march is for making it after all

modern vintage womanhood, march magick, and a simple side dish.

I like March and its “new beginnings” vibes. Spring rolls in. Stuff blooms. Atlanta trees stop looking so depressing. This is the month to pat yourself on the back if you’ve kept your “new year, new me” promises. If you haven’t, it’s still close enough to January to “get serious, for real this time” and not feel too bad about it.

So far, March, for me, has been adding episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show to my morning coffee routine. Obviously, I LOVE this show—the fashion, the set design, the women doing things. Watching Mary, Rhoda, and Phyllis navigate (and challenge) 70's social norms for women is interesting in 2024 because, lol, the parallels. Dieting and losing weight, being “old” at 30, getting married (and being a perfect wife—no wonder they needed mother's little helper!), and trying to be taken seriously at work are all things I know I’ve talked about in my personal life. I’m willing to bet y’all have too. I guess that’s why I can sit in an apartment in the city and relate more than 50 years later while also screaming, “Muthafuck, she has to make the coffee for the team meeting?!” so there’s that difference, at least.

In addition to March morning inspo from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, this month has been me reflecting on March 2023. As the people say, what a difference a year makes!

Last March, I zeroed in on exploring the “what’s next” feeling I’d been kind of ignoring. After a goosebumpy reading with Leah Tioxon, I bought a pink bullet journal (so you already know—shit was about to go down) to note these downloads and essentially map out this new life.

Now that I’m actually starting to do the stuff I wrote down, I’ve been flipping back to the first few pages of my journal to remember the OG thoughts and feelings behind the updates.

Then, I was asking myself how I could help the collective in a different way.

I’d started to realize I was much more interested in food than GOWRKGRLS, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I’d scribbled, "Feeling bad I'm so focused on food and not GWG... what does that mean?"

I was also pumping myself up to find my food-writing voice, affirming, “I trust that I can write about food. I know how to describe what I’m tasting.”

Tarot readings were about letting go of self-limiting beliefs.

I’d started paying more attention to my dreams (a Leah suggestion) and bought Samin Nosrat’s Salt Fat Acid Heat because I’d dreamt about it. (A fantastic purchase, by the way. Dream-me knows what she’s talking about.)

I’d completed the registration for Kathy Gunst’s and Domenica Marchetti’s Food Writers in Italy retreat.

By the end of the month, I’d decided to transition GWG from a consultancy (a pandemic pivot that was necessary at the time but that I was never totally in love with) to a media company so I could start telling stories. I wrote, “My next persona involves being a source of information…using my platform to discuss issues that matter the most to me, a Black millennial woman, and, most importantly, what we can do about them. GOWRKGRLS is an action verb.”

GOWRKGLS is an action verb. I like that. I’m going to use that again.

I’d also decided to chronicle the transition, writing, “Watch me live my life and flip my business from a marketing agency to a media company.” After one year of life events, witchy shit, freewriting sessions, and to-do lists, GWG updates are happening, and here I am dishing.

Start The Mary Tyler Moore Show theme song, y’all. I’m making it, after all.

Now, on to this recipe!

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From a Georgia Farm to My Table: Rainbow Carrots

What did I find tucked away in my March 13th Fresh Harvest delivery? That’d be one adorable bunch of baby rainbow carrots. I pulled them out of the bin, admiring their vibrancy and mini-me-ness, staring at them lovingly until my heart rate jumped.

Last week’s bunch was still in the crisper, and in my mind, a little disgruntled by my drooling over this new one.

“But these bunches are small, so really, I needed two,” I told myself reassuringly.

To smooth things over with last week’s rainbow carrots that I, for some reason, gave life to, I decided to roast all of them that evening. They’d go in my weeknight go-to, the ever-so-versatile grain bowl.

So, what to do with them? Savory carrots are cool, but I’m a fan of amplifying their natural sweetness, so I decided on a drizzly glaze. Plus, I was looking for any reason to use my new local honey. I had a leftover half of lemon, Dijon mustard, and grass-fed butter. That sounded like as good of a glaze as any.

What did my taste buds think about this recipe? Zingy. Bright. Sticky. Sweet.

Roasted Rainbow Carrots with Lemon Honey Butter Glaze

Serves 2 (unless it just serves 1…I’m like that sometimes.)

Ingredients

• 2 bunches of rainbow carrots (scrubbed clean, tops removed)

• 1 tbsp of olive oil

• 1 tbsp of melted butter

• 1 tsp of honey

• 1 tsp Dijon mustard

• Juice of 1/2 lemon

• Kosher salt to taste

Instructions

Heat the oven to 415°.

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and loosely arrange rainbow carrots on the pan.

Drizzle carrots with olive oil and season with salt. Using your hands, thoroughly coat carrots in the oil and salt mixture.

Place the sheet pan in the oven and roast for 10-12 mins.

While the carrots roast, make the glaze. In a small bowl, add melted butter, lemon juice, honey, and Dijon mustard, and whisk to combine.

Pull the carrots from the oven and drizzle with lemon honey butter glaze.

Roast the glazed carrots for another 5-8 minutes (or until fork tender but not mushy; adjust the timing based on carrot size).

Serve as a side or, you know, in your grain bowl!