Cow We Doin’1 is a newsletter about living radically. A new post comes out every Friday around 7am ET. Originally, the entire newsletter was built around food2, but more recently it’s about this idea that you should be living your life with your eyes wide open, that you should be more connected to how you experience the world. Essays range from eating to gardening to hunting to the outdoors to parenting to enlightenment. We cover a lot of ground.
When you subscribe, that’s what you’re signing up for. A reader once described it like this: “If scrolling social media is the information version of the most processed junk food you've ever had, [Cow We Doin'] feels like food that nourishes.”
I started writing this mostly for friends and family, so we try to stay familiar here. Show up often enough and you’ll probably get referenced in a newsletter eventually. The only rule is you have to read the footnotes3.
If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or need for recipe clarification, don’t hesitate to reach out. My mom is happy to answer any queries in the comments4. For what it’s worth, I think this post, conceivably about oysters, does a great job encapsulating the CWD ethos.
What’s up with the logo?
Great question, especially for those anatomically inclined and who may be wondering “why is there a bison skull when the newsletter is called Cow We Doin’?”
The answers simple: If I had to pinpoint the one thing that really set me down this radical eating path, it was ordering a bison from North Bridger Bison. The approach that Matt and his family have when it comes to eating — eating with “eyes wide open” — resonates with me more than almost any other ethos I’ve seen, read, or heard. Having a bison in our logo is a little hat tip to NBB — plus, I think it’s funny that I could have very easily used a cow skull here and didn’t5!
Knowing where your food comes from is radically important to me. It’s an ideology that Mrs. CWD and I are trying hard to instill in our family — as chronicalled in my “Kid Food” posts. But the idea of “eyes wide open” extends even beyond food. As we go through life, we need to keep our eyes open, thinking radically about the world. We can’t take the status quo for granted — we always should be asking why we do things the way we do, trying to get to the root of any issues. The way we eat just happens to be a perfect barometer for how we view the world.
Might as well do it radically.
It’s come to my attention that cow we doin’, sounding like how we doin’?, is not immediately obviously to every reader. The intent of the name, of course, is a greeting — an auditory pun because cow and how sound alike when you say them quickly.
Sometimes with links to stuff I liked. This was the original “About” page, for reference:
I woke up the other morning thinking about food. Recipes that involve red sauce, specifically. Bolognese, shakshuka, the shrimp and grits I ate last night, red curry. I wake up thinking about food more often than I’d admit in unfamiliar company.
I like to eat. Well, really — I love to eat. I also like to cook. I like cooking for and with people. And I like to write. So I figured, this morning, lying in bed thinking about lamb stew, why not start writing about food?
Seriously, that’s where all the fun is!
She wins most valuable reader.
There are a couple other Easter eggs in the logo. If you can identify them, shoot me a note and I’ll get you hooked up with some CWD swag!
