Feeding my Dreams

Note from my Facebook page:

Most of you have known me for straddling a few professional careers, all with the general theme of helping other people be more successful in their lives and/or their professions. Back in 2006, I established a burgeoning business as a life coach and holistic healer, focused specifically on helping to empower people to overcome their obstacles and find true success within themselves. It thrived, and as my (now ex-) husband witnessed the transformation of my clients, he naturally desired the same for himself and decided to leave the military and go to school full-time. Due to a recent health diagnosis, I made the practical decision to return to steady employment in order to maintain health benefits (no semblance of Obamacare at the time) and took a job with the largest privately-funded non-profit.

I felt blessed every day to be a part of an organization whose primary purpose is to help people lead healthy and productive lives, and yet I struggled every day in a job that had little to do with my natural gifts and talents while opportunities for me to exercise them dwindled further and further.

On the side, I maintained my business to a small degree and expanded my repertoire to (mostly food) writing and recently, photography. Every once in a while, I would get asked to participate in some interesting projects, most notably giving a couple of workshops at Emergence Creativespace's 11.11.11 Gathering in Sedona. I was my Self, unfiltered, and I had never felt more authentic and thus more successful. 

Since returning home to DC, I've been figuring out how to reconcile this newly bared mystical side of myself with my practical side and decided to hang up my security blanket and in January, I tendered my resignation with the day job. Tomorrow begins my final week -- can you say HOLY COW!??!!?

So what will I be doing? Living (and working) a life of Taste, Travel and Transcendence. In addition to focusing on my business, I'll be head of community and philanthropic partnerships at Operation:Eatery, a consulting firm that specializes in the culinary industry. I'm also working on a number of interesting projects that all in all, help people "Feed their Dreams." And while I intend to stay here, my work is not exclusive to DC, so I hope that we may have an opportunity to connect in person in the near future.

If you'd like to learn more, you can visit my website at http://www.daphnedomingo.com or OE's at http://www.operationeatery.com.

The Last Lamb Supper Club

Even as a devout carnivore, lamb isn't one of my favorite meats. I didn't exactly grow up with very much of it and the times it did come across my path, all I could remember was the gamey texture and sweaty taste. It wasn't until my first hoity toity tasting menu dinner by Chef Ron Siegel at (now-closed) Charles Nob Hill back in the late 90s that I understood lamb's joys and pleasures. Some day, I'll have to write about that experience, a whole sensory stimulation of the sight, scent and taste of each course with its immaculate wine pairing, artfully described by my date's creative poetry, all while sitting at the coveted corner table.

While last night's lamb experience was a far cry from that dinner, it was nowhere less spectacular. I'm sure I've said this before and I'll say it again, there's nothing like a well-cared-for home-cooked meal. Even some of the world's top chefs would probably say the same, nothing like it. So I couldn't have been happier that I was finally able to attend one of Mango & Tomato's Lamb Supper Club dinners sponsored by the Tri-Lamb Group.

This final of three installments was a hearty dinner of lamb shanks braised with white beans and tomatoes over a boiled potato, a perfect meal for our "winter" in DC. The meat was fall-off-the-bone tender, incredibly flavorful and beautifully seasoned, with all the vegetables adding a perfect texture to accompany the star. This picture I took does nothing to do it justice and I hope you will take the opportunity to read her recipe once she posts it next week.