High-Vibe Living with Essential Oils

Zest Zone

The Aromatic Kitchen
The Roux Kitchen

The Roux Kitchen

Where it all began. The Roux kitchen at our beloved B&B in Provincetown, MA.  A labor of love to design and a dream to cook in. We served thousands of plates from this space.  In five years, we cooked approximately 5000 gourmet breakfasts and prepared a daily savory Happy Hour, which we affectionally coined Happier Hour, where the peckish could unwind with delectable small bites and a sip of something special.

It was nothing short of a culinary adventure. Flavors and aromas were part of the experience. Fresh, seasonal and local ingredients were the main attraction. The organic vegetables and herbs which were grown in our garden, called The Gore Vidalia Garden, were the basis of daily meal planning.  If the Ground Cherries (or, husk tomatoes) were ripe and plentiful, then a beautiful dish with Ground Cherries, always pared with herbs pulled fresh, was the focus for meal planning — all of which took place way before break of day over a pot of French Press Dark Roast ink black coffee. Hey, when you’re the baristas, you get to have the final say in terms of strength! 

Our kitchen had its own persona. We always thought of her, like the rest of the house, as a French girl who was always holding a very wonderful party. She was rich. Welcoming. Playful. Chic. And, so much fun. It was during those years we took the art of cooking very seriously. When we were introduced to the notion of adding culinary essential oils to the mix, our kitchen romance blossomed. A complete game changer.   With over 20+ culinary oils at our fingertips, it was like having an international farmers market at our fingertips.  We experimented. We played. We elevated flavors and meals to new levels. We were actually re-inventing recipes. Needless to say, although we say it a lot, we fell deeper in love with cooking, eating and entertaining. And, not just cooking for the sake of cooking because it’s relaxing, fun and inspiring. We’ve always been into creating food that is utterly pleasurable to taste. Which also means it has the right aroma. Which really makes you want to eat it. Hello Culinary Oils! 

The culinary oils, which we lovingly refer to as our flavor-power-tools, have other advantages. Since every oil has alterative health benefits, you can literally cook a healthy meal and fortify your recipe with 100% certified, pure, obsessively tested digestive essential oils. We’ve always known there was a connection between cuisine and health, but we just didn’t think about it as much as we do now.  When we learned about and felt the gifts the oils offered, well, it was truly radical. 

Just some of the Culinary Essential Oils we play with in the kitchen.

Just some of the Culinary Essential Oils we play with in the kitchen.

But wait! Remember I said we lived in Provincetown, MA? We were out on the tip of frosty, wind-swept Cape Cod with a garden that couldn’t winter over (except for our rosemary). With an array of kitchen essential oils, we were able to access beautiful flavors long after our gardens went dormant. A fabulous way to confidently boost your imagination in the kitchen and enjoy the benefits of natural flavors and ingredients all year long. Mixing up boozy or spirit-free drinks and preparing gourmet meals with these aromatics completely transformed our Guests’ vacation experience — and, our lives. We won Boston Magazine’s award for Best Inn on Cape Cod two years running, acclaimed for our design and cuisine. We were humbled and honored to be awarded for the heart and passion we put into every bite of that experience.

It’s now 2021 and we still spend more than a little time thinking of meaningful ways to enhance the vibe. Instead of taking care of Guests, we’re taking care of US. Oh, we still take care of others - they just don’t spend the night any longer. We have a focus on those who want to live, work, play and COOK with more vitality. More vibrancy. With our biggest reboot yet, we’ve taken our lifestyle to the streets. On a mission to help others create self-care rituals, often starting right in the kitchen. It’s our jam! 

We still love kicking our kitchen creations up a few notches. Our spice racks are just wayyyy bigger than they used to be to accommodate the oils. We use dōTERRA essential oils exclusively, the purest aromatic compounds on the planet. No additives. No fillers. No chemical processes to distill. Pure plant. Pure flavor. Harvested from countries where the plants grow indigenously to ensure they’re grown in the best possible soil chemistry to arrive in your hands with the most potent flavor and benefits.

We have always celebrated food as art and and believe that time at the table should be a spirited event — a heartwarming experience that reaffirms the passion for eating and conviviality. Sharing meals is a basic human expression of friendship, pleasure and community. At the time of this writing, we are ten and a half months into a pandemic and we personally can’t wait to say, Would you like to come over for dinner?  We will get back to what we miss. 

Back in the Roux Dining Room, we used to eavesdrop (You really can’t help it when you’re serving a meal!) on the gastronomic love stories as people congregated and shared, and we still love a good food story.  We’re excited to share our memoirs — even the ones that haven’t been written yet — behind more tantalizing meals and we can’t wait to hear about yours. 


p.s. We miss that kitchen. Our sweet and sexy French kitchen inspired our raw desire to provide Guests with a unique and unexpected experience. And, oh, how we miss that Lacanche Range. There’s nothing like a French range. She was a thing of beauty. And, we talked to her that way. We flirted with her for five years.  J'aimerai toujours ma cuisine. Translation: I will always love my kitchen. 


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i SPENT A NIGHT WITH SNOOP DOGG
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In September, at our annual Global dōTERRA Convention, we got to see and hear Leon Logothetis, creator of the TV show The Kindness Diaries. If you don’t know it, cozy up and snuggle down to watch Leon circumnavigate the globe on a vintage yellow motorbike named “Kindness One” relying totally on the kindness of strangers — for food, lodging, gas money - basically everything needed to stay alive. I was reminded how easy it is to be kind but I was inspired to be inspired.  

For most of my life, I used to wait to get inspired. Which meant I mostly was  looking forward to the next big something instead of being open to inspiration in any moment. Because when you expect it, it’s likely to show up.  Finding inspiration is a powerful force that lifts me to a state of possibility - which triggers my happiness hormones and that’s a fine way to live and work.  It  does wonders for the human condition, especially if you’re sharing your humanity with kids, a spouse, colleagues, friends, neighbors, customers and even the furry ones, too (the pets, not the customers).  

Finding this force, somehow motors me to appeal to people, and life in general, more authentically. More vulnerably. In a way, it’s like collecting what’s good or powerful or beautiful in the world and then finding my own intense joy or inspiration in it. In this place, I bring more of me to the job of life, work and play and, I have much more power and choice. Looking at the world like you’re looking at a lover will open you. To express. To channel. 

It wasn’t a surprise we named our new business The Zest Zone. The spirit of zest defines who we are and what we purport to inspire. We are in the Essential Oil business. We sell natural medicine.  We help others to elevate energy into a more positive vibration, emotionally and physically.  I once read that high-vibe living is like being your best self with a little extra light attached.  

Finding that light in others or in things turns me on.  It might be found in nature - like staring into the Grand Canyon, now the home of several hundred goosebumps I left behind. I was moved by boundless beauty to an understanding of so many things bigger than my life and my stuff. I can be inspired by a deep, deep meditation. A larger-than-life character in a movie. A blanketing snowfall.  A poem or song with suggestive power. A singer with a guttural, whispery voice.   A clarinet or horn player who puts me in a narcotic state. A woman who owns her strut.  Someone’s bold and brilliant earrings.  How someone wears their clothing — how they own it.  Sometimes, it’s a writer who opens her soul with words that pour from her heart and cut onto mine.  Whether the inspiration comes from a driving inner force, a beautiful scene,  from faith or someone being openly weird (a judgement, but you know what I mean), in all these examples, I know one thing for sure — I am always inspired when others put their genuine selves out there. Their light. When someone lets their passion pour out or their freak flag fly - it makes me high. 

Enter Cardi B, Chance the Rapper and Snoop. Wait, what?!  Stay with me. It was late one night a few weeks back but this little momma could not think about slumber time so I did what any smart-self-sufficient-midnight-owl would do — I hit up Netflix. And, then it happened. I fell into the first few episodes of Rhythm + Flow, a new music competition show where big rap stars hit the street to find the next rap superstar and then judge the contestants in front of a rap-thirsty crowd.  By 2:30 a.m., I was in deep and hooked. Rhythm + Flow is unscripted and uncensored and undeniably emotionally undressed. 

One by one, the hopeful challengers shared their lyrical prowess. Their truths. Their tragedies. Triumphs often marred with life’s realities. Drugs. Murder. Sex. Power. Money. The street. Each with their own imprisoned personal plot, sometimes a life vanished. I found it irresistible. 

And, in their moments, I found my own. Inspired, once again, by raw, real humanity. Just being their best selves — with a little extra light attached. 

In that reality show, I found a slice of my own.  I was reminded that I am the only one who has the power to decide who I want to be. What I want to look like. How I want to dress. And, what I need to change. 

I was reminded of how amazing I am in my spotlight. I was reminded that I still have time to transform into someone that no-one has seen before. 

I was reminded that my heart is still my GPS. And, my journey is just a continuation of all the inspired moments that brought me to this one. 

Zestfully yours,

Ilene

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Stop by for our future adventures. We only post positive life shit.

Allison Baldwin
Six Months - What?
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October 1, 2019

It’s an interesting thing, time is. 

One morning you’re baking eggs for a full-house, the next you’re waking up to palm trees asking yourself the question — “What the hell just happened?”

We’re no strangers to jumping; to knowing what we want and going after it, but this - this was big. 

One year ago, in an act of inspired passion, we put our beloved Provincetown Bed & Breakfast Roux on the market. Two days later — an offer — followed by the invariable waiting game accompanying the sale of a business. 

When the first buyers backed out, we surrendered. Not the hands-in-the-air, we-give-up kind of surrender, but the kind of surrender where you simply know you’re going to go with whatever shows up because it’s always going to be better than what you thought you had in mind.  And, so, in the midst of our surrender - that very day - we had another offer; the offer that ultimately had us handing over keys.  

There’s a lot packed into the word ultimately

There were financial reports, questions to answer, tax records to pull, training manuals to write, inspections, and spreadsheets — a lot of spreadsheets, websites and accounts to transfer, movers to arrange, living arrangements to figure out. Topped off with a government closing that had us wondering if it was ever going to happen at all - and, at the very least, scratching our heads about when to pack?  We had a planning calendar that looked and smelled a lot like spaghetti against the wall and a to-do list that would curl your hair. 

Through it all we remained, how you say… pretty fucking calm. 

But, now, six months into life in St. Petersburg, Florida, it’s like none of the above ever happened.  

The choice to move on from something you love is not so hard when you can see the next thing and it becomes the movie in your head. We had ourselves sinking into the Gulf waters long before we put Roux on the market. 

And, now, we find ourselves here; more amazing than we ever dreamed it would be. It’s vibrant. Young. Diverse. Seven arts districts; five live stage theaters; ten plus museums; the south’s largest Farmers Market. Live music, ballet, concerts, an orchestra, and a fantastic local jazz scene. It’s diverse - even more so than Provincetown. Super welcoming and surprisingly gay. Like we didn’t miss a beat. St. Pete Pride, the sixth largest Pride in the country, blew us away with 10,000 marching. The downtown streets are lined with small businesses, galleries, really cool local coffee shops, micro breweries, craft cocktail joints, and an amazing array of fantastic food options. The city is 100 neighborhoods and 129 parks. Also, the weather and the beaches. 

There’s a high vibe energy that resides in both of us and when we see it, hear it, taste it, and feel it, we know it’s time to surrender ourselves knowing that everything else that’s similarly vibing will show up. And, so it has. 

Tune in next to answer the question:  What Do They Do With All That Time?

Zestfully yours,

Allison

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Come back for more. We only post positive life shit.



Allison Baldwin
Full Stop. Jump.
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Three Michelin star Chef Dominique Crenn will someday learn she was the impulse behind selling our award-winning inn in Provincetown - leaving everything we knew and smack in the middle of - to head 1500 miles away to start over. Again. And, it had nothing to do with cooking.

It was a Sunday afternoon in May 2018. My wife and I took Sunday afternoons off - as off as we could — from our 24/7 life as innkeepers. We headed back to our bedroom to snuggle into an episode or two of the beautifully shot Netflix food-doc Chef’s Table. We were completely seduced by an episode on Chef Crenn, one of the greatest chefs in the country, of Atelier Crenn in San Francisco. Known for her signature creative plating, each dish is a work of art -  and poetry, literally. Crenn’s menu is an actual poem with each course transcending words into gastronomic beauty.  The components of her recipes, even her meticulous movements of plating ingredients are elevated to a level of virtuosity. And, then it happened. We started to cry, simultaneously. I mean, we’re known for welling up over sappy commercials but this was different.  It wasn’t hormonal. We’re not on meds. Maybe it was the lunar cycle, but we were frigging weeping and we didn’t know why - and then we did. We separately kept leaping from the pillow to pause the show, each time plunging into deep convos about the richness and beauty of life and doing what we love, all inspired by Dominique’s deliberate moments of creating food as art. Where food is intentional. Where it is truth. Something about her way in the world elicited an intense personal reaction that had us tapping into something profound and sensory.

Why had we had such a visceral response to a food show?  But, it was more than a food show. We were watching a chef dazzle us with originality and a depth of creative expression that appealed to our hearts. She teased us.  And, the human imagination is a potent tool. Dominique, in her own culinary language, provided us with unmistakable context for what would shift our universe wide open. 

My wife Allison’s first inclination was to whisk me away to Atelier Crenn, meet Chef and eat her edible art, but knew we couldn’t get away until the following January, a mere eight months away. Eight months. Allison was crushed. Soon after the TV episode episode, we had to say no to a birthday party invite for a very dear friend who was turning 80. Eighty! Plus, there were a number of other family and friend special invites to which we had to sadly say no. Before we said yes to the 24/7-year-round inn keeper’s life in a resort town no less, we had reconciled ourselves to the reality that we’d be giving up a number of other life events — everyday dinner parties, weddings, house parties and summery salty walks on the beach.  But, inn life was really, really good. We had absolutely nothing to complain about. We were doing what we loved and felt genetically wired for. We got jazzed by doing a full house renovation to a historic home. Got totally intoxicated by the exquisite details that made a home sing.  Created gracious living spaces that made others feel happy, welcomed and nurtured. We built a profitable business where there once was none. Continually polished our entertaining skills.  Met people from all walks of life and shared incredible food experiences with others.  For us, life was a party, and we were hosting a never-ending one at our B&B in Provincetown - a town we were in love with. Plus, the mere nature of our jobs granted us access to a community that vibrated pretty high. I’d go as far as saying we had a strong psychological connection to Provincetown.  We embraced the town and its identity; felt like we belonged; had a level of influence; and we were personally invested.

How do you walk away from all of that? You just do when you’re following your heart.  

My wife and I wanted more downtime together — I know, 24/7 wasn’t enough. We wanted more freedom. More spontaneity. After almost 20 years, we still believe in thriving, not just surviving.

So, that afternoon, just under five years in and just when we thought we had the whole living-in-the-moment thing figured out, an unexpected life-changing episode shows up and boom. Two days later, we called a realtor…

Check in again and follow our journey.

Zestfully yours,

Ilene

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Come back for more. We only post positive life shit.



Allison Baldwin