The lane I walk along most days with Noushi is lined with young hazels, growing through the ivy hedgerows. To be honest, I don’t usually pay them much attention unless I spot a dunnock hopping about near them, or a rat scurrying in the ivy behind. Last week though, something made me stop to look a bit closer. The hazels are currently covered in catkins, and when you stop to admire them like I did, you’ll see they really are complex and beautiful things.

We moved into our old house 16 years ago this summer. It was built in 1924, so it has now been around for almost a century.  A neighbor told us: “You don’t live in an old house. You live with an old house.’’ Indeed, for every one thing that might go wrong, there will be nine things that absolutely charm you. Our old house came with an gunite pool. It was old, too.

There are a handful of ingredients in my kitchen that fall into the category of pantry powerhouses—adding big, bold flavor with just a spoonful, drizzle, or pour—fish sauce, tomato paste, harissa, sambal, Better Than Bouillon, doenjang, and of course, preserved lemons. The latter is the key to my quick, cheat lemon pickle, or achaar. Usually lemon achaar needs to be cured for up to 4 weeks, but this version takes a helping hand from already preserved lemons, resulting in a zippy-zangy achaar in just 24 hours.

You know it’s going to be a good time when Lucas Sin shows up. Not only that, but we’re celebrating one of my favorite chain restaurants: Applebee’s. Now, I know many of you are reading this and frowning, shaking your head and muttering, “Applebee’s? Really, Farideh?” Yes. Applebee’s. I also love Sizzler (so much so that I got the word SIZZLER tattooed on my body recently, but that is another story for another time).

Sometimes I stumble across stories that I published earlier on in my career and I just…cringe. Everyone goes up learning curves, but as a writer in the internet age, my growth (and the many bumps and mistakes along the way) are available in Google-searchable perpetuity. And yet, for all the occasional moments of embarrassment, I am also really proud of my archive - particularly a column I used to write for Capital New York, a short-lived online publication that was acquired and then essentially shut down by Politico.