Easter, the day we Christians set apart to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is one of my favorite days of the year. Today, it was made all the more sweet since I timed a 5-day fast to end with the Easter feast. Sorrowful, with the news from Sri Lanka. Joyful, with the absolutely delicious food that I prepared with my mom and dad. Hopeful, because I have plans to transmute the healing that God has wrought in me into works on earth. God is sovereign over both the destruction of Notre Dame, and the rebirth of the human spirit on the internet.

 

 

» My family has been making prime rib on holidays for years now (maybe over a decade), and this is by far the best recipe we’ve tried. Although we modified it by searing on a BBQ.

» The vegan blogging world is imploding, probably because veganism is not sustainable.

» Melania Trump responds to Vogue snub. (Not surprising.)

» Mike Rowe on college admissions scandals

And for my money, as I step back to look at it, I was like, well, yeah, that is kind of disgusting, but where is the outrage for the cost of college in general? You don’t have to be rich or famous to believe that your kid is doomed to fail if they don’t get a four-year degree. There are millions of parents in the country right now, millions, who genuinely feel that if they don’t do everything they can to get their kid into a good school they will fail the kid.

» You elected them to write new laws. They’re letting corporations do it instead. (Activate the hall of mirrors effect)

» An interesting article, from which 2 truths jump out:

1. Why it’s important to be faithful in the small things before you hit it big

Remember when I said that the New York Times named Ubuntu the second-best restaurant in the country? Well this is when it happened. I was stunned, to say the least. Overnight we became busier than we could handle. Then, thanks to our success, the health department showed up. We had limited refrigeration and our farm was not certified by the state agriculture department. Technically, we were not allowed to serve vegetables that we had grown in our own garden. The health department gave us an “F.” We had to spend close to $150,000 just to get everything up to code. But we did it, and got perfect scores every time from then on.

2. The disconnect between the media bubble and reality is absolutely toxic.

Eventually, we earned a Michelin star. At first it was vindication for me—the external praise and accolades that I figured would finally solve all of my problems, both emotional and financial. The press would make us busy and I would be fulfilled. But the season ended, and once again we slowed to a crawl. Ubuntu was one of the most talked about restaurants in the country. We should have been booked up months in advance. We would be busy on weekends, and then dead on a Wednesday. In the winter we were doing only twenty to thirty covers a night. I remember that on one Oscar Sunday we had zero reservations. Literally zero. So we just closed up and went home.