Good morning. With summer approaching, now is the time to start reaching out to your friends with pools.
In our experience, the best way to reconnect without seeming too desperate for pool access is to give people something of value in return, something that could really help them stay informed and entertained.
Something like Simmer. Use this link to spread the word to all your friends and, while we don’t have a pool for you to use, we do have some awesome recipes for you to take to your next pool party!
Not a dad joke!!
The amount of changes a mother’s body undergoes during and post pregnancy is well known. It truly is incredible, almost miraculous, how they cope with the hormonal changes and weight gain. My wife would love to invent a mechanism that can make men (mainly me) go through this experience first hand. For someone who is a stickler for how a PBJ toast should be (yes, that is still ongoing and thank you for your responses!), these changes would be too much to handle!
Having said that, a father goes through a few changes during this phase too…And it is more than just making cribs or supporting a floppy neck. Fathers on an average, weigh 14lbs more than men without children! And other than “dad bod” jokes, the subject of weight gain in new and expectant dads is like a Christopher Nolan movie - the research is limited and there are a lot of questions that remain unanswered. Here we try to understand some of the reasons behind this weight gain.
Lack of Sleep: This is the most obvious reason. New parenthood and sleep get along as well as Kanye West and Pete Davidson. Sleep disruption and sleep problems affect the hormones that regulate appetite and lead to weight gain.
Lack of exercise: Unless you call doing tummy time with your baby as exercise, finding time to workout is extremely difficult. One study found that new fathers dropped an average of five hours per week of exercise.
Hormonal changes: Studies show that fatherhood lowers men’s testosterone levels, reflected in their change in priorities from Narcos to Cocomelon. This comes with greater fat deposits and reduced muscle mass.
Psychological Factors: Depression and stress are known to increase around the time of fatherhood. Both have bi-directional links with weight gain.
Pregnant partner effect: Partners tend to influence each other’s lifestyles and habits – for instance, I have stopped wearing striped polos with checkered shorts. And while an improved sense of fashion is great, the hunger cravings during pregnancy are also something expectant dads pick up.
What next?: This topic is still something that needs some extensive research and attention. Paternal pre and postnatal weight gain is a real and intriguing phenomenon that may have lifelong health implications for men and their families.
In the food world
No side of guac: Finding avocados will soon become as hard as finding a PS5, as supplies from Mexico, the world’s biggest avocado exporter, browns as fast as the fruit (yes, it’s a fruit) itself. This has caused avocado prices to jump to a 24 year high. An index tracking the price of avocados from the Mexican state of Michoacan has soared 81% this year, per Bloomberg.
Extra Toppings?: The International Pizza Expo was held from March 22-24 in Las Vegas. As things get back to normal and traffic on the road increases, 2022 is the year for the pizzeria industry to forge new paths to meet the 30 mins delivery time. The past two years have enabled them to develop innovative crusts, sauces and toppings to keep pizzas relevant to the post-pandemic consumer - someone who is craving new flavors with a focus on health and wellness.
Caffeine high: Coffee lovers rejoice! You can now have your favorite beverage on an empty stomach and not worry about having Tums later! Coffee roaster Volcanica is introducing a low acid coffee collection. By modifying the methods used to roast, extract and brew coffee, they are able to increase its pH (higher the number, lower the acidity) from 5 to 5.2-5.6.
Recipe of the week: Spinach gnudi with cream and dill sauce
by Erika @fakeoutkitchen
We won’t judge you if you felt that gnudi is a typo.. You’re not alone. We thought the same, only to be proven wrong later (thank you Erika). If gnocchi is a 300 thread count bed sheet, then gnudi is its 450 thread count equivalent!
Gnudi, the name is as much fun to roll in your month as the gnudi itself, is the sexier twin of gnocchi, made with ricotta cheese instead of potatoes, giving it a much softer and (keeping the bedding theme alive) pillowy texture. This spinach infused gnudi, served with a cream and dill sauce is the perfect comforter (we are on fire!) to cover your hunger cravings.
Meal plan
This weekend marks one month since we started Simmer and while you don’t have to send us a gift, we still wanted to do something different with our meal plan for you! We know that our recipes can get boring after a while. And given that there are such amazing cooks out there, we had our eureka moment (no… neither one of us jumped out of the bathtub and ran naked!!) and thought why not share their recipes here! Hope you enjoy them!
Vegan Quesadilla by @theplantbaseedpom: Fiery grilled vegetable quesadillas with avocado salsa
Instant Pot Pasta by @glueandglitter: Tender pieces of penne in tomato basil cream sauce cooks up like a dream in your Instant Pot!
Paneer Makhani by @suki_curries_spices : Cooked cottage cheese cubes in a smooth tomatoes and cream sauce, with a hint of tang and sweetness.
Did you know?
Botanically strawberries aren’t really berries while bananas are. Ftw!! Unlike most berries that have their seeds on the inside, strawberries have them on the outside.
Bagels and pretzels are the only bread products that are boiled before baking.
If you want to speed up the ripening of a pineapple, so that you can eat it faster, then you can do so by standing it upside down (not you, the pineapple)
Quiz
We mentioned earlier that the International Pizza Expo was held between March 22-24. There were 5 major innovations that came out of the event. What better way to celebrate April Fools Day than by finding out, which one of these is not true!
Chicken crust
Vegetable infused raw dough shells
Liquid cream cheese sauce
Jackfruit as a topping
Pea puree sauce
Sweet potato pizza crust
*Answer at the bottom
Cooking tips
Shredding frozen dough on a cheese grater gives you shortbread with a frilly, open-crumb texture that's light and airy. Let us know if you know what that means.
Always use a stainless steel knife when cutting a sweet potato. Using a carbon blade will cause it to darken.
The jar you use for storage affects the flavor of food. Yes! thats right. Wide mouth jars work well for sweet foods while smaller aperture encourages savory notes. Val explains how here or you can see our summary here.
Media watch
"No matter how stuffed you are, there’s always room for ice cream. It knows how to find its way in your stomach."
-Aayush Damani, our friend and fellow ice cream lover
We understand that your calendars are already booked with Bridgerton binge sessions this week. We do not want our media watch to come in between you, Anthony Bridgerton and Kate Sharma. So here is the lite verson!
The Flavor Bible: An excellent read for creating recipes as it’s an encyclopedia of ingredients and their best flavor combinations.
While this simmers….
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Answer
Thankfully, you will not see a pizza with a pea puree sauce anytime soon.