Hey Jen: 2025
Hey, Jen: A newsletter on food, home, life, and things I pick up off the side of the road.
I have never been so clear on my New Year’s Resolutions. Ready for them?
Blank Stare When People Ask Me Inappropriate Questions About My Life:
I became a mom at 16, and the social gymnastics it has taken to try to make other people feel comfortable with my motherhood have been absolutely exhausting.
Here’s how it goes: I mention my kids, and then someone asks, “Oh, you have kids, how old are they?” And I answer, “20, 23, and 24,” and then I have to watch them go through the exact same mental frazzle that I’ve watched my entire life: the confused face, the furrowed brow, and then the follow-up questions and comments, such as, “You don’t look old enough to have kids that age!” “Oh my god, I thought you were going to say they were like seven, that’s crazy!” “You look so young! How old were you when you had kids?” And my personal favorite that I swear to you I have heard hundreds of times, “Do they all have the same dad?”
You’d think I’d be exempt from these kind of absolutely insane personal questions from strangers in more liberal areas where there is outward support for women’s choices, but, oh friend, the questions and comments just skew in a different, yet equally inappropriate direction, such as, “Why didn’t you have an abortion?,” “Oh my god, I thought things like that only happened in, like, third world countries,” or the most jarring recent comment, “Woah, so you had kids basically like the moment you started your period.”
Blank stares, all of you.
Maybe eventually, if I’m feeling slightly more generous, I might practice some of these tactics.
Drink More Grandma Water:
Goddamn, I love a hot water with lemon. I love it so much that I have begun ordering it at restaurants. Hello, it is simultaneously refreshing and soothing, it is hydrating and helps me get my vitamin C. Also, it is both deeply pleasurable and it is free.
Jax’s sister has been into all kinds of hot water recipes for a while now. She grates in fresh ginger and different citrus and spices, and I’m about to go all-in on grandma water. I will share my favorite recipes.
Design Everything I Want:
Being a wedding planner has taught me so much. In a nutshell:
The ceremony deck I designed for Richard & Chandler’s wedding at B.R. Cohn Winery in Glen Ellen, CA. Photography by Jenna Powers. 1) I’m obsessed with design. My luxury clients with design budgets and amazing taste (chef’s kiss, you delightful angels) have given me the opportunity to wave my little wand, build out floorpans and design schematics and think in layers: color, texture, flooring, furniture, lighting, ceiling dressing, tabletop, fabric, working with nature, materials, printed items, focal-points & displays, guest experience, music & mood, menu selections, cocktails and wine, details, details, details, and I will never be the same. I want to apply this skill everywhere in my life.
Using dance-flooring, I layered black and white striped flooring with a mirrored aisle, tons of florals in a blush pink and white color scheme with black and white chairs. I love the sophistication of this look. 2) I love feeling. Heartfelt moments that bring us together is what the human experience is all about. I want more of that always. Creating a space to hold all that magic is my favorite.
3) I love creating experiences. I’ve known this ever since I had the immense pleasure of being the chef-owner of Blush Catering in the way way back (2009, y’all!), began hosting retreats at home, in Bali, and Mexico (pre-Covid), and then turned my long-term side passion (I was 18 when I started coordinating weddings at a church in my hometown) into my full-time business, but I have honed this skill in ways that only luxury weddings could have given me the opportunity to do.
I live for a coordinated tablescape. 4) I’m ready to expand and shift. Now, I want to get my hands on designing everything: new brands, home goods, cookbooks, and more. I’m doing less for others so I can do more for me, and I am so excited. I have right-sized my wedding roster (now booking for 2026, btw) and am spending my early mornings working out, writing, planning, and designing before I head off to work every day.
5) I know the steps for Invention and Reinvention: Design, planning, budgeting, choosing a deadline, and orchestrating + implementing is how we get anything done, including all of our goals. I understand this process, like, in my bones, and it’s my template for invention and reinvention.
Let’s go 2025. I’m ready for you.
What to Eat on NYE: Rosemary Butter Langoustine with Saffron Risotto
This was our Christmas Eve Dinner, and it was delicious. Owen had a friend join us, and I convinced him he should learn to make risotto to impress future dates, so he did most of the stirring, but Owen and Jax also took shifts. Risotto is simple, but it takes some time. It is totally worth it. Serves 6.
Ingredients:
For the Saffron Risotto:
1/4 cup olive oil
2 shallots, diced
2 cups Arborio rice
4-5 cups chicken broth (I used homemade turkey stock that I made from our Thanksgiving turkey)
1/2 cup white wine
2 teaspoons saffron
1/2 cup grated aged cheese (I used Cypress Grove’s Midnight Moon, a parmesan, aged cheddar, or an aged gouda-style cheese are all great options)
Sea salt, to taste
In a large pot, bring your stock to a boil and reduce to a very low simmer.
In a separate large stockpot, heat 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat until it shimmers. Add the diced shallots and sauté until the shallots are translucent. Next, add the rest of the oil, and the Arborio rice. Toast the rice for 2-3 minutes, until fragrant, not brown.
Add the wine and saffron to the rice mixture and stir until the wine has been absorbed. Add a couple pinches of salt.
Maintaining a low simmer in the rice pot, ladle the stock, 1/2 cup at a time into the rice mixture, stirring until the liquid is absorbed. When you’re down to the last cup-or-so of stock, you’ll want to taste your risotto frequently to test the firmness of the rice grains and the salt level. You’re looking for a toothsome center (think, pasta al dente) with a soft, creamy outer texture, and good flavor. You may or may not use all of your stock. Add salt, to taste. When the rice is cooked, but retains a toothy lil center, add your cheese and stir until incorporated.
While you have a twenty year old kiddo babysitting your risotto, prepare your langoustine.
For the Rosemary Butter Langoustine:
Listen, normally, I would say, go to your local seafood purveyor and see if they carry langoustine. However, peak lango-season is April - October, and (pretend you’re my next-door neighbor and I’m whispering one of those “how to give fancy while being a regular human life-moves” in your ear) Trader Joe’s seasonally carries cooked, frozen, langoustine tails that make your life easy and your risotto delicious and that is what I used.
12 oz. bag TJ’s Langostino tails, defrosted, and rinsed
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp diced shallot
1 sprig fresh rosemary, leaves removed, and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cubed
Salt, to taste
Heat a medium pot over medium heat. Add the olive oil and shallot, and sauté for about 3 minutes, until the shallots are tender. Add the finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves and sauté for about 30 seconds, until they become fragrant. Reduce heat to low. Add garlic and stir.
Immediately after the garlic, add the butter and stir until completely melted. Salt the butter, to taste, add the rinsed and drained langoustine and cook in the butter until just heated through. Drain the butter and set aside.
Fold half the langoustine into the risotto, and use the other half to top each person’s bowl. Garnish with more cheese and fresh rosemary, if desired.
Enjoy!
Apothecary: Rose + Rosemary Body Soak
Two of our sweet neighbors dropped gifts on our porch for Christmas. I responded with cookies and this body soak, which I find absolutely delightful in the bath.
Ingredients:
4 cups epsom salt
3 Tbsp fresh rosemary leaves
1/4 cup food-grade rose petals (check the bulk or tea section of your local grocery)
2 Tbsp jojoba oil
1 Tbsp rosehip oil
20 drops geranium essential oil (or oil of your choice)
Mix well, and divide into jars. This makes a great wintry soak for cold feet, and I love a cup or two in the bath.
Genius Life Move: Mini Semi-Local Getaways
Jax and I have done SO MUCH in the past six weeks. We moved out of our respective places into a shared home (yay for moving in together! but moving SUCKS no matter how great the reasons are), we went to San Diego for Owen’s graduation from boot camp, Sydney got stuck on BART during the earthquake/tsunami warning so she missed her flight and couldn’t join us, then we went straight to Texas for my last wedding of the year, to see May (my oldest kiddo), and to show Jax around San Antone for a couple days (miss you S.A.!).
The second we got back, it was time to get ready for Christmas, plus we are hosting a NYE housewarming party, which we are very much looking forward to. But, OMG, we needed some time to just be together.
So we snuck away. Just for a night. Just an hour from home.
I love The Flamingo Resort in Santa Rosa. Once you arrive, it feels like you could be in…L.A. in the early 60’s…Hawaii in the late 50’s…but definitely not Santa Rosa, CA circa 2024. It is a lovely, kitschy, fun, midcentury, lazy hideaway and it helped so much with resting and unplugging and just being together.
We had dinner by the fire pit, soaked in the hot tub, swam in the pool under the night sky, and hit pause-reset. I so needed that. I highly recommend finding a great little semi-local place where, you, too can press pause-reset. Is there a cabin in the woods? A yurt? A reasonably priced hotel, B&B, or vacation rental? Is there a day spa? A hike? A beachfront? A bookstore? Anywhere yummy that you can waste a day just taking care of you? Find it. It’s a genius life move.
Most importantly, wherever you are, take good care of yourself this holiday season. Squeeze your loved ones. We’ll see you in the New Year.
So much love,
Jen