Sitting down to write this, I can’t believe December is already coming to an end. 2024 was a very full year. I spent quality time with friends and family. I traveled, for work and for fun. I got engaged to the love of my life. I ran my second marathon, here in NYC. My partner and I celebrated our engagement, surrounded by friends and family. And those are just the highlights. 

2024 has also been a sobering year. Every day I listened to the news and heard about unspeakable tragedy. Genocide. War. I watched the country further divide over the course of our presidential election. I woke up, like so many other people, the day after the election to a hard truth about the state of our society. And, while 2024 is coming to an end, the world won’t just reset and restart with a clean slate when the ball drops in Time Square. 

Around this time last year, I created Savor Tooth Snacks. It was in response to a sense of restlessness that sat at the back of my mind. I had talked about it with my therapist, trying to diagnose its source. Was it a lack of fulfillment at work? In my relationships? Did I need to start practicing meditation? Acceptance? A gratitude journal? (Not to dismiss any of those practices, they are helpful tools that I have and will continue to turn to). 

I found myself scrolling through Instagram on a regular basis, looking at everything that people in the world were creating. I watched people make art, renovate their spaces, build furniture, cook new dishes that I wanted to replicate at home. It was inspiring, but at the same time, watching alone made this feeling of restlessness worse. But then it clicked. 

What if, instead of just watching, I made something too? 

This simple shift towards a more creative mindset was one of the biggest changes I made going into 2024. And while it has not been a cure-all (I still find myself feeling restless from time to time), I feel more compelled to take initiative and make change happen by taking action. As a result, I’ve built an avenue to express my creativity. I’ve been able to initiate difficult but necessary conversations at work and at home. I became more civically engaged. I educate myself so that I can actively participate in the conversation. It’s a transformation that I want to carry with me into 2025 and continue building upon. 

New Year’s resolutions so often have a tinge of “out with the old, and in with the new”. We commit ourselves to leaving our former selves behind in favor of a clean slate, a fresh start. But sometimes, I wonder if we are throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater when we rush into creating our new identities come January 1st. 

There’s a lot to learn from our past. The art of reflection is in being able to identify what we should take away from it. While it may be tempting to try to leave behind anything undesirable, sometimes those things can be the most fruitful sources of inspiration and motivation going forward. Kind of like a mushroom. 

Mushrooms are experts at transformation. As nature’s decomposers, fungi break down dead and decaying matter into simpler compounds which they can then use as a resource to grow and thrive. They work quickly, seemingly sprouting before our very eyes. Mushrooms take initiative. And oh the things they turn decay into – delicious morels, adaptogenic lion’s mane, psychedelic psilocybin. Mushrooms are creative. 

When I was looking for a recipe to end 2024 with, there wasn’t even a question after I saw Natasha Pickowciz’s recipe for Shiitake and Brown Sugar Shortbread cookies. This recipe embodies the idea of a savory cookie. And while I have dabbled with ways to introduce umami flavors into cookies over the past year (soy sauce, miso, furikake), nothing beats the salty richness and depth of the mushroom.  

I’m trying to keep this post short and sweet, so I won’t opine too much on the actual creation of the cookies themselves or their make-up, you’ll just have to try them yourselves to see. But a genuine highlight was the act of making my own candied shiitake mushrooms. It was equal parts mad scientist, herbalist, and chef de cuisine. The earthy, meaty smell of the shiitake mushrooms bubbling in a caramel colored syrup was such a delightful scent that I wish I could make a candle out of it. When all was said and done, I could have just stopped at the candied mushrooms and eaten them one by one. But I do highly recommend you add them to the shortbread, if only to stretch their mushroomy goodness a little bit further. 

I’m excited for 2025. I know there will be challenges that we will face as a society and as humanity. There may also be challenges for myself ahead that I will need to endure and overcome. I aspire to take them on, head on. I aspire to create change instead of just watching, restless. And I aspire to keep on baking, one recipe at a time. See you next year!