Nicolette Medina
Pasadena My flower and herb window boxes are a budding extension of @mylittlepasadenakitchen ... inspiring me to open the kitchen door, turn up the tunes and document my culinary creations. I had never planted a window box before the pandemic hit. I was producing local television news from my kitchen island and decided in April that I wanted to see and take care of something beautiful on my tiny balcony. When I was laid off in June, I sucked it up and continued opening my kitchen door every morning. My plants still needed me! Instead of producing the news, I began producing chicken enchiladas, mint and watermelon salad, short ribs with thyme and red wine, and stuffed poblano peppers with dried fruit and Mexican oregano. This was my opportunity to put my passion for cooking to work along with the herbs in my window box. My friend Innis, a photographer, lost all his photo shoot gigs, so I told him just to go out in his neighborhood masked and see who’d be willing to be photographed from a distance. The response was so remarkable, he has published a book called “Quartraits” documenting Southern California in quarantine. He came by to capture me with my window boxes and I made it in the book!