Can we create luck to defy chance and increase our odds for success? We've got a recipe for good fortune. Join us as we explore how to cultivate luck through mindset, perspective, and behavior, while we put together a delicious food pairing with a spicy surprise.
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Episode Transcript:
Hello and welcome to Feed Your Fire. I'm Kim Baker, founder of Kim Baker Foods. In today's episode, we're going to talk about luck and how we can cultivate that energy in our lives while we embark on a little game of roulette with some shishito peppers.
Luck is so alluring, the idea of defying odds and having some sort of divine favor not being held to the statistical rules of chance and effortless good fortune. Who wouldn't want that?
As I prepared for this episode, I dug online a bit to understand what it was that people perceived about luck, and what I realized is that there are a number of concepts that kind of come together when we think about luck. There, of course, is the idea of probability, which is simply a matter of statistics. And yet, there are these times in our lives where we feel like we just nail it every time we pick the right choice, we happen to land in the right place.
It reminds me of this game show in the 80s called Press Your Luck. Anyone out there know what a whammy is? Well, that's what I'm talking about. Where you just rooting for yourself, no whammies, no whammies, and it works, and you feel like you're in control of your destiny.
A lot of what I read online had to do with concepts very different than probability. In fact, it was more along the lines of cause and effect, things like karmic justice and reaping what you sow and even manifesting beliefs and ideas into our lives. That spiritual undercurrent is deeply entwined with people's belief about luck, and that intentionality is very much in opposition to sort of dumb luck, right? And stumbling across good fortune. And so you can see how this idea is complicated and layered.
So what then can we do to influence our luck? People that consider themselves lucky tend to have similar traits. They tend to be very open minded, they tend to see opportunities and leverage them to their advantage, and they're optimists. They have an unwavering belief in positive outcomes. There's a lot to be said for that point of view. We make luck with our mindset, with our perspective and with our behaviors.
People often associate luck with some big windfall. It typically revolves around prosperity, and that mindset is all about receiving. It's what you're getting from it.
Have you ever thought about how lucky you are for not having things happen to you? It's much less natural to see the world through that negative space, but it's very much a part of the fabric. When we could look at our lives through not only the lens of what we were fortunate enough to receive, but what we were fortunate enough not to receive, it changes everything. Good luck is often invisible. It's not always showy and flashy.
We also can't measure luck moment to moment. There are plenty of “ unlucky” things that will happen throughout our lives, and that's not necessarily a representation of the broader picture. My sister and I were recently reflecting on our family and to the outside world having lost half of the people that we loved in a matter of a few years might seem really unlucky. It's certainly not the outcome we would have chosen, but we are wiser than to reflect on our experience based on that metric alone. We have been extremely fortunate just to be in the family that we were in. That sense of perspective is what allows you to broaden what you're defining as lucky or unlucky.
Is getting sick unlucky? Well, what if it's paired with being with a wonderful caretaker that could help you through it? Is losing someone that you love unlucky? Or is it a part of life, and is it lucky that you had the company and support around you to get through that experience? We have to be mindful of what we're measuring and to put it in context.
Our behaviors also affect our luck online. The sentiment about luck was that it was unearned. That was kind of a basic criteria of what luck was. It was accidental and required no effort. But people that are lucky take chances. They surround themselves with a community of like minded people, and they courageously step forward despite the odds. Have you ever tried something that defied the odds? There is nothing low effort about that.
So for today's episode, we're going to lean into a game of chance with some shishito peppers. These peppers are small and slender. They're usually green in color. You might see a few red ones that have ripened a bit more. The thing about shishito peppers is that about one in every 10 to 20 is spicy. How fun is that?
And what I love about these peppers is that it's not obvious at all from the outside if it's going to be sweet or spicy. You just have to take a chance.
I got these peppers from our local farmers market. I'm just going to rinse them off really quickly, and then I'm going to skewer them. If you don't skewer them, just create a small hole somewhere in the pepper so that when you cook them, air can be released, and they don't kind of burst open.
Once I have them skewered, I douse them lightly and an oil, like an avocado oil, that could withstand the heat of a hot grill, and I just sprinkle them lightly with salt. Now I am going to grill these outside, but you can also pan sear them or put them under a broiler. The idea is that we're going to allow them to kind of blister and char up a bit.
They are a thin skinned pepper, and so this will happen pretty quickly. Keep your eye on them as they cook.
You'll often see shishito peppers served with a dipping sauce. In this case, once the peppers are done, I'm going to pull them off the grill, and I'm just going to drizzle them with a little bit of lemon juice and honey. You can certainly use lime juice or another type of citrus as well.
Oftentimes, these peppers can be served simply like this as an appetizer. I'm gonna put it on a board with a soft, creamy cheese and some sliced figs, because it's fig season, and I love them. That's really all there is to it.
Now I want you to take a pepper off of the skewer, and if you're so inclined, smear a bit of that cheese on a slice of fig and pair them up with the pepper, and then take a bite. Is it spicy or is it sweet? Either way, I bet in this case, it's delicious.
And what I love about this recipe is that no matter whether the pepper is sweet or spicy, the pairing of ingredients is spectacular.
Pairings are critical in shaping our luck. If you look at the science of genetics, which is largely a statistical experience, right? Whatever you are born with, you have. It seems pretty simple, but what's really interesting is the way one gene can affect the expression of another gene. So it doesn't change your genetic composition, but it does change your genetic expression.
And so when I think about luck, I sort of think about it like that, right? Like we can't change what we inherit. We can't change our circumstance or the chance occurrences in our lives, but we can pair up, and that can offset whatever circumstance chance has brought us. And maybe just maybe, that pairing was the luck we were searching for, the luck we needed.
Because ultimately, what we're really looking for is good fortune—the outcome. It’'s better than luck. Luck is really an instrument that we use to help us achieve joy and fulfillment. Go create it for yourself. Don't wait on chance. Until our next episode, I say so long.
Feed Your Fire, where food nourishes growth.