Hello, friends. I’ve been dying to tell you about something since June and today is the day when I get to finally spill the beans! I met Bono. At Shangri La, the house Bob Dylan and his band bought and transformed into a recording studio that is now owned by Rick Rubin. And take a picture with Bono and a group of badass women activists. For Glamour magazine. SO CRAZY!

Photo credit: Sam Jones

Each year Glamour honors “Women of the Year.” This year Bono is being honored as their first “Man of the Year” for his work through ONE specifically supporting ONE Girls & Women and the Poverty is Sexist campaign. I had the chance to hear ONE co-founder Jamie Drummond speak a few years ago. He talked about how ONE came about and how Bono initially got involved. To sum up what he shared, Bono is the real deal, who totally knows his stuff and chooses to work on issues that are complex and generally not well understood by the general public but have massive positive impact on millions of people. Meeting Bono was an honor and when I mentioned to him that I had traveled with ONE and Heifer International to Malawi, he started talking in detail about what is happening in Malawi right now. (PS: Things are not good. Currently severe drought is causing a food emergency. Click here to learn more about what is happening. If you would like to donate specifically to help the people in this country I hold so close to my heart, click here. I just donated myself, in fact. All the cool kids are doing it. PEER PRESSURE!)

Glamour gathered a small group of women activists to pose in a photo with Bono for the article and I was lucky enough to be one of those women. It was a really amazing group and I loved hearing all the different ways they support both ONE and RED, through businesses they run to university campus work and much more.

There you have it. Bono and I are besties! In related news, I’m pretty sure they didn’t use the photo where we were all holding hands because I probably looked super stressed because “what if I move my pinky finger or squeeze his hand or something weird and he’ll for sure feel it and oh my goodness hold STILL and just keep holding Bono’s hand.”

The article will be featured in the December print issue of Glamour, which hits newsstands today! (I think my parents may buy them all, so if you want a copy, hurry.)

I have to finish this blog post with a plea for you to check out the Poverty is Sexist page, where you can learn more about the campaign, read ONE’s full report on how poverty disproportionately affects girls and women and sign the letter showing your support!

Happy Friday! It’s kind of a fun day…it’s my birthday! Which means Nate will be getting me the Viking cake from Extraordinary Desserts. Life is good.

I have SO MUCH TO SHARE TODAY. It’s my birthday so I can do what I want, right? Here we go!

Click on the image above to zoom in.

First, right now the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit is meeting to adopt a new set of sustainable development goals that aim to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and combat climate change, all by 2030. It’s a tall order but an achievable goal if we get to work.

So what can we do to support the Global Goals? From now until October 1, everyone from every faith and every walk of life can participate in Prayer for Everyone. The goal is to get people talking about the goals, sharing them with their faith communities and friends. The only way to achieve the global goals is if we all actually know what they are, so let’s get talking, sharing, praying, meditating, all of it! 🙂

When I visited Malawi with ONE, who is helping to support the Prayer for Everyone cause, one of my biggest takeaways is that we need to find a path for development that is not only sustainable but different from the old path. When we visited the Liwonde National Park and saw hundreds upon hundreds of hippos living in pristine waters, my heart ached thinking how quickly development would destroy those waters. While humans can be destructive, they can also be equally as creative and innovative, and I really do believe we can find a way to develop all nations in a way that doesn’t destroy what makes those nations beautiful and unique. Needless to say I am excited about what is happening at the UN this week! Please visit the Prayer for Everyone website and the UN Global Goals website to learn more! Bono also wrote an article for Medium this week talking about the Global Goals that is excellent. Happy Reading!

To finish off today’s Show and Tell, here are a few fun things I want to share!

• I put together a roundup of savory pumpkin recipes this week for Parade’s Community Table, and it is a mighty fine looking list. Definitely check it out!
• My friends Christine Koh and Asha Dornfest, authors of Minimalist Parenting, have started a podcast called Edit Your Life. Asha and Christine are the queens of simplicity and the podcast is great! (And they just might mention a certain food blogger in Episodes 4 and 6!)
• Jenny Lawson’s second book Furiously Happy came out this week! Jenny is The Bloggess and she is hysterical and wonderful and has a way with four letter words that is quite impressive. Anyway, I loooooved her first book and can’t wait to spend the weekend reading book 2!

That’s it! Bet you thought I’d never stop talking, eh? Show and Tell is for the whole class, please share your own stuff, too! 

Hello, my friends! It’s Friday! I’ve basically been stockpiling links to share with you all week, so get ready!

First I wanted to share a This American Life story with you that I thought was very powerful and thought provoking. Be sure to listen to The Problem We All Live With. There are two parts to the story. Click here for Part One. Click here for Part Two. The reporting is about integration in public schools and, well, it’s just really well done. Plus, it made me cry a couple times. So, if you’re easily moved to tears, listen with a box of Kleenex.

A group of powerful women we met in Malawi who are members of a Village Savings and Loan

Remember how I went to Malawi with ONE and Heifer International? You must since I talk about it pretty much every other breath. This week I read two articles that were fascinating and tied right in with my trip, so I wanted to share them with you.

• From Fast Company: In Africa, Chinese Developers are Building a Mini China. One of the most surprising and striking takeaways from my trip to Malawi was the Chinese presence in that country. I haven’t written about it yet because, honestly, it’s a huge topic and I don’t know where to begin. I am currently reading a book about the phenomenon, and trying to figure out the best way to write about the issue. Until then, this Fast Company article gives you a little taste for what’s happening in Africa with the Chinese. I think the lens through which the issue is viewed in this Fast Company article is a little more rose-colored than what we learned while in Malawi, but the article does give a good introduction to the types of things happening on the African continent. I do plan to write about it myself at some point, if I can ever wrap my brain around it all, that is.
• From Melinda Gates for Marie Claire: Melinda Gates Reports from Malawi, Where Feminism is Making Surprising Strides. This article is awesome and uplifting and does reflect our experience in Malawi well. The women in Malawi are so impressive. I have yet to write about the Village Savings and Loan groups we learned about (post to come, promise!), but it was a beautiful example of women making great strides in Malawi. Interestingly, when Ellen McGirt from our group asked Mr. Mtika, one of the Heifer farmers we visited, what the hardest Heifer intervention was to implement, he immediately responded with “family and gender roles.” We admired his humility in that response, especially since you could see that he and his wife have a wonderful partnership. ANYWAY, this was a great article. Plus, Melinda Gates is awesome. The end.

Would you like me to share some food with you? Because I can do that, too. Here we go!

• 15 Creative and Irresistible Kahlua Dessert Recipes
• 18 Creatively Irresistible Margaritas
• And, yes, I am aware that I basically gave those two articles the same title, although I wasn’t aware until right this moment typing them into this post! I think it’s time I get a thesaurus.

With that, I do believe I’ve given you enough reading, listening and cooking material to last you not only through the weekend but probably through the whole week!

Please let us know what you’ve been up to in the comments! Share links that you found interesting/funny/informative/whatever, share your own blog posts, or just share something fun that happened to you this week. It’s all fair game for Show and Tell!

Today I am writing as part of a month-long blog relay for ONE called “Light for Light.” At the end of this post there is a SUPER EASY way for you to do some real good. You won’t even have to click off this site to do it, so lend your voice (and your typing fingers) and help out!

When I’m wearing my photographer’s hat, I crave outdoor light. It makes lighting photos easier, everything looks more natural, and the pictures are generally more beautiful and striking. And, for my work as a food photographer, natural light is essential. If I have to photograph something using indoor light, well, I am not a happy camper.

This week, however, I have been trying to look at indoor light differently. I’ve been looking for the beauty in the “unnatural” light that I so often disdain. Because, truly, that light is beautiful. It is warm. It is inviting. And it gives our family opportunities beyond imagination.

My children can eat breakfast in the warmth of their own well-lit kitchen, even before the sun rises.

My children can read, even after the sun sets.

The orchid in my kitchen glows under the 1 kitchen light we leave on during evening hours to light our way through the house. It is beautiful.

Our family can enjoy holidays and birthdays and celebrations of all kinds under the lights hanging over our patio, those lights becoming a part of the fabric that is our collective family memory.

I am truly grateful for this this light that provides so much life after sunset. Yeah, I still need that “perfect” daylight for my food photography, but I will no longer shy away from the “imperfect” light that the photographer in me so often avoids. I will embrace the challenge and be grateful for that light.

When I traveled to Malawi in May and discovered a world where less than 10% of the people have electricity, I was stunned. To see with my own eyes what life is like for an entire country essentially without electricity, well, it was beyond what I had ever imagined.

I heard many, many, MANY statistics on the Malawi trip, and they all affected me deeply. But there were a few that really stood out, including this: 8 out of 10 people in sub-Saharan Africa heat their home and cook food using open fires. Inhalation of smoke and fumes produced from burning traditional fuels results in more deaths per year among women and children than from HIV/AIDS and malaria COMBINED. Forget the issue of simply lighting your home, lack of electricity is literally killing people every day.

The other thing that stood out to me while looking at the homes in the villages we visited were the schoolchildren. Once the sun goes down, studying and reading is out of the question. The fact that my girls can read for hours each night is a luxury. Their head lamps for reading in bed are a blessing.

Here’s the cool thing – we can do something about it! ONE’s bill, the Electrify Africa Act, was reintroduced in the House this past month by Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee – Ed Royce (R-CA) and Eliot Engel (D-NY).  The bill would help provide electricity to 50 million Africans for the first time, at no cost to US taxpayers. 

Let’s help make everyone’s nighttime merry and bright!

This same bill did not pass last year and we can’t let that happen again! We need to tell our leaders that we support this bill. Simply fill out the form below and click “sign petition” and you will have helped in a significant way. Thank you!

I am participating in the #lightforlight blog relay with ONE. Each day this month a different blogger is writing about light and tomorrow Whit Honea will be sharing his thoughts at Dads 4 Change, so be sure to check it out! Here are the posts that have been published so far. They are all beautiful.

• Electrify Africa by Karen Walrond
• Turn on the Lights by Laurie White
• There is a Light by Heather Barmore
• Light for Light by Tracey Clark
• Light is Life by Elizabeth Atalay
• Beneath the Light of Their Bedroom Lamp by Rebecca Woolf

For those of you who would like to read more on the subject, here are some great resources:

• The Electrify Africa Act 2015
• 6 Ways Energy Poverty Threatens Health Care for the Poorest
• ONE Energy Policy Document
• Why Poverty is Sexist: Energy Edition
• Energy Poverty is Sexist

Over the last six weeks as I have talked non-stop to anyone who will listen about my trip to Malawi (seriously, don’t ask me about the trip unless you have some time on your hands), I am discovering that not many people have heard of Heifer International. One of my biggest takeaways from the Malawi trip was that HEIFER IS AMAZING, so I wanted to take a moment today to share what exactly it is they do!

Years ago at Christmastime our aunt gave us a gift from Heifer, which meant a donation was made in our name to a family in need. It was the first time I had ever received a gift of this type, so the name “Heifer” has stayed with me. It hasn’t been until fairly recently, however, that I’ve really began to have a lot of experience with Heifer International. The more I get involved the more impressed I am with this non-profit organization.

In a nutshell, Heifer International places livestock with families in over 30 countries (including the U.S.) and has been doing so for over 70 years. Heifer’s goal is to end hunger and poverty through the “teach a man to fish” philosophy, and it works. The core of their model is “Passing on the Gift.” Families who receive a gift from Heifer are expected to pass it on, both by sharing their training as well as giving away the first female offspring from the livestock they receive. This not only extends the original gift but gives families the opportunity to invest in their own communities in a meaningful and sustainable way. And, as I discovered in Malawi, many of these families pass on livestock to others in their community more than just once!

I know I’ve already shared Luiza with you, but here are a few more pictures to give you further insight into her life

Economic independence is the key to meaningful development and reducing extreme poverty, but it is one of the hardest things to accomplish. Heifer has found ways to do just that and we saw firsthand on our trip to Malawi how communities are being transformed in sustainable and long-term ways.

Left: Josephine, who has started more than 15 savings and loan groups, thanks to training from Heifer; Right: Petronella Halwiindi, Country Director for Heifer Malawi, who is one of my favorite people EVER

The chief of Gomani village (in the brightly colored shirt) addresses our delegation, explaining the impact of Heifer’s work on the village at large. I kid you not, “We Are the World” was playing on a radio in the background while he spoke. Coincidence? I think not. This is the same village where people were singing and dancing the WHOLE TIME we were there, at least an hour. Gomani wins the Most Village Spirit superlative!

One of the biggest reasons I think Heifer is so successful is because they work within the communities they serve. Heifer employees on the ground are locals, so they understand the culture and politics of the communities where they are working. For example, in Malawi the Heifer team works with tribal chiefs to identify families that would be the best recipients of livestock. Families that are chosen are vetted thoroughly and often go on to become lead farmers in their villages, like Mr. Mtika, whom I wrote about a few weeks ago.

Heifer lead farmer Mr. Mtika

Mrs. Mtika and daughter Dorothy bid our group farewell. (Take note of Mrs. Mtika’s skirt.)

I also love that Heifer isn’t just about giving away cows and goats and calling it a day. Heifer employs many different “interventions” in the countries where they work, including disaster risk reduction, low carbon technology, village savings & loan groups, agroforestry, irrigation, livestock (which I already described), seed systems, conservation & agriculture, post harvest management, gender & family, and more. As Heifer works within communities, they identify the best interventions for each situation. For example, in Malawi they have assisted in creating milk bulking co-ops where farmers can sell their milk. We visited two of these co-ops, which were impressive facilities that were led and run by Malawians.

Photos of milk bulking co-op in Mchinji district. (Check out the skirt!)

On the last day in Malawi we visited three farmer families in the Thoylo district. The first farmer had been working with Heifer for 6 months, the second was in the process of building a pen for livestock she would soon be receiving from Heifer, and the third farmer had not yet begun working with Heifer. I keep using the word amazing, but it was amazing to see the transformation these families go through when working with Heifer. The differences in quality of life between the first and third families was striking and it made me excited for the woman who would soon be working with Heifer and needed the help so desperately.

January, began working with Heifer 6 months ago to gain additional support for the cow she received through FDIP, a government project

Rhoda, who is currently preparing her pen to receive a dairy cow distributed by Heifer International under the MDIP project 

Gertrude, a widowed mother of six who lost half of her home to catastrophic rains earlier this year; her cow produces significantly less milk than the cows owned by Heifer farmers; Gertrude will soon begin working with Heifer for additional training and support (Photo credit: Jeannine Harvey, ONE)

Romani, a Heifer farmer, and his wife; His initial gift of livestock was a “pass on”

Lastly, the Malawians we met who have worked with Heifer International really love Heifer. A lot. You can see it in their faces, in their songs, in their embraces. You can see the personal connections the Heifer employees have with the villagers. Farmers at all our stops were wearing Heifer fabric, fabric they bought at cost from Heifer. You could tell that Heifer farmers were incredibly proud to be Heifer farmers.

We saw Heifer fabric everywhere we went!

I could go on and on, but I’m going to resist the urge to write a book and just keep this to a really long blog post. 😉 I’ll end with this: If you’re ever looking for an organization to donate to, Heifer is an excellent choice. Donor money is used responsibly and effectively and it is truly changing people’s lives.

Lucia, one of Mr. Mtika’s neighbors and recipient of a “pass on” gift

Plus, it’s fun to go “shopping” with Heifer! My kids gave Nate and their grandpas animals for Father’s Day this year. The dads had a choice between flocks of chicks, ducks, geese or honeybees. We ended up gifting chicks and ducks and the kids loved it! There are many ways to support Heifer – click here to see more!

The Mtika’s goat pen…and goats!

I am now a Heifer Lifer, just like the people I met in Malawi. If I wore headscarves, you’d better believe I’d have one made from Heifer fabric! I’ll just have to wear my Heifer t-shirt instead. Not quite as festive but still gets the message across!

Gomani village (Photo credit: Allison Stephens, Heifer International)

In case you were wondering, a “heifer” is a young, female cow that has not yet borne a calf. Now you’re smarter. You’re welcome.

I traveled to Malawi as an expense-paid guest of The ONE Campaign (www.one.org) and Heifer International (www.heifer.org). We visited to see the economic progress””and the lives changed””made possible by U.S.-funded programs and Heifer International’s donor-supported programs.

ONE is a campaigning and advocacy organization of more than 6 million people taking action to end extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. Not politically partisan, ONE raises public awareness and presses political leaders to combat AIDS and preventable diseases, increase investments in agriculture and nutrition, and demand greater transparency in poverty-fighting programs. ONE is not a grant-making organization and does not solicit funding from the public or receive government funding.

Heifer International’s mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth. For more than 70 years, Heifer International has provided livestock and environmentally sound agricultural training to improve the lives of those who struggle daily for reliable sources of food and income. Heifer is currently working in more than 30 countries, including the United States, to help families and communities become more self-reliant.

Hello Friends! Today is my last day in Malawi and I’m about to head off to the farewell dinner. As I expected the week has flown by and I have seen so many beautiful parts of this country, met so many of its wonderful people and learned so many things about the challenges Malawi faces. You better believe I’ll be writing a whole bunch of posts in the coming weeks.

The Internet has been very spotty all week, so I didn’t end up doing blog posts like I had planned. But I did keep Instagram updated, so if you haven’t been following over there, please be sure to check out the videos and photos I’ve been posting. They are among some of my favorite images ever.

See you in the U.S. on Sunday! Have a wonderful weekend!

Oh, and, OF COURSE feel free to share stuff for Show and Tell!

When I started college, I chose International Relations as a major, with a focus on developing countries and women’s studies. I stuck with that major right up until graduation and wrote my undergrad thesis about the challenges of creating and enforcing international women’s rights laws. I was very passionate about the issues that I studied and had visions of, well, I’m not entirely sure what my visions were, but I know they involved helping people. From the time I was a child, I was acutely aware of how fortunate I was to be born in the time and place that I was. And I was also always very concerned about those who were less fortunate.

Surprising myself more than anyone I got married in college (what?!) and we ended up moving to San Diego, where (as a liberal arts major who could write) I started working in the communications department for a wireless company. My work pretty much had nothing to do with what I studied, but I was still interested in those issues and have remained so all these years. And, honestly, my life evolved in a beautiful and wonderful way, through graphic design and blogging and motherhood, bringing me to where I am today

Three years ago I met Jeannine Harvey from ONE at the Mom 2.0 Summit. We instantly connected on about 500 different levels and have stayed in touch and worked together ever since. Talking with Jeannine about ONE’s goals reinvigorated my interest and concern for the developing world. It has been rewarding to work with ONE over the years, using my platform to inform others about the issues facing our world and specifically developing regions like Africa.

I can’t even tell you how excited and fortunate I feel to be able to join ONE and Heifer International on this journey to Malawi. For the first time I will visit the continent that I have spent countless hours studying and writing about. I will get the chance to meet and connect with the people of Malawi, a country known as the “Warm Heart of Africa,” and see how foreign aid has and will continue to benefit their communities and families. And then I get to write about it, share what I learn with you, help spread the word to further garner support for programs that are helping people in meaningful ways.

My dad asked me this week why I’m going to Malawi. “So, you’re going to change the world, huh?” he said. I laughed and said, “Of course!” Seriously, though, I am under no illusions that my visit is going to change the world. I am just one person, but I am one person who can tell other people what I see and learn, and together we can change the world. I really, truly believe we can.

On my flight from San Diego to Washington, D.C. today I spent about 4 hours reading briefing materials for the trip. At one point while I was reading the information about Heifer International I was overwhelmed with emotion. I literally started crying, which I promptly tried to cover up so that the StitchFix stylist and her husband didn’t see the tears streaming down my face. Just when I thought I had it under control, the tears returned. While I was feeling overwhelmed by the sheer vastness and complexity of the problems at hand, that wasn’t what brought the tears to my eyes. I was crying because I felt overwhelmed at the goodness of humans. Organizations like Heifer as well as governments like that of the U.S. are doing truly transformative work to help others who are less fortunate, others who could not improve their world without help. People devote their lives to these causes and do make a difference. It’s inspiring and beautiful.

I think it’s easy to sometimes feel like the problems are too big, so, why bother? But the fact is we are all connected in this world, more so than we ever have been before, and it is our duty as humans to help one another. I cried on the plane because, despite so much that is wrong with our world, the desire to help one another burns in enough hearts to be a powerful force. People are living up to their duty of helping others and it is changing the world. I feel honored to be just one small part of that change.

In preparation for my trip I stopped at RoadRunner Sports to get some socks. (They have great socks.) The man helping me asked where I was going to be traveling and when I told him Africa, his hand flew to his chest and he was physically overcome with happiness. He said, “Oh! Africa! It is my heart!” I learned that he was from Liberia and he was, quite simply, joyful about my trip. It was amazing to me how one small interaction communicated so much.

I look forward to more small interactions with all kinds of wonderful people over the next week. I look forward to connecting with individuals, hearing their stories, and then sharing them with you. And I look forward to bringing home Africa in my heart.

I’m traveling to Malawi as an expense-paid guest of The ONE Campaign (www.one.org) and Heifer International (www.heifer.org). We are visiting to see the economic progress””and the lives changed””made possible by US funded programs and Heifer International’s donor-supported programs.

ONE is a campaigning and advocacy organization of more than 6 million people taking action to end extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. Not politically partisan, ONE raises public awareness and presses political leaders to combat AIDS and preventable diseases, increase investments in agriculture and nutrition, and demand greater transparency in poverty-fighting programs. ONE is not a grant-making organization and does not solicit funding from the public or receive government funding.

Heifer International’s mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth. For more than 70 years, Heifer International has provided livestock and environmentally sound agricultural training to improve the lives of those who struggle daily for reliable sources of food and income. Heifer is currently working in more than 30 countries, including the United States, to help families and communities become more self-reliant.

Happy Friday, Everyone! I have three fun food links for you today but, before we get to those, I have some super cool news!

Back in the day I was an International Relations and Women’s Studies major at Boston University. My focus was women and developing countries and my undergrad thesis looked at the complications of creating and enforcing international women’s rights laws. After graduation we moved to San Diego and I started working in PR and life took a different direction from what I studied in college, a wonderful direction that has brought me to where I am today. But all of those issues I studied and cared about so many years ago have remained close to my heart. A few years ago I connected with ONE at Mom 2.0. Every since I have absolutely loved working with ONE and using my blog as a platform to support their efforts.

Photo credit: Matthew Feldman, Research Associate for IVAC via Mom It Forward

To complete the circle, or, more accurately, enlarge the circle, in just a few weeks I will be traveling to Malawi with ONE, Heifer International and 7 other amazing women writers (Ana, Ellen, Heather, Karen, Meredith, Rachel and Wendi). As I’ve been reading about this small and beautiful African country and learning about the specific issues that the Malawian people face, I’ve felt overwhelmed with excitement, gratitude and just overall “feelings.” I cannot WAIT to get on a plane May 8 and head south of the equator!

For food links, here’s what I’ve got this week!

• On Babble, some tips for how to help your kids make you breakfast in bed for Mother’s Day without you having to do any work! I also included a recipe for Chocolate Coconut Overnight Oatmeal. Be sure to check it out!
• For Parade’s Community Table we have 10 Mouthwatering BLT-Inspired Recipes
• And on the Solly Baby Blog 15 Fabulous Mocktails for Mom-to-Be!

Your turn for show and tell! Share whatever you like, from accomplishments in your daily life to blog posts to great links on the Internet. Anything goes!

I have THREE things to share today, all of them packed to the gill with great stuff.

First, ONE just launched their “Poverty is Sexist” campaign and I am so happy to help spread the word! ONE shared a blog post to kick things off and there is also a petition you can sign that calls on world leaders to put girls and women at the heart of the development agenda. They are over halfway to their goal for signatures, let’s help get the 100,000!

ONE created a full report for this campaign, with great information and policy recommendations.  Coming out around the same time, the Clinton Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation released their report on the status of women and girls in the world. Both reports are fascinating, somewhat depressing and simultaneously inspiring. We still have a long way to go, but we’ve come so far there is oodles of hope to tap into.

Second thing to share today: I got to talk to Tituss Burgess on the phone yesterday! Okay, so it was a conference call and there were other reporters on the call, but I still had the opportunity to gush and profess my love to Tituss, so it’s all good. If you don’t know who Tituss Burgess is, that means you aren’t watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix. And, if that is the case, you need to remedy the situation immediately! Nate and I are loving the show and are almost done with the first season. Kimmy is a lot like 30 Rock (similar sense of humor, same quirky music, etc), only the characters are completely lovable, which in my opinion makes this show even better than 30 Rock.

Photo credit: Netflix

 Tituss the actor who plays Titus the character was darling on the call and I want to adopt him. He talked about what it’s like being on a show that people can binge watch (i.e. it’s strange working for months and months on something that someone can watch in 1 day), that he loves the social commentary woven into the show and that that is where really great comedy is born, and that he is nothing like Titus the character (Tituss the actor is an introvert who HATES attention). Tituss also said that House of Cards is his obsession and that whenever a new season comes out he just orders take out for a few days to power through the episodes. The only reason Nate and I haven’t gotten to House of Cards ourselves is because we’ve been too busy watching Kimmy!

The third thing I want to share today is my weekly list of food links! 

On Babble I did my monthly 3 Kids, a Mom & a Kitchen post. The kids and I made Cranberry-Orange Irish Soda Bread Buns and they were AWESOME. Cate said she wants me to serve them at her next birthday party. Definitely check the recipe out! It was also a great cooking project to do with the kids.

For Parade’s Community Table I had 2 posts this week!

• 20 Satisfyingly Delicious Recipes for Homemade Chips
• 15 Mouthwatering Savory Coconut Recipes

That’s it! PHEW! Some weeks I have nothing to share, other weeks I’m bubbling over! As usual, everyone gets a turn at Show and Tell! Share your own blog posts/finds/random-whatevers-you-want-to-share, tell us if you’re loving Kimmy Schmidt as much as I am, or let us know if you signed ONE’s petition to support women and girls!

Happy Friday! I have a TON of great food links for you today, but before we get to that I wanted to talk about something dear to my heart. Last October I had the chance to attend ONE’s AYA Summit in Washington, D.C. I have yet to write a post about the conference because there is just too much I want to share. I’m planning to do a series of recipes posts to tell the stories, but until then…

Pictured: Ginny Wolfe (ONE), Patricia Amira (The Oprah of Africa…she was AWESOME.)

Video from the AYA Summit has been posted on Flipbook. Click here to see the videos (you’ll need to set up a Flipbook account – it’s worth it!). I don’t even know where to tell you to start, but all of it is fascinating/informative/inspiring – that I can promise!

One of the women we heard from, Marquesha Babers, wrote a post for the ONE website. Please read it. Marquesha is an amazing young woman I was blessed to meet at the summit.

Pictured, left to right: Holly Gordon (Girl Rising), Patricia Amira, Danai Gurira (Playwright and, yes, Michonne on The Walking Dead), Marquesha Babers (Poet)

If you want to DO something right now to support ONE, click here! One of the reasons I love ONE so much is that they aren’t asking for our money, they are asking for our voice. Right now you can send a letter to your congresspeople urging them to reintroduce the Electrify Africa bill. It’s super easy and will make a difference.

Okay, on to some delicious food!

This week on Babble I shared a recipe for a Deconstructed Chicken Club. I’m finding that deconstructing foods is one of the best ways to get my kids to eat it!

On Parade’s Community Table I have 2 posts this week!

• 20 Ridiculously Delicious Ways to Make Pancakes
• 10 Fast and Healthy Lunches You’ll WANT to Eat!

And, lastly, if you’re pregnant or have just had a baby, be sure to visit the Solly Baby Blog to get ideas for Healthy, EASY Snacks for Nursing Moms.

Show and Tell time! Please share your own stuff!