In today's episode, we draw inspiration from the historic NBA victory by the NY Knicks as we aim to celebrate each and every win as well as those prized, hard-fought triumphs. Together, we prepare a winning meal for Father's day as we tap into a team first mentality.
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Feed Your Fire Podcast Episode Transcript:
Hello, and welcome to Feed Your Fire. I'm your host, Kim Baker. If the Knicks could win the championship after 53 years, you can do anything.
We're gonna take inspiration from this miraculous feat, taking in that energy, and exploring how these triumphs can shape our lives, and what they represent to us beyond the game. And we're gonna do that as we prepare a winning meal for Father's Day.
Everyone loves a victory, but not all victories are equal. And that idea is why the Knicks winning the championship got so much attention. It was an unlikely, hard-fought win, and it defied the odds. I may not be much of a sports fan, but I think everyone can rally around those ideas.
One of the things I like best about this storyline for today's episode is that ultimately winning included some defeat. And in our lives, we often have to play that long game as well. Keeping our eye on the end goal, the big impact, without getting wrapped up or distracted by those intermediate setbacks.
Just recently, I found myself frustrated by an obstacle, and I had to take a step back to put it in perspective. I'm working towards a bigger victory, and the real loss would be getting caught up and ensnared by what's simply one play of the game.
And this got me thinking about the paradox of victory. The way it makes us feel alive and invigorated, but is directly correlated with our sense of scarcity. If winning is easy or commonplace, doesn't it lose some of its luster?
If that's the case, then what does winning really give us? What's underneath that victory? At its most basic level, it's evolutionary biology, a primal competition for resources. And as we move through our hierarchy of needs, winning can give us confidence and self-worth, building our self-image and identity. And as we saw with the NBA Championship, it can create a sense of community and belonging, with fans rallying around a common objective.
It got me wondering, can those things exist in a state of abundance?
I recently watched this interview with actress and comedian Robbie Hoffman, and she shared that in her family, they celebrate every victory, no matter how small. And I thought, what a beautiful tradition.
Why do we feel the need to qualify the wins in our everyday lives, to be valued by some arbitrary metric of success? That doesn't need to discount that not all wins are equal, and that overcoming that friction—those hard-fought wins, should be prized, because they represent not just the outcome, but the effort. But we need positive things to catalyze momentum. And when we broaden what we count as a win, we're simply giving ourselves more to work with. You could think of it as simply being a higher scoring game.
And so today, we're going to embody that spirit and prepare a meal that would, by all accounts, be considered a win. We're making homemade Chipotle bowls. Perfect for Father's Day. I can hear men around the world cheering already.
So the first thing we're going to do is prepare our protein. Whatever you plug into your normal order, you can insert here. Beef, pork, chicken, your choice. We're going to assume you've got maybe two pounds of meat.
Put it in a container or a Ziploc bag, add in a few cloves of finely chopped garlic, about half of a jalapeno. We're going to take out the seeds and membranes and then chop it up finely and toss that in. Add about a quarter cup of orange juice, the juice of two limes, two tablespoons of tomato paste, about three tablespoons of brown sugar, a splash of apple cider vinegar, and a big handful of cilantro.
Then we're going to add in about a half a bottle of beer, preferably a lager. The beer not only puts us in a sports arena frame of mind, but it actually acts as a tenderizer to the meat. We'll leave it up to you to decide what to do with that half a bottle of beer that went unused.
Season the meat generously with salt and pepper, mix everything together, and then pop it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.
About a half hour before we're ready to eat, we're going to get started on our rice. Add about a tablespoon of olive oil to the bottom of a saucepan. We're going to use a 2 to 1 ratio of water to rice by volume. So in this case, measure a cup and a half of rice, add it to the hot oil in that saucepan and just toss it around a little bit. Get it all nice and coated and let the heat crack open the kernels just a bit. Then we're going to add in three cups of water and about a teaspoon of salt. Give it one quick stir and then let it come up to a boil over medium high heat. Resist the urge to stir it. That's really important. Once it comes to a boil, you can stir it once. Then cover the pot with aluminum foil, turn the heat down to very, very low and let it cook for about 15 minutes until that water is evaporated.
In school, we actually used to transfer it to an oven heated to about 400 degrees instead of cooking it on the stovetop. But I find that this works pretty well too.
Then it really all comes down to toppings. What do you usually like on your Chipotle bowl? I like black beans. Rather than going straight from the can, we're gonna season them just a bit. This is really easy. I like to saute a little bit of onion in a skillet with some olive oil. Then I add in the black beans from a can that's been drained and rinsed. I season them with a little bit of salt, pepper, garlic powder, and about a tablespoon of barbecue sauce. It's a simple little hack and absolutely delicious.
Then we're gonna heat up our grill and get that meat cooking. I like to grill some corn on the cob at the same time. All they need is a drizzle of avocado oil and salt, and you can cook it right alongside your protein. Before adding your meat to the grill, just douse it a little bit in that avocado oil as well so it doesn't stick.
We're going for beautiful grill marks, cooking everything through really simply to perfection. Once it comes up to temperature, just take it off and let it rest. Cut that corn right off the cobs with a chef's knife, and if you want, you can combine it with a little bit of cilantro, some lime, a little bit of honey, salt and pepper, and make a beautiful corn salad.
Serve it with salsa, sour cream, maybe some queso, guacamole, definitely some chips, and you have an easy meal worth celebrating.
When I was younger, we would all gather together for Father's Day, have a meal together, and just enjoy one another's company. My dad was always a sucker for a really sweet card. He's been gone for over 10 years now so Father's Day's kind of evolved over time for us. But I was thinking about, if he were here, what I would write in his card today?
He was a complex man, a paradox, like the ideas we've been discussing. He was easy to love, but very difficult to understand.
As a family, we've taken some hits and defeats, but we've always played as a team—a team from New York, no less. And that's an enduring gift that he gave us.
When my son was little, he would often say that to the two of us—he called us the eyeball team, which of course means nothing to you, but it meant everything to us. And my son and I still reference that team name today, remembering him when we say it.
And as we share this meal together, we're gonna celebrate the triumphs, our team first mentality, the hard-fought challenges we've overcome, and the people that has shaped us into. Genuine triumph comes from friction. And we stand here a testament of that today.
I know that if he were here now, we'd have found our way through the upsets and losses. We would be gathering around the table, and we'd be sharing each of life's wins together. And that's because no matter the setbacks, we're in it for the long game.
Until our next episode, I say so long. Feed your fire where food nourishes growth.