I start the call with Dara Katz call by apologizing. A prolonged daycare dropoff forced me to reschedule and I am truly excited to be chatting with her. Fortunately, with two small kiddos of her own, she gets it.

While my intention had initially been to discuss a collaboration, it occurs to me that this conversation is one that may prove interesting to others. Before we get too far, I ask if she is okay with me sharing parts of this conversation in Golden Hour. She says yes. I tell her this newsletter is my excuse to talk to interesting Jewish women and shine a small light where I can.

Dara has spent the last decade building her career in media. Writing, editing, shaping taste. She moved back to Chicago during Covid and I hear a familiar yearning to sort through the cost of living with creative ambitions that I know all too well.

There is a studio space she is eyeing. There is a remarkable brand and array of products she has been building in Mamaleh. There are kids who need childcare and bills that needs to be paid.

I glance at the exit sign above my WeWork office and explain I am trying to figure out when, or if, I can step away from my W2 job and lean in to GoldieLox fully.

We start talking logistics and the costs of daycare.

Half joking, Dara remarks we should do away with Birthright and instead fund private Jewish education for children.

If any reader out there knows who to call to make this happen, let me know and I will spearhead the campaign to make this happen (though I did really love my Birthright trip).

The truth is that the math does not work cleanly. Choosing to be home with your kids, Dara points out, is not the same thing as choosing to build a business.

Dara says something that sticks with me. She describes her business like a chef without written recipes. Everything lives in her head. Her piles make sense to her. No one else knows how to step in. The chaos works, until it does not.

She wants systems and for the brand to run without her.

I nod, even though she cannot see me.

I ask what success looks like right now. She says something simple: Small goals. Doubling sales month over month. Investing in the brand.

For the first time she’s pulled in some creative consulting and is glad to be letting someone else contemplate how to elevate the brand.

We talk about my hesitation to expand beyond my one core product. I confess that I keep thinking maybe I need something new, something bigger, something broader. She stops me.

“Some of the strongest brands in the world sell one thing,” she says.

She tells me I have not done enough yet with the thing I already built.

I pause at the candor and smile to myself at the irony of Dara selling this necklace. Before I reply, she tells me I need to be hosting more events. Letting people touch the product. Teaching. Sending it out into the world even if I am nervous about how it lands.

There is a moment near the end of the call where neither of us has a neat conclusion. No one has solved childcare. No one has quit their job. No one has cracked the code.

But there is relief in being witnessed.

Relief in saying out loud that the status quo is not working. Relief in naming that creativity, ambition, motherhood, money, and identity are all tangled together. Relief in realizing you are not uniquely failing. You are just living inside a very real tension.

Golden Hour is not about having answers. It is about pausing long enough to notice the questions we are all quietly carrying.

Tonight mine sound a lot like Dara’s.

With the impending snow storm making its way to Texas this week, tomorrow’s menu will be dependent on whether or not daycare is open and I have time to cook. My hope is that I’ll be able to roast a chicken during the afternoon nap window and will default to my go-to Roast Chicken by Ina Garten:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pinfeathers and pat the outside dry. Place the chicken in a roasting pan just large enough to hold the chicken and vegetables. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of the lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Scatter the onion slices around the chicken.

Roast the chicken for 1-1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove to a platter and cover with aluminum foil while you prepare the gravy.

Remove all the fat from the bottom of the pan, reserving 2 tablespoons in a small cup. Add the chicken stock to the pan and cook on high heat for about 5 minutes, until reduced, scraping the bottom of the pan. Combine the 2 tablespoons of chicken fat with the flour and add to the pan. Boil for a few minutes to cook the flour. Strain the gravy into a small saucepan and season it to taste. Keep it warm over a very low flame while you carve the chicken.

Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve immediately with the warm gravy.