes in the Alps. They’re characteristically nutty in flavor and smooth in mouthfeel. Did I advocate for a trip to Switzerland because of the cheese? Yes.

• One of my favorite recipe developers, Eden Grinshpan, is coming out with a new cookbook in April, and it’s all veg recipes. I typically steer clear of vegetarian cookbooks because I find them to be a bit…uninspiring? But I cooked one of the early release recipes from her cookbook this past weekend and it was *chefs kiss*.

• Poppy has been the anthesis of food inspiration as of late, as we’re fully in picky toddler mode. She’s decided, above all else, she prefers freeze dried foods? Freeze dried green beans? Adds to cart. But that won’t stop me from getting excited for her upcoming birthday and making some kind of special cake. Please send any recos my way!

I’ll be taking a brief break from IZK—to get reinspired and soak in all of the exciting life things happening right now. Will see you back here in your inbox when asparagus season is here!