verbatim

Cookbooks and More

Happy New Year! I hope January treated you all well.

It's been a while since I let you know about some of the many wonderful books I've edited. First, a few months ago I got a big package in the mail. It was labeled HEAVY and it sure was! 

Inside was the three-volume Modernist Pizza project that I worked on! I am blown away that they sent me a copy—all 3 volumes in a sturdy red stainless-steel case, plus a spiral-bound Kitchen Manual (the whole thing retails for $425!). It's a beaut.

And here are just a few other books I edited that I think you might like—as always, I tend toward a mix of cookbooks, food-related books, and some that are just what we call "trade nonfiction":

An Amended Recipe, a New Recipe, and a Link to a Recipe

Look at me posting twice in one week! I have more recipes to share.

First, remember that awesome tofu stir-fry recipe I shared a while back? Guess what, it just got better! As instructed, I had been dusting the pressed tofu with cornstarch, then frying it in oil until crispy on all sides. That worked great, but it made kind of a powdery, splattery mess. Then I read this article by Joe Yonan, where he gives this great tip for frying tofu: “Rather than tossing the tofu in a lot of cornstarch or potato starch and then letting it sizzle and sputter in a half-inch or more of oil, you first whisk together only a couple of tablespoons of starch with an equal amount of oil. That creates a smooth, sticky batter that coats exactly a pound of tofu cubes—and stays put when you pan-fry those cubes in a mere teaspoon of oil in a nonstick skillet, getting them golden brown on each of their six sides.” And he’s right! So I’ve amended the recipe. Yonan also recommends wrapping the block of tofu in paper towels and nuking it instead of pressing it, but I haven’t tried that yet. (I’ve also seen a bunch of recommendations to freeze tofu right in its packaging and then thaw it in the fridge. This will allegedly change the color of the tofu and also improve its texture, but I haven’t tried that yet either. Have you?)

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Here's a recipe I discovered last winter and have made a couple of times since. It's a thick, hearty vegetarian soup from Serious Eats—yummy and simple to make. Note that if you refrigerate the leftovers, the next day you will have to add a few splashes of water or broth when you heat it up because the chickpeas and adorable ditalini will have soaked up every bit of liquid. As usual, I forgot to take a photo, but there’s a nice one at the link. Also at the link are instructions if you want to start with dried chickpeas rather than canned.

Pasta e Ceci (Pasta and Chickpea Soup)

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
4 medium garlic cloves, peeled and lightly smashed
1 sprig fresh rosemary
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons tomato paste*
½ cup dry white wine
2 (15-ounce) cans low-sodium chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken or broth, divided
Kosher salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
8 ounces ditalini
2 ounces Pecorino Romano cheese, finely grated, plus extra for serving

In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add the garlic and rosemary and cook, stirring frequently, until the garlic softens and turns golden, about 5 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomato paste and cook until fragrant and dark brick-red, about 1 minute. Stir in the wine, scraping up the browned bits. Bring to a simmer and cook until the mixture is slightly reduced, about 2 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat; remove and discard the rosemary sprig. Add 1 cup of the chickpeas and 1 cup of the broth and, using an immersion blender, blend until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. (Or transfer the mixture to a blender and blend until smooth, then return it to the pot.) Stir in the remaining 2 cups chickpeas, remaining 3 cups broth, and black pepper. Season with salt to taste. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir in the ditalini and cook, stirring frequently, until the pasta is just shy of al dente (1 to 2 minutes less than the package directs) and the liquid is reduced to a consistency that falls between soupy and saucy.

Remove the pot from the heat, add the cheese, and stir rapidly to incorporate. Season with salt to taste (I found the cheese plenty salty enough). Ladle into bowls and drizzle each serving with olive oil and sprinkle with extra grated cheese.

*By the way, did you know that you can freeze tomato paste? When I open a can, I spoon out 1-tablespoon blobs onto a sheet of waxed paper, fold it up so each blob is in its own compartment, and put the whole thing in a plastic bag in the freezer. When I need tomato paste, I just tear off a section with one blob for each tablespoon I need. It thaws quickly in whatever I'm cooking. I don't buy tomato paste in a tube because I don't use it up fast enough for it to stay fresh.

*  *  *

And finally, for Thanksgiving this year, instead of making one or more pies, I made these adorable two-bite “tassies”: 

(Also shown, of course, are the Greatest Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever, which have become Julie's signature.) I made a dozen each of apple crumb, pecan, chocolate, and buttermilk chess tassies. The chess were the surprising favorite. I made them all on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, then panicked because the online recipe suddenly had deleted the make-ahead instructions! But thanks to a shout-out on Twitter, I found out that they can indeed be frozen! I thawed them overnight in the fridge and then reheated them (back in their mini muffin tins) in the oven just in time for dessert on Turkey Day. They weren’t difficult to make, but it took a little bit of work to form each little pie. Mine also did not come out as nicely browned as the ones in the WaPo photo (at the link above) but were still gobbled up. I won't bother sharing the recipe here because there are so many filling options (in addition to the ones I made, there were also recipes for pumpkin, cranberry, and lemon fillings), but you can find it at the link above. It is a fun baking project.

Happy Boxing Day!

You didn't think I'd let 2021 end without checking in one more time, did you? (Maybe even twice, if I can swing it.) Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and either got to see their family or had family who understood why they couldn't see them... (Who ever thought that nasal swabs would become the most desired stocking-stuffer?)

All's well here. I'm happy to have Julie home for a few weeks on break, and we've even managed to have the whole family together once or twice, when Steph's and Pete's schedules allow.

Andy and I are still not going anywhere—no restaurants, no movies, only medical appointments and necessary shopping. Luckily we are both mostly homebodies by nature, so we don't mind. As much as I'd love to see, for instance, West Side Story, on the big screen, I can't imagine sitting for two hours shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers (even masked!) in a windowless room. No way would I relax and enjoy the movie. And even more so for indoor dining, where everyone would be unmasked—no thanks! I would probably try to shovel all my food down in record time just to get out of there. And luckily I don't have any pressing need to get on a plane, as that also gives me the howling fantods. (I know others feel comfortable doing this stuff, and I'm not judging you—as I hope you're not judging me! We all have different comfort zones.)

So what have I been doing? Just the usual—working (I owe you a post sharing some recently published books I edited), watching movies (recently saw and enjoyed Nobody, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Blade Runner 2049, No Time to Die, and Dune), and cooking (one recipe appears below, and I have lots more to post one of these days!). I haven't done much reading for pleasure lately. More and more I find that after reading all day for work, I don't really feel like reading when evening rolls around. I did recently read Stoner by John Williams, which was beautiful but very sad. I continue to do loads of nonograms, plus all my usual crosswords, sudokus, kenkens, acrostics, and other word and number puzzles. I do nonograms for a few minutes here and there all day long, in between chunks of work; the other puzzles I do in the evening with a glass of wine, in my comfy chair, wrapped in the afghan my mom knitted for me to take to college, with Phoebe on my lap. I've recently discovered some surprisingly good boxed wines, which are very economical and handy when you want only one glass (or only one more glass after the bottle from dinner is gone...). So far my favorites are House Wine Original Red Blend and Bota Box Nighthawk Black Rich Red Wine Blend. (I only recently learned that bota is the word for those Spanish leather slings that hold wine, so I think "Bota Box" is a clever name.)

Speaking of Phoebe: She has one eye that gets goopy, and she snores. The vet said she needed to take L-lysine for respiratory support. I get all my cat food and litter from Chewy.com, and they have always been amazing in every way. So I ordered some little lysine-infused treats, but she wouldn't eat them. (Calvin, on the other hand, thought they were grand! Oh, but yesterday I rubbed some of the treats inside the packaging from the lox Andy had on his bagel and Phoebe did gobble those down!) Then I ordered some salmon-flavored lysine gel that you have to rub on her face or paw so she'll lick it off, and I also ordered some droplets that you have to try to squirt into her mouth, if all else failed. Well, luckily the gel worked—she seems kind of pissed every time one of us ambushes her with a gob of this stuff and then she has to clean herself again, but at least she's ingesting it. So I asked Chewy if I could return the unopened bottle of droplets, since they were kind of pricey and I didn't need them after all. They said that they would give me a refund but that I could feel free to donate the droplets to a local animal shelter! Which I thought was really swell of them. The lovely customer service person I was emailing with asked to see a photo of Phoebe, so I sent this one:

Fast-forward a few weeks, when I got a wrapped package in the mail from Chewy. They had someone paint Phoebe's portrait for me! Just like that! 

Isn't that gorgeous? Also, I have a friend whose dog died. She asked Chewy if she could return some unopened food. As with me, they said they would refund her and she could donate the food. And the next day they sent her a bouquet of flowers and a condolence card hand-signed by the people in the office! Talk about doing everything right. I highly recommended Chewy even before all this nice stuff—now I can't imagine shopping anywhere else. Also, their prices are good, and it's obviously way more convenient to have 40 pounds of cat litter, bags of dry food, and cases of canned food dropped at my front door than to have to go to the store and then schlep it all home.

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I intend to post a bunch of wonderful new recipes, but for now I'll leave you with just this one, in case any of you had turkey and stuffing for Christmas. (Do people even do that? I have no idea.) I made these after Thanksgiving and they came out great! I still have some in the freezer. The stuffing and eggs are the main attraction—you could leave out the turkey, and you could certainly add any veg you like, like chopped broccoli or mushrooms. They're sort of like mini frittatas, but with stuffing.

Leftover Stuffing Muffins

3 cups leftover cooked stuffing
1 cup chopped cooked turkey 
4 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
6 large eggs
2 tablespoons milk (I used oat milk.)
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a muffin tin. 
Put the stuffing, turkey, and spinach in a bowl and stir gently to combine without breaking up the stuffing too much. Divide the stuffing mixture evenly into the 12 greased muffin cups. Do not pack it down.
In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper. Pour the egg mixture evenly into the muffin cups.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown and crispy on the top. Allow the muffins to cool slightly, then run a knife around the edges to loosen and remove each muffin. Serve warm.

Two More Books, Two More Recipes

A few years ago I read Any Human Heart by William Boyd and was blown away (review here). So I was delighted to see that he had another book of the same ilk (by which I mean a loooong novel that tells every detail of one person's life story), this one about a woman. It's called Sweet Caress (which is kind of a sappy title, but the book did not feel sappy to me in the least). This one is about Amory Clay, a British woman, born in 1908, who becomes a photographer, and she tells her story with actual photos strewn about here and there, although it's a work of fiction. I read somewhere that Boyd collects old photos and then just kind of plunked them in wherever he could—and it worked! I found Amory more likable than the main character in Any Human Heart, and I think Boyd did a (mostly) good job of writing from a woman's point of view. I recommend this if you're up for a good long read, well-written and interesting.

I was less impressed with Paris by the Book by Liam Callanan. This one is about Leah and her two daughters, who have moved to Paris on a whim after their husband/father Robert vanishes without a trace. They luck into a job running a bookshop, including living in an apartment above it. I enjoyed the first two-thirds or so, maybe three-quarters, but then I got that same feeling I so often get: that the author had a deadline and positively raced to finish writing the book. I won't give away anything, but I found the last part rushed, unbelievable, and wholly unsatisfying. I can't really recommend this one, sorry to say.

But I have two more recipes for you, and both of these are highly recommended. The first is another winner from Budget Bytes, this one for very tasty turkey burgers. I've made these a couple of times already and everyone loves 'em. There's a recipe at that site for a lemon-dill yogurt sauce to top the burgers with, but I went with a tub of Cedar's tzatziki, which I can't get enough of, and it went perfectly with these flavors. I also offered Pickled Red Onions, because I always have those in the fridge these days and we put them on just about everything. You could also top your burgers with some raw red onion slices and/or cucumber slices.

Mediterranean Turkey Burgers (you can see a nice photo at that link)

1 pound ground turkey (I get dark-meat turkey.)
¼ cup finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes (the dry-packed kind)
¼ cup minced red onion
¼ cup thawed frozen chopped spinach (make sure to squeeze it out good)
¼ cup crumbled feta cheese
1 teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon garlic powder 
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
4 hamburger buns, toasted (We like brioche buns.)

Combine the ground turkey, sun-dried tomatoes, red onion, feta, spinach, dried oregano, garlic powder, and salt in a large bowl. Mix the ingredients together by hand until evenly combined. Divide and shape the turkey mixture into four patties. Make them flatter and wider than usual because they will shrink up and in as they cook.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the patties and cook until browned and cooked through, 5 to 7 minutes on each side. Serve on buns with your choice of toppings (see my notes above).

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Andy's birthday was a few weeks ago, and he loves coconut and almond and chocolate, so I knew I had to make these little cakes for him. The recipe comes from Dorie Greenspan via the New York Times. They were fantastic! You make them in a mini muffin tin, so they are thicker than regular cookies (but they don't get as tall as a mini muffin), and the almond meal and coconut make them pleasantly chewy. They are not at all overwhelmingly coconutty, if that is not your thing. I used my scale to measure all the ingredients (well, not the stick of butter), since I wasn't sure about how much to pack the coconut and almond flour. Look how pretty!

Toasted Almond-Coconut Financiers 

½ cup/45 grams unsweetened, shredded coconut (The recipe calls for sweetened but I could only find unsweetened. But several commenters at the NYT site suggested they would still turn out plenty sweet—and they were right! I will use unsweetened again next time.)
½ cup/55 grams almond flour
⅓ cup/67 grams granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Pinch kosher salt
2 large egg whites
¼ teaspoon almond extract
8 tablespoons (1 stick)/113 grams unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
3 ounces/85 grams bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 teaspoon neutral oil

Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease a 12-cup mini muffin tin (I used cooking spray).

On a rimmed baking sheet, spread out the coconut and almond flour, side by side. Toast until both are lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes, stirring halfway through and keeping a close watch at the end. Transfer to a large bowl and let cool slightly. (Note that a commenter said that they made two batches of these cookies, one as instructed and one without bothering to toast the coconut and almond flour, and they could not detect any difference in flavor. I did the toasting, and it's not difficult, so I will probably do that next time too ... but if you are short on time, skipping this step might be an option.)

Use your fingertips to grind the coconut with the almond flour to break it down into small pieces. Add the sugar, all-purpose flour, and salt and whisk to combine. Whisk in the egg whites and almond extract, then the melted butter.

Spoon the batter evenly into the greased muffin cups. Tap the muffin tin on the countertop to smooth the tops.

Bake until the cakes spring back when pressed gently in the center, 18 to 20 minutes. Pop them out of the tin and let them cool completely on a wire rack.

Melt the chocolate and oil together in a small bowl in short, 10-second bursts in the microwave, stirring between each. Dip half of each financier in the chocolate and place them back on the rack until set, at least 30 minutes. (I was sure there wasn't going to be enough chocolate, so I was rather stingy with the dipping at first. Then when I saw that there was plenty, I went back and re-dipped, hence the messy dribbles in my photo.)

A Chicken in Every Pot

Greetings! I keep a list of things I want to blog about if I ever get around to blogging again ... and lately there seem to be a lot of chicken recipes, so I thought I'd get a couple of them out of the way here. But I haven't been making only chicken lately, so stay tuned for other recipes! I promise I'll blog again before 2022 hits us in the face.

But first, there's a recipe I'm not going to bother sharing, because it was just fine, and that's all. It's a quickie version of Chicken Tahdig, which I found at the Washington Post. The chicken was moist on the inside and crispy-crunchy on the outside but just didn't have all that much flavor. And I was under the impression that a true tahdig also features crispy-crunchy rice, but in this case the rice is just steamed. So it tasted just fine and we ate it all (leftovers were nice for lunch the next day!), but I don't imagine I'll ever bother to make it again. Let me know if you've ever made a similar recipe that I might want to try.

But don't despair! The next two recipes were both great and will definitely get made again. First up was a cheater's version of cassoulet. And by cheating, I mean not ordering Tarbais beans and soaking them before cooking, not making confit duck legs, etc., so it's not a three-day affair. Just a relatively quick and very delicious meal, this time from Food & Wine.

Lazy Chicken and Sausage Cassoulet

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1¾ teaspoons kosher salt, divided (I didn't really bother measuring this out, and I also didn't use unsalted broth below.)
1 teaspoon black pepper, divided
½ cup olive oil or vegetable oil, divided
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
6 ounces smoked sausage, such as kielbasa, halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into ½-inch pieces
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
⅛ teaspoon ground allspice (If I even have allspice in my cabinet, it's from the Year 1...)
¼ cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 (15-ounce) cans white beans, such as great northern or cannellini, drained and rinsed
1 cup unsalted chicken broth (Mine was low-sodium but not unsalted, so I used a little less salt elsewhere.)
1½ cups fresh breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 375°.

Season the chicken thighs with 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken thighs, smooth side down. Cook, undisturbed, until the edges turn opaque and the bottoms are nicely browned, about 6 minutes. Flip and cook until the internal temperature reaches 165°, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

Return the skillet and any drippings to medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil, the onion, and sausage. Cook, stirring often, until the onion is tender and light golden, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic, thyme, allspice, remaining ¾ teaspoon salt, and remaining ½ teaspoon pepper. Cook, stirring often, until heated through and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the wine and tomato paste and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer, then cook, stirring often, for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the beans, broth, and 2 tablespoons oil and bring to a simmer.

Shred the chicken into bite-size pieces (I did this with my fingers and it was hot! Next time I'll make sure to spread the chicken on the plate to cool a bit and then use two forks and/or my kitchen shears to shred the meat); add the chicken to the onion mixture along with any drippings that have accumulated on the plate. Transfer to an 8 x 11-inch baking dish. (I have never heard of this size dish, so I used my trusty Pyrex 9 x 13.) Spread into an even layer. Toss the breadcrumbs with the remaining 3 tablespoons oil in a large bowl. Scatter the breadcrumbs over the bean mixture.

Bake until everything is heated through, the top is browned, and the sides are bubbly, about 20 minutes. Open a nice bottle of red wine and dig in!

* * * * *

The other recipe I just made last night—Bon Appétit's chicken tinga tostadas—and they came out great! I don't think I'd ever had a tostada, though, and I found it almost impossibly messy to eat. Next time I'll probably skip the tostadas and just get flour tortillas for burritos, and/or taco shells. But the chicken mixture and black beans were divine. I made a box of Goya yellow rice to go with.

Chicken Tinga Tostadas with Bacony Black Beans (great photo at the link)

1 medium white onion, chopped (I only buy yellow onions and don't really see the difference. Also, no one here wanted the raw onion on top at the end, so next time I will go with a small-medium-ish onion.)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 canned chipotle chile, finely chopped, plus 1–2 tablespoons adobo sauce (I used only 1 tablespoons but we could have taken a little more heat, so I'll go closer to 2 next time.)
1 (15-ounce) can diced fire-roasted tomatoes
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (about 1½ pounds total) (I used about 1¾ pounds boneless, skinless thighs, which worked out great.)
4 ounces smoked bacon, sliced crosswise into ¼-inch strips
2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, UNDRAINED
8 tostadas (I couldn't find these, so after a bit of googling, I bought regular corn tortillas, spread them out on a baking sheet, sprayed them with cooking spray, and baked them at 400° for 5–7 minutes or so, flipping once or twice, to crisp them up. But see above—I will likely just go the burrito route next time.)
4 ounces queso fresco, crumbled
¾ cup cilantro (ick)
Pickled red onions (I usually have some of these in the fridge anyhow, and we prefer them to raw onion.)
Guacamole (It didn't say to add this, but of course I did.)

If you're planning to serve raw onion, set aside ½ cup now. Put half of the remaining chopped onion in a large saucepan (you’ll use the rest for the beans), along with the garlic, chipotle chile and adobo sauce, tomatoes with their juices, and chili powder. Stir to combine, then bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Nestle the chicken into the mixture, reduce the heat to medium-low, and bring the liquid to a simmer. Cover the pan and cook until the chicken is cooked through and shreds easily with two forks, 25 to 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, put the bacon and remaining chopped onion (not the ½ cup reserved for serving) in a large skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the fat has rendered, the bacon is crispy, and the onion is browned and tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Increase the heat to medium-high and add the black beans and their liquid. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is reduced slightly, about 5 minutes.

Using a potato masher or a wooden spoon (or if you're me, a meat mallet), smash the beans until almost no whole beans remain and the mixture is thick, smooth, and creamy (this was harder than I expected, so mine was not very smooth, but still awesome). Remove from the heat and let cool slightly; the refried beans will thicken as they sit. Transfer to a bowl.

When the chicken is finished cooking, use tongs to transfer it to a plate and let cool slightly. While the chicken cools, increase the heat under the pan to medium-high and simmer the sauce, uncovered and stirring occasionally, until it looks like a thick and chunky salsa, about 5 minutes. (Mine took a little longer than this, and I realized it's OK if it's still kind of juicy.) Let cool slightly.

Remove the skin and bones (which I didn't have, and didn't miss) from the chicken and shred the meat into bite-size pieces. Transfer the chicken to a medium bowl, pour the warm salsa over the chicken, season with 1½ teaspoons kosher salt (I forgot to do this), and toss to coat.

To assemble: Smear about ⅓ cup refried beans over a tostada. Top with about ½ cup chicken tinga. Garnish with some queso fresco, cilantro, reserved chopped onion, pickled red onions, and guacamole. Get out the napkins!

Where Did the Summer Go?

Yikes, it's almost September! Hope everyone managed to have safe fun for the last couple of months. We went up to Maine a couple of times, but we mostly prefer to avoid crowds (now more than ever, obvs), so we're very much looking forward to our favorite time to head north—at the end of September! We did finally eat outdoors at a restaurant (twice!) up there. And I have finally gone to Trader Joe's (twice) and Whole Foods (a handful of times). My city has a mask ordinance in place, so that helps me feel more comfortable. I still prefer the convenience of having regular groceries delivered, but there's no question that choosing your own produce is ideal. (And Trader Joe's doesn't have a delivery option.) 

My book group has been postponed two or three times, and by now I've forgotten everything I wanted to tell you about Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. Well, I do remember that I loved it! The very first page says:

Historical Note

In the 1580s, a couple living on Henley Street, Stratford, had three children:
Susanna, then Hamnet and Judith, who were twins.

The boy, Hamnet, died in 1596, aged eleven.

Four years or so later, the father wrote a play called Hamlet.

And the very next page says:

Hamnet and Hamlet are in fact the same name, entirely interchangeable
in Stratford records in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

That information, plus the subtitle—"A Novel of the Plague"—tells you pretty much what the book is about. But it doesn't tell you how beautifully it's written! Really, the writing was so lush and vivid throughout, I read the whole thing in three sittings. O'Farrell's description of a mother's grief was positively searing. And given our current plague, there was lots to think about (and discuss, if my group ever finally gets to meet...). HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I then turned to my most recent shipment of used book from Better World Books and picked one at random. These are generally older books that have been languishing on my to-read list; once in a while I order five or eight books from them. I chose one at random from my pile, and guess what? It was written by Maggie O'Farrell! I don't remember who recommended it to me or when, but there it was: This Must Be the Place. The only thing this book has in common with Hamnet is the terrific writing! It takes place in the modern era. Our main character is Daniel, an American living in Ireland, with an ex-wife and two children in California. I won't give away any more because it was fun learning about him and the other characters. The chapters are told by various characters, which really adds to the sense that you're getting to know each of them from different angles. The plot, which covers several decades and hops around quite a bit, mostly is about Daniel repeatedly making big mistakes in his life and trying to either forget them or make up for them—and trying to keep those he loves close without letting them find out what he fears are his worst qualities. I really, really liked this one too and recommend it.

A while ago I finally watched Nomadland, starring one of my all-time favorite actresses, Frances McDormand. She did not disappoint. I found this movie extremely moving, if at times pretty sad and bleak. My only regret was that I didn't see it on the big screen, because the western scenery was magnificent. This won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress, all well deserved in my opinion. I watched it a couple of months ago and I still think about it from time to time. 

Another movie I'd been meaning to see and finally did was Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which was great fun if you're a Tarantino fan (me!). This is the story of a cowboy actor (played by Leo DiCaprio) and his long-time stuntman (played brilliantly by Brad Pitt). The story takes place in 1969 and intersects with the Charles Manson murders going on at the time, but I won't say any more than that. I just love Brad Pitt—yes, he's gorgeous, but I also think he's a terrific actor, no matter what type of part he's playing. And Tarantino absolutely nailed all the details of that era. It's a tad overlong but I didn't mind one bit. 

I haven't decided yet whether to watch the second season of Ted Lasso. Season 1 was just perfect, and ended so perfectly, that I hate to risk spoiling it. I would like to spend time with those characters again, but I don't know... I've read some reviews that suggested that they should have left well enough alone. (I still rewatch the darts tournament scene on YouTube whenever I need a pick-me-up!)

Let's see ... what else ... OH! I've been rocking an iPhone 6 (not even 6S!) all this time and perfectly happy with it, thank you very much. But the battery was really becoming a problem—not that I go anywhere, but when I do it could barely hold a charge for a couple of hours. So I finally replaced it! I fully intended to buy the SE, because it's the last model that has the "home" button, which I love. But there I was in the Apple Store and thinking that since I (obviously) tend to keep my phones for a long time, I should probably get a newer model. So I was going to get the 12 mini, but then I thought about how I sometimes have trouble seeing things even on a normal-size screen ... and I ended up with a 12! It's blue and I like it. I do wish it had the fingerprint thing instead of the face recognition—especially when I need to use ApplePay and have to take off my mask for it to see me. (Or else I have to type in my passcode.) But so far, so good, and it's amazing how fast it is and how long the battery lasts. I got a clear case to show off the blue back, and it came with a little easel for free. I find I really like having it propped up like that at my desk all day.

And that's about all that's going on here. I'm working steadily on a bunch of (mostly) interesting manuscripts; one of these days I'll post a recap of some of the recently published books I worked on.

Food for a Crowd

Me again, twice in one week! Here's a pulled pork recipe (yet another winner from Budget Bytes!) that I've made a bunch of times. I consider it both cold-weather fare since it's hearty, and warm-weather fare since it uses the slow cooker rather than heat up the whole kitchen. Anyhow, it is soooo easy and soooo good. You can make it into burritos or tacos or bowls or whatever you like. I serve it with tortillas, Goya yellow rice, salsa, guac, pickled red onion (quick and easy recipe also below), and sour cream, but you can go hog-wild (see what I did there?) with beans, lettuce, jalapeños, shredded cheese, you name it. I don't have a photo of the pork because it just looks like glop, but you can see one at the link. 

Chili-Rubbed Pulled Pork

 

2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon onion powder 
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (I omit this and just double up on the black pepper.)
1 (3-pound) boneless pork butt/shoulder, trimmed of really big chunks of fat and then cut into 2- to 3-inch pieces

 

Measure all the spices into the slow cooker and stir to combine. Add the pork cubes and toss well to coat the meat thoroughly in the spices. (The recipe has you mixing the spices in a little bowl, then coating the meat in a large bowl, but I do it all in the slow cooker so there's no bowls to wash!)

 

Cover and cook on high for 4–5 hours or on low for 8–9 hours.

 

Stir the meat with a fork to shred it. (It says if it's not tender enough to fall apart when stirred, put the lid back on and cook for an additional 30 minutes—I've never needed to do this.) To serve, you want some of the juices but not too much, so I use tongs. If you have leftovers, skim off any fat at the top but leave the meat in the remaining juices to store in the fridge.

 

Pickled Red Onions

 

These go great with the pulled pork, offering a refreshing, crisp counterpoint, and leftovers are delish on all manner of salads and sandwiches.  They turn the most magnificent shade of fuchsia, look:

1 large red onion, sliced about ⅛ inch thick (you want about 1½ cups)
1 garlic clove, peeled and lightly smashed
3 tablespoons sugar 
1½ tablespoons salt 
½ teaspoon whole black peppercorns 
1 cup white vinegar

Put the onion and garlic in a large glass or ceramic bowl. (I find it works well to use something sort of tall and narrow, so I use my big 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup.)

 

Combine the sugar, salt, and peppercorns in a small saucepan. Pour in the vinegar and stir until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Cover the pan and bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. As soon as it reaches a boil, pour the mixture over the onion and garlic. Press the onions down so all the pieces are submerged. The recipe recommends placing a piece of plastic wrap over the onions to help hold them below the surface of the brine, but instead I put a little ramekin on top to weight them down:

 

 

Let the onions cool to room temperature, then transfer the onions and all the brine to a glass or plastic container, cover, and store in the fridge for up to a month. 

Belated Book Reviews

I have to try to post reviews here as soon as I finish a book because by the time I get around to it months later ... I can't remember much about the book. That said, here goes.

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

Amazon synopsis: 

Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he’s merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He’s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy—the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it?

I regret that I was ultimately disappointed by this book, as it came highly recommended. It is extremely creative and clever, but it felt like a one-line gag that just went on too long. I lost interest long before I finished. There's a lot of good material here about being Asian, American, and/or Asian American, and all the stereotypes involved, but in the end I just felt that the switching off between straight narrative and TV show script didn't work for me. It felt like it was trying too hard to force important topics into a tricky format. 

The Martian by Andy Weir

Amazon synopsis:

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

I love-love-loved the movie The Martian when I saw it years ago (so much that I watched it once with the kids and then again later that day with Andy!). Several people had told me that the book was even better, and I finally got around to reading it recently. They were right! It's really funny and interesting and smart. Even knowing how it was going to turn out, it was still really fun and exciting to be there with Mark trying to get there. I'm not a huge science geek, but I wasn't bored at all by the technical descriptions. I felt like I was becoming a mini-expert on astrophysics, engineering, chemistry, and botany!

Topics of Conversation by Miranda Popkey

Amazon synopsis:

Composed almost exclusively of conversations between women—the stories they tell each other, and the stories they tell themselves—Topics of Conversation careens through twenty years in the life of an unnamed narrator hungry for experience and bent on upending her life. In exchanges about shame and love, infidelity and self-sabotage, Popkey touches upon desire, disgust, motherhood, loneliness, art, pain, feminism, anger, envy, and guilt. Edgy, wry, and written in language that sizzles with intelligence and eroticism, this novel introduces an audacious and immensely gifted new novelist.

Well, I don't know what I thought about this one. I definitely wanted to read to the end (even though it doesn't have anything like a plot, but consists of a series of scenes over the course of a few decades in the narrator's life), but I fell just short of enjoying it. The writing felt very contrived, and it some ways it was tedious to read. There were a few memorable moments and sentences, but all in all I didn't care a heck of a lot about the main character. I was waiting for something big to tie everything together, and (at least for me) it never came.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Amazon synopsis: 

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

This was a fun, light read. It felt like a YA novel, which isn't a bad thing, but in this case it did mean that I knew exactly how it would end. We all wonder what would have happened if we had made different choices in our life, and in this book our young protagonist gets to find out. It's very sweet and clever but nothing earth-shattering for sure.

The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames

Amazon synopsis: 

For Stella Fortuna, death has always been a part of life. Stella’s childhood is full of strange, life-threatening incidents—moments where ordinary situations like cooking eggplant or feeding the pigs inexplicably take lethal turns. Even Stella’s own mother is convinced that her daughter is cursed or haunted.

In her rugged Italian village, Stella is considered an oddity—beautiful and smart, insolent and cold. Stella uses her peculiar toughness to protect her slower, plainer baby sister Tina from life’s harshest realities. But she also provokes the ire of her father Antonio: a man who demands subservience from women and whose greatest gift to his family is his absence.

When the Fortunas emigrate to America on the cusp of World War II, Stella and Tina must come of age side-by-side in a hostile new world with strict expectations for each of them. Soon Stella learns that her survival is worthless without the one thing her family will deny her at any cost: her independence.

I saved the best for last: I absolutely loved this one! It's a hefty book and I never once wanted to put it down. It definitely falls into the category of "sweeping saga," but my attention never flagged. Stella and the other main characters are really well drawn and believable, and the writing is extremely big-hearted and engaging throughout. As a review in the Washington Post said, the book "achieves what no sweeping history lesson about American immigrants could: It brings to life a woman that time and history would have ignored.” It's at times both heart-breaking and hilarious and I heartily recommend it!

For my next book group meeting, we're reading Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. I haven't started it yet.

Have you read any of the books above? If so, what did you think? And if not, what have you been reading instead, and what do you recommend?

Non-Cookbooks

Yes, I do edit mostly cookbooks, but not all. Here's a selection of other nonfiction books I edited that have come out in recent months. I highly recommend all of them! (I tend to not show you books I don't think are worth your time, even if I did work on them!)

17 Years of Blogging—and Memories of Being 17 Years Old

Happy 17th Blogiversary to me! I know no one blogs anymore, but I'll keep showing up here once in a while as long as you'll have me. It's so funny to look back at the early years of this blog, before there was such a thing as social media! I sometimes posted a few times a day, even just a one-liner or a photo, but of course now I do that stuff on Twitter and Instagram. (And Facebook to a lesser extent; I would really like to be done with that but feel it's a necessary evil for certain things, like my editors' group, community and civic organizations, digging up old friends—and getting dug up!)

Speaking of the past, I did a deep dive into mine about a week ago. In my office I have a Big Box o' Memories that I hadn't opened up in years. I finally did and am still going through its contents. I haven't yet looked at the piles of old photos, nor have I read the many letters, from friends, old beaus, even myself (letters and postcards I wrote home from camp or college or travel). I hope to dig in to those next weekend. But what I did do was read every word of every journal I kept from age 16 to 21. Five years' worth of cringe-worthy soul-searching and drivel, with the occasional mind-blowing insight or hilarious take on something. Because of the excruciating cringe factor, plus the fact that they were filled with secrets (not all mine), I then proceeded to shred every one of them. It was positively exhilarating. I ended up with several bags full:

As those of you on Instagram already know, I then put out my recycling bin on the windiest day in recorded history, and it blew over, dispersing the shreds of my adolescence all over the neighborhood—and, for all I know, the world. I am still finding shreds in the yard, in the last of the snow, in the garden, in the bushes... I won't be surprised to come across a few come spring, or even summer.

While I read, I did come across some entries that caused me to want to try to find some old friends—particularly some of the other American students on my study-abroad program in London—and I intend to do that. And then a weird thing happened: The night after all the shredding, an old camp friend who had been mentioned in passing a couple of times in the journals friended me on Facebook! We've all had those creepy experiences where you mention to someone that you're thinking of buying something and then almost immediately ads start showing up in your social media feeds for that very thing. This felt similar. I asked him how he thought to contact me after 40+ (!) years, and he said my name just popped up in the "People you might know" list. <cue "Twilight Zone" theme>

I did not shred my childhood diaries, which are filled with fabulous entries like this one:

Stay tuned for more thrilling installments!

 

More Recommended Recipes

It's weird to realize that I'm coming up on the one-year anniversary of the last time I set foot in a supermarket. We've been getting by quite well with the delivery options we have (although I do not use Instacart, because they stick you with so many absurd fees). Here are two great meals I made recently:

First, if you are looking for a bit of a splurge (or if fresh sea scallops are on sale!), this recipe is sooooo delicious! It's an America's Test Kitchen recipe adapted by Leite's Culinaria, one of my all-time favorite food sites). You'll want to have your side dishes just about ready, because the scallops cook fast. I did salad and roasted cauliflower, which was nice with the butter. The recipe calls for ¾ pound of scallops, which didn't feel like quite enough for the two of us, so I will probably go for closer to 1 pound next time (and up the oil and butter a tad, too). I had never cooked scallops this way before, so I was a little nervous, but it couldn't have been easier.

Pan-Seared Scallops

Put a tea towel (or a few layers of paper towels) on a large plate. Put 12 ounces fresh sea scallops in a single layer on the towel, then cover the scallops with another towel. Press gently to blot any moisture, then let them sit, covered, for 10 minutes.

Heat 1 tablespoon neutral vegetable oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until it's screaming hot—but not yet smoking. Season the scallops on both sides with salt and pepper and place them in the skillet, preferably not in the very center of the pan and preferably not touching each other.

Cook the scallops without moving them, until they’re dark golden brown on the bottom, 1½ to 2 minutes (go look at the photo here). Reduce the heat to medium and turn the scallops over. If you slide your tongs or spatula underneath, they should release easily; if they stick, that means they’re not ready to be turned.

Add 1 tablespoon unsalted butter to the skillet and tip the pan a little bit so it pools as it melts. Use a large spoon to baste the scallops with the melted butter and cook until the scallops are golden brown on the other side and opaque throughout, 1 to 1½ minutes more. Transfer to plates and pour the butter over them; serve with lemon wedges (which I forgot).

*  *  *  

And here's yet another winner from Budget Bytes. I like lentil soups but am not a huge fan of very tomatoey versions, so this tomato-free version fit the bill! I froze it in plastic containers to take out for workday lunches. It's good with crusty bread for dunking. 

Lentil and Sausage Stew

8 ounces loose sausage meat (any kind, as long as it’s uncooked—I used my favorite garlic and herb chicken sausage from Whole Foods)
1 onion, diced
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
4 celery ribs, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups brown lentils
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano (I used Italian herb blend instead)
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (I used black pepper instead)
6 cups chicken broth
1 (10-ounce) package frozen spinach

In a Dutch oven, cook the sausage over medium heat, breaking it up into pieces, until cooked through. (If you’re using chicken or turkey sausage, you will need to add a little bit of oil.)

Add the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes.

Add the lentils, smoked paprika, cumin, oregano, pepper, and chicken broth. Turn the heat up to medium-high, cover, and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and simmer, covered, until the lentils are tender, about 30 minutes. Check once in a while and add a little water if it gets too dry (I didn’t need to do this).

Stir in the frozen spinach and cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes more. Serve.

Dinner Out and In

Hey, I promised you some recipes, didn't I? Well, I suddenly got bombarded with work deadlines and kind of forgot. We did make it up to Maine for the long weekend, which was lovely. I had to bring some work, but not too-too much, and at least I had a different window view when I looked away from my monitor! We bundled up and walked down to the beach—and were definitely not the only ones there (although we were in the minority of people without dogs). For Valentine's Day we took out from our favorite restaurant, Walkers Maine, and brought it back to the house. We transferred everything to plates, opened a bottle of wine, lit candles, and pretended we were at the restaurant. Hopefully next year... (Also: This was our 35th Valentine's Day together!)

We finished watching The Queen's Gambit. We liked it well enough but had some overarching problems with it, which I won't mention here because spoilers. We also weren't big fans of the acting—except for Benny Watts and maybe Harry Beltik (and of course Mr. Shaibel). We especially didn't care for the nonstop views of Beth making all those intense expressions. Ah well, it was definitely interesting as a story.

But back to the recipes! Here are two more winners from Budget Bytes—which, I must keep reiterating, has never let me down yet. You should really spend some time over there, and even sign up for email updates.

First up is the best tofu dish I ever made! The secret is to coat the tofu cubes in cornstarch so they get a beautiful golden-brown sear. The recipe calls for frozen broccoli, but I used fresh (and just steamed them a bit so they'd stir-fry quickly). And for once I remembered to take a photo—look how yummy! (Update 12/28/21: As mentioned here, I've adapted this recipe to make it a little easier and neater.)

Pan-Fried Sesame Tofu with Broccoli

STIR-FRY
1 (14-ounce) block extra-firm tofu
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon neutral oil
8 ounces frozen broccoli florets (I used fresh and steamed them briefly first.)
Steamed white rice, for serving
3 scallions, sliced

SAUCE
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon grated ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Place a few folded paper towels on a rimmed baking sheet. Remove the tofu from the package and cut the block in half horizontally (like you’re slicing a bagel). Place the halves side by side on the towels. Place more towels on top, cover with another baking sheet, and then weigh the whole thing down with a few canned goods or a heavy pot. Press the tofu for 30 minutes to extract excess water.

While the tofu is pressing, in a small bowl, whisk together all the sauce ingredients; set aside.

Cut the pressed tofu into 1-inch cubes. In a large bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons oil until smooth. Add the tofu and toss until thoroughly coated.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the remaining 1 teaspoon oil and tilt the skillet to coat the bottom. Add the dusted tofu cubes and cook until golden brown and crispy on each side, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.

Add the frozen (or steamed fresh) broccoli to the hot skillet and stir-fry just until slightly browned on the edges. Lower the heat to medium-low.

Give the bowl of sauce a good stir, then pour it into the skillet with the broccoli. Stir and cook until the sauce begins to bubble and thicken (this should happen very quickly). Once thickened, turn off the heat and stir in the cooked tofu cubes.

Serve the tofu and broccoli over a bed of rice and top with the scallions.

 *  *  *  *  *

Here's another one; I didn't take a photo but you can look at the one at the link. I've made this a couple of times already—delicious!

Spaghetti with Chicken Parmesan Meatballs

1 large egg
1 pound ground chicken or turkey
½ cup breadcrumbs
⅓ cup grated Parmesan cheese
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon dried oregano (I used 1 teaspoon Italian herbs instead of the separate basil and oregano.)
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons neutral oil
12 ounces spaghetti or other pasta
1 (24-ounce) jar tomato sauce (or homemade!)

In a large bowl, lightly beat the egg. Add the ground chicken, breadcrumbs, Parmesan, garlic powder, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Use your hands to combine the ingredients until evenly mixed. Shape the mixture into meatballs, about 1 to 1½ tablespoons each. You should get about 20 meatballs. (I make them not quite spherical so they're easier to turn and brown on all sides.) 

In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add half of the meatballs and cook for about 1 minute on each side, until all six sides are browned and the meatballs are cooked through. Transfer the cooked meatballs to a clean plate. Add the second tablespoon of cooking oil to the skillet and cook the second batch of meatballs in the same manner.

While the meatballs are cooking, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil for the pasta. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, then drain. Put the sauce in a medium saucepan and heat over medium-low, stirring occasionally, until heated through.

Once all the meatballs are done, add them to the pot of sauce and stir to coat. If needed, allow them to heat for a few minutes in the sauce.

Serve the pasta topped with the meatballs and sauce.

Happy New Year*

Greetings! I have a backlog of posts to write because I kept waiting until the world didn't seem likely to end. I'm still not sure we're in the clear, but I'm going to take advantage of this lull. (And, again, this is no longer a place I wish to discuss politics, thank you very much. Meet me over on Twitter for that, and please wear blue.)

I'll have some great recipes for you later in the week, but today, I'm talking about music, books, and even TV!

Wait, what, TV? You may have noticed that I don't do TV reviews, and that's because I'm just not into TV. The only two shows I've watched in the last, what, 10+ years are The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. I have never seen a single minute of Game of Thrones or The West Wing or Downton Abbey or Grey's Anatomy or Parks and Recreation or Schitt's Creek or ... well, you get the picture. And it's not because I have anything against TV or because I think I won't enjoy these shows. For no really good reason I can put my finger on, I'm just not interested in watching a series of episodes of anything. I enjoy movies much more. So I know that these are all fantastic shows and that I would probably love some of them, but, well, it's not likely to happen anytime soon. Maybe when I retire.

However, all that being said, I did watch part of a series and all of another one. First, because Pete and Julie are very much into chess and we played quite a bit over December break, Andy and I started watching The Queen's Gambit. We've watched the first three episodes so far, and we will probably finish. Someday. Probably. Why not right now? I have no idea. But anyhow, it is interesting so far. (Re chess, I learned how to play as a kid—everyone knew how to play every game in those days—but hadn't played in probably close to 40 years. And well, I suck at it. I joined Chess.com but found that the 10-minute time limit made me frantic. Same with 2o minutes. So then I tried 30 minutes, and that was a little better, although I still haven't won yet. And then I played a friend a few times, with no time limit, and I just have not gotten any better. I think my brain is missing the part that would allow me to look ahead at the various moves that might occur...)

But, but! I did watch every single episode of Ted Lasso, and I can't say a day goes by that I don't think about those characters! This is a stellar show in every way—plot, script, characters, actors, everything. I can't even describe to you what a feel-good experience it is, but without being sappy at all. It is also so funny that several times I was cracking up so much I needed to press pause while I composed myself. It's on Apple TV, which we don't have, but we did a one-week free trial and watched on my giant iMac. But I realized I didn't want to binge-watch, because each episode is just so good that I didn't want to rush. So we paid $5 for the first month, watched the rest at our leisure, and then canceled. Two huge thumbs up on this one from me and Andy (and every other person and reviewer I know). I've heard that it's been renewed for two more seasons and, well, I don't know how I feel about that. I sort of want it to just to exist in those 10 episodes and not try to do any more—but, at the same time, I look forward to spending time with those characters again.

I have some book reviews to catch up on too: 

This Is Happiness by Niall Williams: This is a lovely book—Williams's writing is like poetry—but it's not the kind of book one would ever say that they couldn't put down. It's not terribly plot-driven, although there is a plot. It takes place in rural Ireland in the 1950s, when a stranger comes to a small village to help sign everyone up for electric service. We get to know all the village inhabitants and grow to love them even while poking gentle fun at them. Love, laughter, memories, loss, tears, and, yes, happiness all ensue. Some people will probably find it boring, but I enjoyed it. Williams captures the place and time perfectly—the village was almost like the main character in the book.

American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson: This book got a lot of buzz, but I was ultimately disappointed. It's the story of an FBI operative who is chosen for a particular assignment because she is a black woman. The action takes place in Burkina Faso in the late 1980s, but it is told in a style that didn't work for me at all: The main character is composing a letter to her sons to let them know what she did and why. I felt like the author had to remind herself of this gimmick every so often and would add something like, "So as I watch you both sleeping there so peacefully, I remember that you don't know about this..." Anyhow, I was interested to learn about that period in Burkina Faso's troubled political history, but that's about all I can say. None of the characters felt real to me at all, and the writing was workmanlike. Not once did I stop and think, "Wow, what a great turn of phrase or description or sentence." One of the members of my book group thought it read as though the author had an eye toward a movie deal. Maybe so.

Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig: This instantly became one of my favorite books ever—really! It has everything I require in a novel: gorgeous writing, fully fleshed-out characters, and an interesting plot. It's the story of nineteen-year-old best friends Angus and Rob, who emigrate from Scotland to Montana in the 1890s to stake their fortune. It's a long book, but rather than find it tedious, I worried that it would come to an end all too soon. But not to worry, because it's part of a trilogy! This is officially the middle volume, but in fact it's a prequel to the first book, so I'm glad I read it first. (I sometimes find that there are unintentional spoilers if you read a book before its prequel—for instance, say there's a character in the prequel who you think is dead but really isn't. If you had read Book 1 first, you would have known that the character would in fact survive.) Now I can go back and read Book 1, which takes place chronologically after this one. Anyhow, Doig's writing style is just a pleasure in every way, from his descriptions of nature—both beautiful and brutal—to the way he brings to life his characters. I really can't recommend this book highly enough.

Now on to the music portion of our program. If I could take only one CD with me on a desert island, I would cheat and take The Last Waltz (4 discs!). I've probably watched that concert movie more times than any other movie, if you add up all the YouTube clips I watch regularly—"The Weight" (with the Staple Singers), "Ophelia," "Cripple Creek," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," "Stage Fright," and so on. I never get tired of them, and I'm madly in love with everyone in the Band. But there's one song that's lesser known, "Acadian Driftwood." The version on The Last Waltz has all the other Canadian guests joining in (Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, etc.), but I prefer the studio version, the remastered version of which you can hear here. Anyhow, Andy and I were listening to it, and I mentioned this gorgeous cover by the Roches. (I've always noticed that there is something magical about the harmonies that siblings can achieve!) Andy told me about another cover I hadn't heard, by Richard Shindell. I don't much care for his version, but I found the video fascinating, because it tells the story behind the song, that of the Expulsion of the Acadians, which I hadn't known anything about. It's really worth watching while you listen.

*Such as it is during a pandemic. We are all healthy here and I hope all of you are too. Hang in there, the finish line is in sight! I don't imagine I'll be able to get the vaccine for several months, but it's coming...

End-of-Year Movie Roundup

Last year on December 30, I said to you all, "I will be very glad to put this year behind us!" Little did I know. At that time, what felt like the last straw in a bad year of medical stuff in the family was when Andy's retina detached on Christmas Eve. So at least I'm glad to say that we are all healthy around here (knock wood). Andy's vision is better than it was a year ago but nowhere near as good as it was a year plus a week ago, and that's just how it's going to be. He's back to doing his beloved jigsaw puzzles, though, so that's a good thing.

I remain in full quarantine mode—I think I could count on two hands the number of public places I've been for more than 30 seconds since March (a mammogram, a visit to CVS to pick up a prescription that was supposed to have been shipped home, etc.). The "30 seconds" refers to picking up takeout food, which we've done a lot of—with extravagant tips. But other than that, I've been home. I have all my groceries delivered, and I can definitely see myself continuing with that even once this godforsaken pandemic is over. I very much look forward to choosing my own fresh produce and meat and such, but for regular stuff I'm very happy to just click through a list on my computer and then have everything magically appear at my door the next day. You know what I miss? The salad bar and prepared hot food bar at Whole Foods. I used to get lunch there once or twice a week. I wonder if self-serve food is now a thing of the past.

As I've mentioned, I've been able to keep working full-time through all this; I've always worked from home and all the publishers I work for have continued to keep me busy. There hasn't been any lull in the action, at least from my point of view (although there have been some unavoidable delays with cookbook photos shoots, for instance). Some of you might recall that I used to go into Andy's office once a week or so to do the bookkeeping; since March he and I have been going in on Saturdays instead, which sucks for him but keeps me from having to go in when everyone else is there too. So I've managed to hold on to both my jobs, which is a lot more than can be said for lots and lots of other people this year. I'm very lucky and very grateful.

Frankly, there isn't a lot I'd be doing if it weren't for the pandemic! I do miss hugging my friends and extended family, and I miss not worrying every day that they're all going to catch this thing and die. I'm very content at home with my family, watching movies, cooking and eating, playing chess, reading, playing games and doing puzzles, going for walks. 

Movies, you say? Why yes:

I forgot to tell you a while back that we watched Uncut Gems, in which Adam Sandler plays the polar opposite type of character we associate with him. He's Howard Ratner, a seedy, shady, thoroughly unlikable jeweler in NYC's diamond district—and also a gambler who doesn't know when to quit. Sandler was really fantastic, but it was most definitely not a feel-good movie.

We recently watched Ava for an unlikely reason: It was shot last year in Boston, and the crew asked Andy if they could shoot a scene outside his office! I can't imagine why it had to be that building—especially since they had to change things around in order to make it look like the door to a nightclub in Prague! The whole scene is maybe 5 seconds long, and I'd never have known that was his building if I hadn't been looking for it. Anyhow, this is a thriller starring Jessica Chastain as a hit man (do we say "hit woman"? "hit person"?), with John Malkovich as her boss/mentor. It was nothing great, but Andy had fun watching them set up and shoot it, so we watched. I can't say I recommend it.

Then, to continue with the Jessica Chastain oeuvre, we watched Molly's Game, in which she plays Molly Bloom, a real-life Olympic skiing hopeful who has an accident and ends up running an ultra-high-end poker game for the rich and famous in LA and NYC, and gets in over her head. Her lawyer is played by the always-wonderful Idris Elba. It was very interesting and entertaining. (Psst: The character called "Player X" was Tobey Maguire in real life.)

Next up was 1917, which is a remarkable WWI movie that takes place in France. One thing that makes the film extraordinary is that the entire thing, with only one break, takes place in real time. That is, the first hour is actually an hour in the characters' lives, then there is a break, then the remaining hour is again an actual hour. It's the story of two British soldiers who are racing to deliver a message to another unit that will prevent them from being ambushed by the Germans. It was not in the least bit sugar-coated, and really well done all around. I really liked the actor George MacKay.

And finally, we watched Tenet, which prompted this tweet from me:

When I was in high school, they kept rearranging the science curriculum, and I ended up never taking physics. Which I regret today, because I just watched “Tenet” and have A LOT of questions.

— Karen Wise (@wisekaren) December 25, 2020

Without giving anything away, it's the story of a guy (played by John David Washington, who was good but didn't wow me) who has somehow been recruited to save the world from a maniac who has figured out how to manipulate the flow of time. No problem! Even though I couldn't quite grasp the time-space continuum business, I found it very entertaining and exciting. You know who was a pleasant surprise? Robert Pattinson. I'm not sure I've ever seen him in anything, but I found him very believable and appealing in this.

And that is all from here. I wish everyone the best—and look forward to hugging every one of you at some point in 2021.

Two Easy Winter Recipes

I continue to find lots of great recipes over at Budget Bytes and urge you to poke around there—I haven't had a miss yet!

Here are two recipes that have been in frequent rotation around here. The first I did exactly as written; the second was more of an idea for a technique rather than a recipe that you need to follow exactly. Both use sausage; if you think you don't like sausage, just remember that there are a million different varieties, and they're all really just ground meat with seasonings! I for one don't love the flavor of fennel seed, so a typical sweet Italian pork sausage is not my jam. But I do love, for instance, Whole Foods' chicken sausage with herbs and garlic. For the second recipe below, you can use any type of sausage you like.

Cajun Sausage and Rice Skillet

This is really delicious! The only thing that makes it "Cajun" is the use of andouille, so if that's not your thing, you could use any other smoked sausage you like. I use Niman Ranch andouille, which is just spicy enough for me. The smoked paprika adds plenty of heat anyhow. There are also chicken andouille sausages out there, which might be worth a try.

1 tablespoons neutral cooking oil
14 ounces Andouille sausage, cut into ¼- to ½-inch slices (Niman Ranch comes in a 12-ounce package, which was plenty to feed 2 with leftovers.)
1 red bell pepper, cored and diced
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon onion powder 
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper (I left this out and doubled up on the black pepper.)
⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper 
1 (15-ounce) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes (I used Muir Glen crushed tomatoes.)
1 cup long-grain white rice
1½ cups chicken broth 
2 scallions, sliced

Heat the oil in a deep skillet (with a lid) or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the sausage and sauté until well browned. Add the bell pepper and sauté for about 1 minute. Add all the spices and sauté for 1 minute.

Add the fire-roasted diced tomatoes with their juices, rice, and chicken broth. Stir to combine and dissolve any browned bits off the bottom of the skillet.

Cover the pan, turn up the heat to medium-high, and allow the broth to come to a full boil. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let it rest, still covered, for 5 minutes.

Stir gently to redistribute the rice and sausage throughout. Top with the scallions and serve.

Oven-Roasted Sausage and Root Vegetable Medley

This is one I've done quite a few times, and it couldn't be easier. Mix and match your favorite sausages, root vegetables, and seasonings, and scale up or down depending on how many you're feeding. For this recipe you need fresh sausage so that it will cook in the same amount of time as the veggies. I served this with rice.

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

Peel and cut your favorite root vegetables into 1-inch pieces. I usually use some combination of carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, and golden beets. Last night I happened to have a red beet on hand, so I added that too (literally "on hand" once I got done peeling and chopping it!). Oh, and red onion, if I remember, cut into thin wedges. The original recipe calls for sweet potato (and apple), which I don't love, but you could also do that or regular potatoes or turnips or anything else you can think of.

Put your fresh sausages on a rimmed baking sheet and scatter the veggies around them. You don't want to crowd the veggies or else they'll steam, so use two baking sheets if you've got a lot.

Drizzle everything with plenty of olive oil and then season as you wish—I use lots of salt, pepper, and Italian herb seasoning blend. Toss to coat, then spread everything out again.

Roast for 20 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and transfer the sausages to a cutting board. Cut the sausages into ½-inch-or-so slices, then return them to the baking sheet. Give everything a good toss.

Roast for another 20 minutes (or a little longer, if needed), turning and tossing once or twice to brown everything beautifully, and serve. 

While Rome Burns

A three-part blog post in which I pretend that the world isn’t going to hell in a handbasket and that my anxiety over the upcoming election isn’t getting the best of me…

Part I: Music

In 1982 Elvis Costello released Imperial Bedroom, and I marched out and bought it on vinyl (what with CDs not having been invented yet, nor MP3s). I could tell right away it was pure genius, and I proceeded to listen to it all day, every day. (For the youngs: You could set your turntable to keep playing Side A of a record over and over again, until you finally got up and flipped it, and then it would play Side B over and over again. All day, every day.) True story: The following summer, the kid who had had the dorm room next to mine sent me a postcard saying something to the effect of “I had to go out and buy that damn Elvis Costello album because apparently I had gotten used to hearing it all day, every day…”

And then what happened? I don’t know, but at some point I forgot about it. It was probably during the big switchover to CDs of the late 1980s that it somehow fell through the cracks. I really don’t remember. But I’ve been exploring Spotify lately, and a couple of weeks ago I pulled it up and was blown away. I mean, I could almost feel stuff happening inside my brain—I remembered every word, every note of that shrieking he does along with frenetic guitar between songs. It was exhilarating. I was thoroughly loving “Tears Before Bedtime,” and then my brain just about seized up when “Shabby Doll” came on next. (Anyone who remembers vinyl will know what I’m talking about here: Whenever I hear any song that I first got to know on vinyl, as soon as it ends, I anticipate the notes of the next song starting up before it actually does.)

Anyhow, I am soooo happy to be reunited with this album and have been playing it all day, every day, just like way back when.

Part II: Food

A couple of weeks ago Andy and I had our 32nd anniversary! That’s a big number, huh? To celebrate in style, I made crispy duck legs from an old Mark Bittman recipe. I had been planning to do a whole duck but couldn’t find one that wasn’t frozen, and I’d completely forgotten about this recipe. It came out splendid (and was also pretty much foolproof), and I’ll definitely be making it again soon.

When the pandemic started, I went into full-on survival mode and immediately placed a huge order of … booze. When it was delivered, I realized that a $15 bottle of wine I’d ordered had been replaced with a $55 bottle from the same vineyard (and I had been charged accordingly). I emailed and was told that I’d get a refund but could keep the bottle! (They also accidentally delivered a 12-pack of Sam Adams that I didn’t order—or pay for—so all in all it turned out to be one of the best ordering experiences I’ve ever had.) I put a post-it note on the bottle that said SPECIAL OCCASION just so we wouldn’t accidentally drink it with hot dogs some random Tuesday night. We finally pulled it out to have with our duck, and it was excellent.

Part III: Books

Here are some of the books I edited in the last year or so.

As always, it's a mix of cookbooks, books about food, and self-help/lifestyle books. I feel very lucky to have my job! I get paid to read really cool books and help make them better.

Good Night

Hope everyone out there is doing OK. We are all still healthy (aside from heightened stress about the election and other related nightmares, which I do not want to discuss here, thank you very much!). 

Some of you might remember that I have always battled insomnia. Well, a few months ago I started a new nighttime routine. It consists of one breathing exercise and three thought exercises. Here's what I do as soon as I get into bed:

1. Do my 4-7-8 breathing. This is not new to me, but I had not been doing it faithfully at bedtime. I learned this technique from Dr. Andrew Weil (remember I edited his book a few years back?). It's basically inhale for a count of 4, hold your breath for a count of 7, and exhale for a count of 8, but you can learn the proper way to do it in this short video. I do it 4 times, and once in a while I really do fall asleep right away! I also sometimes do it in the middle of the night if I've woken up and can't get back to sleep because my brain is racing, and it's the most remarkable thing! I can sense all those intrusive thoughts just popping like soap bubbles. Dr. Weil recommends it any time you're feeling anxious, too. I think it's a bit of a miracle, frankly, and hope you will give it a try.

After that, I do three little thought exercises about my day—if I haven't already fallen asleep, that is! I don't always get to them all, but that's OK. It's all supposed to be comforting, so I don't fret if I don't do them. 

2. Think of something good that happened to me today. Sometimes this is easy-peasy, like I got a really cool work assignment that I'm excited about, or I heard from an old friend. But sometimes I can't think of anything at all, and then I start wondering if I'm being a little too picky about my wording. Does it have to be something that "happened" to me, or can it be something that I actually made happen? Like, does it count if I tried a new recipe that turned out great? I say yes. I also wonder if I can include something good that didn't happen specifically to me, but happened to someone in my family or to the world. Again, I have ruled that yes, I can. (You can see that it's not easy being inside my brain! Very rulesy-rulesy in there.)

3. Think of a good deed that I did today. Again, there are days when this is easy (I donated to Jaime Harrison's campaign! I recommended a colleague to one of my clients and they got hired!) and other days when I can't think of a darn thing. This is especially true during this pandemic, because I am not doing my usual volunteer gigs at various food pantries and other activities like that. So sometimes it feels like the best thing I can say is that I did a favor for a friend or family member, even though that doesn't really feel like it warrants the "good deed" status. But I keep trying, and I think it makes me look out for good deeds I can do during the day just so I'll have something for this category that night!

4. Think of three things I'm grateful for today. Now, this doesn't have to be "my health, my family, and my home" every night. Sometimes it is, if I'm particularly feeling it, but often it's more like "bacon, my cats, and 'Smoke in Their Lights' by the Avett Brothers." Whatever occurs to me first, that's what it is. And sometimes it is indeed a big deal, like "I'm grateful Andy's cataract surgery went well" (more on this below*), but plenty of times it's just mundane stuff that is worth expressing gratitude for.

Anyhow, I have been sleeping mostly pretty well, although once in a while I have a terrible night and have no idea why (other times I'm obviously worrying or stewing over something in particular). I go to bed between 9 and 10pm and wake up between 6 and 7am. I rarely sleep straight through the night, but most nights I can fall back to sleep eventually. That used to be my trouble spot—tossing and turning for hours in the middle of the night—but that hasn't been happening as much lately, which is another thing I can add to my grateful list!

When I do wake up, I try the 4-7-8 breathing and then, if I'm still up, I start alphabetizing things. I have been doing it for too long, though, even with adding numbers to my categories, and it's more like a recitation, but sometimes it's boring enough to knock me out.

*As you might recall, when Andy's retina detached (all the way back on Christmas Eve, if you can believe it!), we were told that the surgery to repair it would cause a cataract to grow really fast. And it did. In fact, it grew so fast that by the time his retina had healed, the cataract was already pretty thick, so he never really got a chance to determine whether he could see again! (We had also been told that his vision would never be as good as it was before the retina detached.) He really has been seeing only lights and colors and vague shapes out of that eye for all these months. So he had the cataract surgery last week, and it went well. He is still waiting to see if he will regain more of his vision—he hopes so, because he said if this is as good as it's going to get, he'll be really discouraged. He can see a little more than he could before the cataract surgery, but it's still pretty bad. 

A Maine Getaway

You better be sitting down for this, because Andy and I actually took a vacation! This is a big deal not only because of covid, but also because this was our first week away since before Steph was born (1996)! Yes, really! In fact, when we dropped Julie at Wes at the end of August, that began our first week home alone since then too! In all those years we never had them all away at summer camp, or left them with relatives, or any of that. We never even did an overnight until they were all in school, and even that was a rarity (like, maybe 5 times, total?).

I can't remember if I've mentioned it, but a few years ago Andy's parents swapped their ski house in the White Mountains (New Hampshire) for a beach house in Ogunquit, Maine! No one was doing much skiing anymore, and the 3-hour drive each way was becoming a deterrent for just a night or two away. Ogunquit, just over an hour away, is where Andy spent many childhood summers (and his mother before him, beginning in her teens). I first went in my teens, and it has always been a "happy place" for me. So we've been going up for weekends here and there, in between work and the kids' school, and my in-laws (and Andy's sister) have been going for the whole summer. This year we didn't go at all because we were too scared about covid. We were concerned because Andy's still going to work every day, where he's had a few employees out with the virus; we were also worried because we are still not going to restaurants or stores or anywhere, really, but they all are. So we stayed away. But as soon as they all moved back home after the summer and our own nest emptied out (sob, sob), we went up. Andy's been very stressed out at work and desperately needed a break, and although I had to bring some work with me, I did a whole lot of relaxing too. (One project I was supposed to be working on got delayed at the last minute, which was not great for my income but was perfect timing for this vacation!)

We hired the same cat-sitting couple we used the last time we went away ... which was in 2017 to visit Pete in Spain! They remembered meeting Calvin and Phoebe as wee kittens, and even had a few photos of them from that visit. And as for Luna (aka the Balrog)? This summer Pete and Julie made valiant efforts to orchestrate some sort of peace summit between her and the other two, complete with garden fencing in the living room, but it didn't work. Every time Luna would hiss and charge at them, and they would back off, terrified. So ... we decided to bring Luna with us to Ogunquit! It was the best idea. She absolutely hated riding in the car, but otherwise it was the greatest week she's had in 3 years. She had the whole run of the house up there—including tons of sunlight and breezes, since the weather was spectacular and we had all the windows and doors open to screens—and got to hang out with us and even sleep with us. She was nervous at first and hid under the bed, but once she got brave enough to come downstairs, she was in heaven. 

"Spectacular" might not be effusive enough to describe the weather. Maybe "perfect"? It was in the high 60s or 70s every day, and even got up to 80 one day (I managed to get a bit of a sunburn, which one does not expect at the end of September up north)! Every day Andy said, "There's not a cloud in the sky. Really, not one single cloud." Actually, there was one overcast day that was attributed to the remnants of Hurricane Teddy, but no rain, and that day we drove up to Kennebunkport, ate lobster rolls, and watched about 50 surfers taking advantage of the unusually powerful waves.

All the restaurants were open, mostly with outdoor seating, but we did not go to any of them. We both felt that we could never relax after de-masking, around all these strangers who also had their masks off—6 feet away or no. In fact, while we were up there, one of the most popular restaurants was closed because 3 of their employees had tested positive, and they were advising anyone who'd eaten there the previous week to get tested. So we brought up a bunch of food and then did a lot of takeout. We'd rather eat our lobster rolls outside on the rocks overlooking the ocean at Perkins Cove, as we did on Friday (which was National Lobster day!) than at a table anyhow. Our new favorite lobster roll comes from Footbridge Lobster, which we discovered last summer. One night we took out a more high-end meal and transferred it from its plastic containers to real plates, and ate it out on our porch by candlelight with a bottle of wine, just like fancy restaurant people!

Other than think about what our next meal would be, all we did the whole week was sit on the beach (at low tide and in this slightly off-season, we could easily find a spot 50 feet or more away from anyone else, and we put on our masks only when people were walking by), take walks around town and on the Marginal Way, and read. I also did about 15 hours of work, and caught up on many crossword puzzles, Scrabble and Letterpress games, and nonograms. It was just pure relaxation—greatly needed and appreciated.

Now we are back to real life, with a little spring in our step. And we're planning to go up there again in a couple of weeks, just for a long weekend this time, to celebrate our 32nd anniversary!

Lalalalala I Can't Hear You

In which I pretend that there's nothing bad going on in the world at all, and instead give thumbs-up to a book, a movie, and a recipe.

Remember how much I loooooved Circe by Madeline Miller? I immediately bought her earlier book, The Song of Achilles, and it was every bit as wonderful. This one tackles the Iliad (whereas Circe was taken from the Odyssey). Our narrator is Patroclus, whom Achilles describes in the Iliad as "the man I loved beyond all other comrades, loved as my own life." As with Circe, if you are even a little bit into Greek mythology, you will love this. Miller writes like a dream. I sincerely hope she's busy at work on something else in the same vein!

Before the kids left, we all watched Knives Out, which is a really clever, fun whodunnit in the style of a campy Agatha Christie. Christopher Plummer plays Harlan Thrombey, who is dead by the time the movie begins. He is an extremely successful crime novelist. The cause of death appears to be suicide, but is it? Out of nowhere, Daniel Craig appears as a hilariously quirky private detective (with a pretty decent Louisiana drawl). Harlan leaves behind several children and grandchildren, all of whom might have a reason to want him dead (read: MONEY). There's a great ensemble cast—Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson (I'd forgotten he existed), Toni Collette, Chris Evans, and more. The plot is very intricate and a blast to try to follow and figure out. Despite the fact that it's about a murder investigation, I still call this one good, clean fun.

And finally, here is a quick and easy chicken recipe from Andrea Nguyen. We all loved it.

Char Siu Chicken

1 large garlic clove, pressed
¼ teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
2 tablespoons honey
Brimming 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1½ tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon ketchup
Scant 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1¾ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (butterflied if very large/thick)

In a large bowl, stir together all the ingredients except the chicken. Remove 3 tablespoons of the marinade and set aside for glazing the chicken.

Add the chicken to the bowl, coating the pieces well. Cover and marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes, or refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

Heat an outdoor grill to medium and grill the chicken until cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes, turning a few times and basting with the reserved marinade during the last 2 or 3 minutes. (Or use a lightly greased cast-iron stovetop grill pan over medium-high heat, for 6 to 10 minutes, likewise turning and then basting.)

I served it with an Asian-style slaw that was a perfect accompaniment (the recipe is modified from here):

Asian Slaw

2 tablespoons neutral oil
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1 small garlic clove, pressed
Salt and pepper to taste

1 (14-ounce) bag coleslaw mix
½ cup shredded carrots (My coleslaw mix already had carrots in it, so I didn't add more.)
¼ cup thinly sliced scallions (I used considerably less than this.)

Whisk together all the dressing ingredients in a bowl. Add the coleslaw, carrots, and scallions and toss until evenly combined. 

Empty Nest*

*Hopefully for the next 3 months, anyhow!

What a spring and summer it was, with the house full of kids with pretty much nothing to do at all. Our electricity and water bills, our grocery bills, everything went up. But it was soooo nice to have everyone around (despite, obviously, the circumstances). 

Then Steph moved back into her apartment in Boston in July; she starts her new teaching job in a couple of weeks, and is already hard at work getting ready. She still comes by once in a while for various reasons (e.g., when the laundry room in her building is out of service!).

As for Pete and Julie, they both left for school this week. Both Colby (where Pete is a senior) and Wesleyan (where Julie is a freshman) have been working all summer to get ready for this, and their plans and protocols are nearly identical. Both schools decided to open at the end of August, go straight through with no October break, and then send the kids home for Thanksgiving. They'll then have study week and finals online so they don't have to go back to campus until January. Both schools have contracted with the Broad Institute (MIT/Harvard research nonprofit) to handle their Covid testing. Every student (and employee) will be tested twice a week, with results in 24–36 hours. Anyone who tests positive, and any close contacts, will be isolated (both schools rented out hotels in their respective towns in case there's a lot of them!).

Masks and social distancing will of course be mandatory, and every building will be cleaned every day. At the beginning there will be only grab-and-go meals available, and all classes will start off online. After a couple of weeks, or however long they feel it takes, each professor can choose to switch their classes to in-person or a hybrid model, or not. There are currently no sports. Both schools have an online "dashboard" just like the ones you see for each state/country. Everyone moved in to Colby last week and there were a total of 4 positive students, who were immediately isolated. This is move-in week for Wes, and so far they've had 0 positive tests.

I feel like Colby is especially safe, given that it's way up in Maine and has only about 1800 students. There are currently only 8 people in the whole state of Maine who are hospitalized with Covid! Even Wesleyan is pretty small—about 3000 students—but it's halfway between Hartford and New Haven, so I worry a little more about it. Even so, Connecticut has only 57 people hospitalized with Covid right now. (I get my statistics from this site, which lists each state and gives the number of new cases that day, the number of new deaths, the number of people currently hospitalized with Covid, and the positive percent rate. I tend to focus on the hospitalization rate, because that seems to me the one that reveals just how many people are getting really sick in any given area, despite how many people are getting tested or are positive but asymptomatic.) Both schools are relying on the campus community to look out for one another; obviously all you need is one carload of idiots to go on a weekend road trip and then come back and infect everyone around them. 

So on Sunday Pete went up. He has a car this semester, and we were going to go along in another car just to see his apartment, but once they said that no parents would be allowed in the student residences, we decided to forgo 7 hours in the car! So we packed the car within an inch of its life, and off he went. The apartment building was built by Colby a few years ago and is just gorgeous. Even some faculty live there! Every student has to commit to a certain number of hours of community service each week to live there. He and his five best buddies have a 6-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment with a beautiful kitchen and living room too. He sent us a FaceTime tour, but I hope we get to see it in person next semester!

Wesleyan offered that any local-ish families who wanted to drop off most of their stuff (but not their kid) could do so last weekend, so we drove down (90 minutes) on Saturday. It was really helpful for Julie to get to see where she'd be living before actually moving in, and it allowed her to rethink whether everything would fit and/or whether she'd need to buy anything else. She has a single room adjoining another single, which to me is the best of both worlds because you get the benefit of having a roommate but can close your door at night! (I never shared a bedroom in 4 years at Wes, and Pete never shared a bedroom in 4 years at Colby! So lucky.) She has a little balcony too, just big enough for a couple of chairs, which is a huge bonus because Julie does love her outdoor time. As at Colby, no parents are allowed in the residences, so she took photos and videos to show us. I also got to show her around a little bit and point out places she might be going eventually when campus opens up. A lot has changed there, but I still know my way around pretty well! Then we drove her back down today with her clothes and a cooler full of food for her mini-fridge, and left her there for good.

So, as I said, I feel quite confident after a summer filled with emails and Zoom meetings with both schools that they have done everything possible to design a safe campus strategy that works for their size and location. It will not be a normal semester by any means, but here's hoping they can make the most of it. 

And now Andy and I are home with the three cats and wondering why it's so quiet...

The New Normal

Hello, heat wave! I was thinking of things I'm saving money on during this pandemic, like restaurants and gas for the car, but another thing is sunblock. The only time I go outside is to take a walk, which is in the late afternoon and I try to keep to the shade—and I haven't even been doing that in this heat. So I haven't used any sunblock since we went up to Maine in June, and I won't likely need any for the near future... (And before you all get alarmed and start messaging me: Yes, my daily moisturizer has a small bit of sunblock in it, certainly enough for a 5pm walk in the shade.)

Speaking of things I'm saving money on: For the last year or so, I had been growing increasingly ambivalent about getting my hair colored. I liked the way it looked, but I kind of felt held captive by the schedule. I toyed with the idea of letting the gray grow out, but there was always some reason I didn't want to go through those initial few months of looking ridiculous (like when I was supposed to be giving a presentation at my editorial conference in April). But, guess what? I now haven't had my hair colored since January 31—and I don't think I'll ever go back! I was due to go in mid-March and obviously canceled, and here we are at the end of July. It did look kind of awful at first, with a quarter inch, and then a half inch of gray hair, and then more. But now I have several inches, and I can see that it's just in the front on top. The entire back of my head has no gray. So I'll be going for the Bonnie Raitt look. I do intend to ask Julie to give me a trim one of these days, though. Here's how it looks now, in my ubiquitous ponytail, while it's still growing out (and frizzy as all hell; cf. heat wave above):

In addition to not going to a salon, I have still not gone into a store or restaurant or, really, anywhere else in all these months. I have all my groceries and household goods delivered and couldn't be happier with that arrangement. Even if I were to go to the grocery store, it wouldn't be the kind of shopping I enjoy—leisurely browsing the aisles, examining the produce, looking at new items, etc. It would be dash-in-grab-my-stuff-dash-out, heart pounding. No thanks. For those who are interested, here's how I'm doing most of my shopping:

• I get as much as possible (nonperishable foods and household stuff) from Target.com. (This is different from ordering from your local Target for either curbside pickup or "Shipt" service.) Two-day delivery is free if you either have a Red Card (which also saves you 5%) or if you spend $35. But man, their prices are the real draw! Almost every item is a lot cheaper than anywhere else. 
• This has turned out to be a bad year to try to bring down Jeff Bezos's empire. I get regular deliveries from Amazon, Amazon Fresh, and Whole Foods. There are five of us here, and we go through a lot of stuff. But at least I can feel good that I have the Greater Boston Food Bank as my "Amazon Smile" charity, so they get a few pennies every time I order something. 
• I stopped using Instacart for my local supermarket—it was getting to be really expensive, and I kept getting conflicting info about whether they were treating their shoppers well (in addition to my very generous tips!). But there is a small local supermarket chain (Roche Bros., for my Mass. readers) that does home delivery sans Instacart, and I've been very happy with them. 
• My favorite discovery has been New England Country Mart, which is a fourth-generation family-run business that used to serve restaurants and now does home delivery of produce plus some other items, like meat, cheese, snacks, etc. Their produce is gorgeous, prices are very good, and customer service is a dream. You do have to spend $75 per order, but that's easy if you are feeding a family. If you live in Eastern Mass., the Cape, or the Newport area of Rhode Island, I urge you to give them a try! In fact, if you let me know, I will have them email you a $15 promo code (which is the cost of the delivery). 
• We are doing our best to support our local (non-chain) restaurants with takeout meals once or twice a week. We generally order extra so we can have leftovers. 

What I miss most is Trader Joe's! If I do decide to go to a store, that will certainly be the one—we have so many favorite TJs items, and there's no other way to get them. 

Somewhat related: Based on an online friend's recommendation, I recently switched my cleaning products to Blueland. You have a one-time purchase of reusable bottles, and then the various products (glass cleaner, bathroom cleaner, all-surface cleaner) come as a tablet that you dissolve in water. They also have hand soap and just added dish soap and dishwasher and laundry detergent. I think they work very well, they are all nontoxic, refills are only $2 each, and best of all, I won't be using any more plastic bottles.

Lessee ... what else ... oh, I read two more books! My book group met via Zoom to discuss Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid. It tells the story of a well-off white suburban mom who hires a 20-something Black babysitter for her daughter. There's a racial incident that sets the plot ball rolling, and then a later Very Big Coincidence that complicates matters. (For the record, I did not find the coincidence to be preposterous, although a couple people in my book group did.) This is a very relevant book for our times, and it fostered a good discussion of the racial tensions (to put it mildly) prevalent in our country. However, I mostly found it to be somewhat superficial, with two-dimensional "stock" characters. And the writing itself was a huge disappointment. Not once in the whole book did I think, "Wow, what a lovely/clever/funny/interesting sentence!" In fact, there were some sentences that I couldn't even parse for meaning. While I definitely can't say you need to rush to get this book, it was definitely an easy, interesting read, with plenty to discuss. Just don't expect anything from the writing.

On the other hand, the writing in Sea Wife by Amity Gaige, is bee-yoo-ti-ful! It's the story of Juliet and Michael, who decide to leave suburbia behind and go live on a sailboat off the coast of South America for a year, with their two young children. It's all Michael's idea—he's got a chip on his shoulder about nearly everything and just wants to escape and be self-sufficient. Juliet suffers from depression and is getting nowhere fast with her dissertation on Anne Sexton, so despite many misgivings, she agrees. As you can imagine, their new living circumstances are at times terrifying and at times exhilarating. Along the way, we learn a lot about Michael and Juliet, their marriage, and the nature of love and trust and survival and so much more. Gaige is a terrific writer. The book bounces back and forth between our two narrators, and each felt thoroughly believable and distinct to me. And her descriptions of nature—the ocean, the wind, the various islands—are really lovely. I don't know a thing about sailing, but Gaige was able to describe all the nautical ins and outs in a way that made me understand enough to get by. I definitely recommend this one.

And finally: You know I do lots of various types of puzzles and word games and number games, but I have a new obsession: nonograms. They're also known as Japanese crosswords, but there aren't any words at all. Instead, there are grids where you have to fill in different colors (or black if you're doing black and white puzzles) according to the number of squares shown. When it's all solved, you get a picture of something. There are loads of sites and apps, but my favorite by far is Nonograms.org. If you've never done one, start with a tiny one. And I'd say start with color too, as the black and white ones can be trickier. I mostly do small and medium, but I've done a few of the large ones, and they really get my brain cranking! I do these all day long—whenever I need a work break ("When I finish editing this chapter, I get to do a nonogram!") and in the evening. I can do them on my iPad but find the iPhone much too small. Let me know if you like them!

Very Belated Book Reviews

Some of my friends are reading more than ever since the pandemic started, but I'm finding that I have much less interest in reading these days. I'm not sure why, but I assume it has to do with the overall anxiety and inability to focus brought on by all this. However, I haven't done any book reviews here in a very long time, so here goes. I read some of these books many months ago but never got around to telling you about them, so I will really be scraping cobwebs off the ol' hippocampus to try to remember much about them. (There are no spoilers here—anything I "reveal" below is easily learned from the book jacket description or blurbs.)

Olive, Again (Elizabeth Strout): This is, of course, a sequel to Olive Kitteridge, and it was such a treat to get to spend more time with Olive! And Strout threw in lots of "Easter eggs" for her loyal readers, in the form of appearances by characters from many of her earlier books, not just Olive Kitteridge. There was one at the end that truly had me gasping, just as I would in real life—"Wait, I know you!"As with Olive Kitteridge, there were stories here that I absolutely adored (mostly the ones featuring Olive herself, front and center) and others that didn't hold me as much. But Strout's writing is just lovely; even a so-so Strout story makes for better reading than many other authors' "best" work. If you are a fan, you've probably already read this—but if it somehow passed you by, I highly recommend it. This also reminds me that I never got around to watching the Olive Kitteridge miniseries, starring one of my favorite actresses, Frances McDormand, so I'll have to get on that.

Born a Crime (Trevor Noah): This was my book group pick last month, and I was unable to get a copy of the book anywhere. So, for the first time ever, I decided to try the audiobook version. On the one hand, this experience confirmed that I am most definitely not an audiobook person. I don't do any kind of activity where I can really listen while doing it (e.g., some people listen while walking on a treadmill), and I found that if I turned it on while I was cooking, I couldn't really concentrate well on either thing. So I mostly just sat down in my reading chair and turned it on to listen. This wasn't ideal because I can't wear earbuds (strange-shaped ear canals?), so I just played it from my iPad. But, on the other hand, I can't imagine reading this book instead of hearing Noah's voice telling his story. Not surprisingly, he is a great speaker/reader and has terrific comic timing. But it also added so much to the story to hear him do all the voices of his family members and to speak in all the many different languages in the book. It's his memoir of growing up in South Africa under apartheid, which meant he was labeled "colored" since he had a black mother and a white father. It's funny and warm and heartbreaking and eye-opening—but I do highly recommend you listen to Noah tell his own story, even if, like me, you're not a fan of audiobooks.

The Dutch House (Ann Patchett): I love Patchett, so I couldn't wait to read this. It was very good but nowhere near my favorite of her books—but, as with Strout, a lesser Patchett book is still preferable to much of the dreck out there. It's the story of Maeve and Danny, whose mother runs off when they are young, and whose father then remarries disastrously (for them). The siblings are so close that it's unhealthy at times, but they've only had each other for so long that it's understandable. Everyone in our book group is a mother, so we spent much of our discussion time (this was pre-covid, so we were all gathered in a living room with snacks and wine like human beings! sigh) talking about the mother leaving her young children. She loved her children but was totally miserable (though not being abused in any way). She especially hated the eponymous huge, ornate house that her husband bought to surprise her, and she just couldn't figure out how to live that way. Does being miserable make it OK for a mom to just vanish one day without warning and never return? Most of us agreed that it most definitely does not. You stick it out for a few years, finding satisfaction elsewhere if you can, and then once your kids are launched, you do what you have to do. Anyhow, Patchett's writing is always fantastic, so this is certainly a worthwhile read even if it's no Bel Canto or Commonwealth.

Fleishman Is in Trouble (Taffy Brodesser-Akner): This is the first novel by journalist Brodesser-Akner, who is a terrific writer (her NYT profile of Tom Hanks is just beautiful). Once again, we have a mom who decides to drop off the face of the earth rather than figure out how to live with her husband and two kids—or not live with them, but at least explain why she's leaving. The book is told almost entirely from the husband's point of view. A large part of the book concerns his introduction to and delight with hook-up apps and all the many "dates" he goes on. He is like a kid in a candy shop, and while it's quite raunchy, some of the writing is laugh-out-loud funny. But then there's a weird shift, and the last part of the book is told from the point of view of the wife. One person in our book group loved this part and was even brought to tears by it, but I found it tedious. To me it read like what another member of the group described as a "lecture in an Intro to Feminism course." I also found that I didn't believe what we were suddenly being led to understand was closer to the truth about the two main characters. There were too many parts of the plot from early on that didn't fit in. So what started off as a fun, smart romp turned into one of those "close the book and wonder what just happened" situations. I don't know whether to recommend this or not.

Circe (Madeline Miller): Oh, did I love this book! Remember Circe from the Odyssey? She's the goddess/witch who lives on an island, and Odysseus ends up staying with her for several years. This book imagines an entire backstory for Circe—and takes it forward, all the way past Odysseus's departure. If you are a fan of Greek mythology, you'll love this, but even if you're not, it's a great story and the writing is luscious. After reading it, I immediately bought Miller's earlier book, The Song of Achilles, but haven't read it yet.

Evvie Drake Starts Over (Linda Holmes): I read this last summer while in Maine and watching baseball ... which couldn't have been more ideal since it takes place in Maine and is about a young widow who starts dating a former baseball player. It is a really enjoyable read—Holmes is a very engaging writer, and the characters felt very real to me. I suppose it's a "beach book" in that it's not about All the Problems of the World, but it was not just fluff, either. I definitely recommend this one if you're in the mood for something lighter.

This month our book group is going to discuss Such a Fun Age (Kiley Reid), and on my own I'm planning to read Sea Wife (Amity Gaige).

What about you—read anything good lately? Or do you have an opinion about any of these?

Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic

I no longer have any words to describe what’s going on in this country: People are dying every day because of that monster in the White House. And yes, I am referring to both the pandemic and the racial atrocities. I used to be quite political on this blog, back before there was social media, but nowadays I reserve this spot for a break from “the world.” But the last month or so have left me unable to just turn off the bad stuff, so I haven’t written anything here. But today I’m feeling some peace (for no particular reason), so I figured I’d check in. Please don’t think me tone-deaf; you can check out Twitter or FB if you want to know what I think politically (I have a feeling you already know...).

***

First off, we are all healthy here. I am one of only a handful of people I know who is still quarantining as much as possible. I haven’t been to a grocery store in nearly 3 months! Restaurants just opened here in Mass., but you couldn’t pay me to set foot in one (we are doing our fair share of takeout, though, to keep our neighbors in business!). I can’t imagine eating in a restaurant until there’s a vaccine. I'm not even interested in sitting at an outdoor restaurant table and taking off my mask to eat. Here's how I look at it: Every day that I avoid standing a foot away from a supermarket cashier, I’m also avoiding the hairdresser that cashier saw yesterday, and the waiter who took that hairdresser’s order at a restaurant the day before, and the bank teller who handled the waiter’s cash deposit, and so on. I do the things I have to (like getting a blown tire repaired or picking up a prescription that got shipped to CVS instead of home), but I don’t do anything else.

And you know what? I’m turning into a very happy hermit! I do miss grocery shopping, but if I went now, it wouldn’t be the kind of shopping I enjoy—lazily browsing the aisles, taking my time choosing produce, examining new products, seeing what looks nice in the prepared foods case, chatting with my favorite cashier. No, I would dash in, heart pounding, grab the 10 things I need, pay, and dash out, panting and sweating. Not fun. I also miss my volunteer gig at the food pantry. I don't miss a whole lot else out there in the world.

But we’ve also had some good news around here:

First, Steph completed her Master’s in Early Childhood Education and Developmental Psychology! Her department had a small Zoom graduation ceremony, which was really lovely. We wouldn’t have likely gone to the huge Boston University graduation anyhow, so this was just fine by us. And, as if that weren’t enough, she has already found a full-time teaching job for the fall! We couldn’t be more proud.

Then, Julie graduated from high school! As I mentioned in an earlier post, I feel terrible that she got cheated out of everything fun for her senior year. There was no prom, but there was an online graduation, which was better than nothing and just fine for what it was, but it wasn’t the real thing. (They are talking about having a real graduation in July … color me skeptical.) She also won a big award from the World Language department; in lieu of Senior Awards Night, a bunch of the language teachers drove over and held an amazing mini-ceremony right on our lawn! I soaked my mask with tears.

And Julie’s other piece of big news is that she will be a freshman at Wesleyan University in the fall, which is my alma mater, so I’m tickled pink. As of now, Wes (and Colby College, where Pete will be a senior) have both said they plan to start the semester a few weeks early (in August) so they can be done by Thanksgiving and send everyone home for a couple of months (rather than have everyone go home for Thanksgiving and then come back and infect each other). Stay tuned…

That's all for now. I plan to catch up on all the fluffy stuff (recipes, book reviews, etc.) soon.

I hope everyone out there in blogland is doing well. Please stay in touch in whatever way suits you best. 

Travel and Food Diary: Quarantine Edition

Here's a humor piece I wrote a few weeks ago; it is meant to be a parody of the kind of over-the-top food/travel writing I read (and sometimes have to edit). I had hoped McSweeney's might want it, but they said they're getting too much pandemic-related submissions. So you can read it right here instead!

Travel and Food Diary: April 2020

—1—

Over cocktails, a man who claimed to be a native of this dwelling for decades told me about an area at the very eastern tip. Called simply “the pantry,” it was known to be a hangout of sorts for the 18- to 23-year-olds in the region. I set off with only a few vague directions, but plenty of determination. “The pantry” turned out to be easy to find—but just as easy to overlook. A ten-foot-long passageway, it was so narrow that I breathed a sigh of relief to find myself alone there, as two people would not even be able to pass one another. Surveying my surroundings, I noted wall-to-wall cabinets and drawers, all alike. But I knew why I was here: The bottom drawer on the left was rumored to be the snack capital of the region. I took in a deep breath, grasped the metal handle, and pulled open the large, deep drawer. I was rewarded with a vision of snack heaven, a riot of colorful packages, some gaping half open and other carefully closed with a chip-clip. I spied Flavor-Blasted Goldfish, blue corn tortilla chips, Pirate’s Booty, Cheez-Its, and every manner of Kettle potato chips—jalapeño, sea salt and vinegar, and the ever-elusive honey Dijon. I selected Cape Cod 40% reduced-fat potato chips and headed back to my encampment, happily munching with the satisfaction of yet another successful expedition under my belt.

—2—

I did not want to go to the fridge. It is Cape Cod in the summertime, Fort Lauderdale in the wintertime—crowded, noisy, no surprises. But it was already well past noon and there were no other options for lunch in this remote outpost. I reminded myself that an adventure can be had in the unlikeliest of places, and set out. I was not disappointed. Upon flinging open the double doors of the stainless-steel behemoth, I was greeted by a beautiful cacophony of sights and smells. Who knew that there was still a take-out box half-filled with lo mein? One last yogurt cup? An unidentifiable but still fresh-smelling pasta mélange of some sort? My startled eyes took in all this and more—nearly half a rotisserie chicken, four (!) types of cheese, and even a few spoonfuls of roasted red pepper hummus. This would be no ordinary lunch. I began to work.

—3—

My guide is several feet ahead of me and moving too fast, seemingly deaf to my ever-more-alarmed requests to slow down. It’s dark, and I am in unfamiliar territory. As I make my way through the detritus of the so-called “basement playroom,” I am grateful that I had thought to pack my L.L. Bean slippers for this trip—I don’t want to think about what I might be stepping on with bare feet. Up ahead, I glimpse my guide taking a sudden turn through a partially hidden doorway—this is not marked on any map, and for a moment I question the entire excursion. But I press on. In the next instant, two things happen, virtually simultaneously: My destination comes into view, and my guide vanishes. I have no choice but to continue on. Stepping carefully, I reach my terminus, a 1993-era Amana deep freeze. It is exactly as described by local storytellers—tall, snow-white, impassive. Screwing up all my courage, I yank open the vacuum-sealed door and am temporarily blinded by an arctic mist. As my eyes adjust, I see treasures beyond imagination—fully formed burger patties, microwavable pouches of rice, turkey stock made the day after Thanksgiving. And—could it be?—a familiar face! Indeed, there’s Paul Newman, grinning at me from a box of uncured pepperoni pizza. (I pay homage with my finger to the side of my nose à la “The Sting.”) Not a second later, I hear a heart-stopping growl, a deep rumbling from the depths of the freezer. My naturally quick reflexes leap into action, as I deftly catch a torn bag of everything bagels that had gotten dislodged when the door opened. A shower of seeds of every type, each enclosed in a tiny ice capsule, falls silently to the ground. I replace the bag, and remember to exhale. I had dismissed as apocryphal the stories of an unfamiliar cut of pork, received nearly a decade earlier from a meat CSA, that was simply stashed in the depths of the deep freeze. Could it be true? I may never know, but there is a large, ungainly package, unlabeled, on the bottom shelf, thick with rime. I decide to leave it for a future explorer, one more intrepid than I. Digging through the frost-coated bounty, I at last unearth what I had come for: a delicacy known to locals simply as “that Chinese chicken thing from Trader Joe’s.” I carefully remove it, close the heavy door, and turn to leave. At that moment, my guide reappears in the gloom, gives a big stretch, then meows and curls up for a nap in the only sunny spot in the basement. I am on my own for the trek back. Holding my prize aloft, I retrace my steps back to the darkened stairwell, where my adventure began.

Checking In

If you've noticed that I'm blogging much more than usual these days, you're right. Although I am still working full-time—apparently the cookbook industry is not affected by the current economic nightmare!—I am not doing a whole lot else. The classes I take at my temple are being held on Zoom, but it is so far not doing the trick for me, so I've been skipping them. I find my attention span lagging, and I don't like that "on" feeling (which is weird, because I don't mind feeling "on" when I'm in a live class). I'm not doing any of my volunteer gigs at local food pantries either. They are still doing important work, loading up bags of food to be distributed, but I am too concerned that I might have been exposed and then expose someone else, or vice versa. They requested that those over 60 stay away, and while I'm not quite there, it feels close enough. And I'm obviously not doing anything fun like having lunch with friends, or going to Julie's volleyball tournaments, or visiting Pete in Copenhagen (this would've been the week!), or preparing my session for the annual copyeditors' conference at the end of the month (this year in Salt Lake City). So I guess that extra free time brings me here...

Oh, one thing I'm finding that occupies a great deal more of my time than usual is household stuff. First: acquiring and managing food. We are eating a wicked lot. I don't want to go to the market any more than absolutely necessary (even every other week feels like too much), so I'm doing my best to take advantage of curbside pickup, delivery, take-out, and online ordering. When friends are getting delivery, we sometimes let each other know if we need an item or two. But I'm in a constant state of "What is about to go bad in the fridge that someone should eat today? What should I take out of the freezer now for us to eat in the next couple of days? What needs to go on the list for the next time I either shop or get delivery?" We haven't been eating together as a family much at all. We are all on different schedules and just kind of eating whatever, whenever. Second: cleaning. Hoo boy, do I miss my weekly house cleaner! I miss her personally, and we've been texting, but I also miss how clean she gets my house! I've never been a clean freak by any stretch of the imagination—in fact I am firmly of the camp that a pristine house is neither attractive ("clutter" shows that actual people live there and have a life!) nor healthy (you need to eat a peck of dirt etc.)—but I don't want to be living in squalor either. So I'm doing stuff I haven't done in many years—vacuuming, cleaning toilets, changing sheets, wiping down the stovetop, etc. I'm not very good at it. And I'm fully aware of how lucky I am that I can hire a house cleaner during normal times. I'm desperate to mail her a check, but she stubbornly refuses to give me her home address.*

Even through all this, I still haven't spent even one minute in front of the TV; it just doesn't interest me. I wouldn't mind watching a movie one of these days, though. It's just that after a long day spent on the computer, all I want to do come evening is curl up in my favorite chair with a drink and a crossword puzzle or book. 

One thing that boosts my spirits is giving to local charities doing their part to help during this crisis. One of my favorites is Off Their Plate (started in Boston but now also available in San Francisco, LA, NYC, and Pittsburgh, and soon to launch in Seattle, Philly, Chicago, and DC). It's a group of restaurants that supply meals to healthcare workers on the front lines. No-brainer, huh? It's running in partnership with World Central Kitchen, José Andrés's amazing organization. If you are able, I highly recommend making charitable donations as a form of rejuvenation/healing.

For Passover this year my extended family met via Zoom to check in and say a quick shehecheyanu (prayer recited at the beginning of a holiday or other special occasion), but we did not do a proper seder. And I know that many of you will be sorely missing your Easter celebrations this weekend. It's hard. A colleague of mine wrote a great article for the Times called "Good-Enough Holidays"—I found it to be a quick and very useful, upbeat read and hope you will too.

Stay safe, everyone. Please feel free to leave comments (below, on FB, on Twitter, via email, via text, via postcard, whatevs), as I'm eager to hear how you are all faring. 

*I recently joined the millennium and got Venmo, so I might try that, although I suspect she just won't accept it. Also to be filed under "old dog, new tricks," I recently started depositing checks by taking a photo on my phone and using the bank app. I had resisted all this time partly because I really enjoy walking the half mile down to my tiny village center (we have a bank, a post office, a Starbucks, a Russian market, a teensy hardware store, a deli...). Andy and I take a long walk every afternoon, often in that direction, but I don't want to go into the bank or use the ATM.

"When I die, let my ashes float down the Green River..."

I keep trying to write a proper farewell post about John Prine, but I just can't do it. A friend mentioned that the news of his death from covid-19 left her "gutted," and that's just how I feel. He was far and away my all-time #1 favorite singer-songwriter. So this will be brief.

When Andy went away to college in 1977, his roommate was a die-hard fan of this folk/country musician Andy had never heard of. The roommate would play John Prine's albums over and over, and soon enough Andy was just as big a fan. Fast-forward to when I met Andy in 1986. Same story: He had a whole bunch of albums by some guy named John Prine. Soon enough I discovered why.

I liked his voice, and his guitar playing was just fine, but that wasn't the magic of John Prine. He was a master storyteller, first and foremost. There are lines from songs that I have listened to regularly for decades that still either bring me to tears or make me giggle. And at his concerts he would tell stories that were at times heartbreaking, or else hilarious.

On Facebook I posted this video of him performing "Paradise" at Farm Aid in 1986; that's how he looked and sounded when I first came to know and love him. That song appeared on his debut album back in 1971. But my favorite version was on a 2010 live album; I've searched in vain for a video from that concert but so far can come up with only the audio. It's worth a listen, as he's joined by Jason Wilber as usual on guitar, but also Kane Welch Kaplin (that's Kieran Kane on mandolin, Kevin Welch on guitar, and Fats Kaplin on soaring, breathtaking fiddle). You can also hear the gravelly tone John's voice took on after he whupped neck cancer and lung cancer. 

If you know John Prine, you know why I'm grieving. If you don't know him, I recommend you read some of his obits, which describe why he was so important to so many people, and to so many musicians from every genre imaginable. But then, take some time to listen to what he called his "story-songs."

Rest in Peace, John. A million thanks for the decades of music and memories you gave us.

Shelter in Place, with Chocolate

How's everyone doing? Status quo here, by which I mean we are still staying home and no one has gotten sick. Hope that's true for all of you, too! I am maybe the last person who doesn't personally know someone who has caught Covid-19 (yet).

I hope these brighten your day:

• Sir Patrick Stewart is reading a Shakespearean sonnet every day.
• Here's a page with links to LOTS of free crosswords and other word puzzles.
• I love these quarantine-inspired re-creations of famous paintings!
• John Krasinski has Some Good News.
• We devoured this treat, made by Julie:

Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie in a Skillet

2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cornstarch
½ teaspoon salt
1½ sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar
1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk, both at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1½ cups semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
Vanilla ice cream, for serving (Julie made this too!)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 10-inch cast iron skillet.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt; set aside.

With an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium-high speed until smooth, about 30 seconds. Add both sugars and beat until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla, increase the speed to high, and beat until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat again to incorporate.

Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. The dough will be soft and sticky.

Transfer the dough to the greased skillet and press it evenly into the bottom. Bake until the edges are lightly browned and set, 25 to 30 minutes (the middle will be slightly underbaked).

Let the giant cookie cool for 5 minutes. Top with ice cream and dig in! Ours lasted maybe 10 minutes.

Pantry Supper

I hope you are all well and finding ways to survive—physically, professionally, emotionally—during this pandemic. When I think of all the things I'm worried about, I don't have to worry about how I'm going to be able to afford to feed my family. There are so many people out of work now, and these are in many cases the same people who can least afford to miss a day of earning their wages—restaurant workers, store clerks, babysitters, etc. If you are able to, please consider making a cash donation to your local food bank, and if at all possible pay your house cleaner, babysitter, dog walker even if you can't use their services right now. 

Here is a recipe I first tried a couple of months ago; I made it again this week without having to leave the house for any ingredients! (I'm trying not to shop more than once every week or two.) I don't know how I've missed out on Budget Bytes, a great recipe blog, but I'm thankful to Beth Fish Reads for pointing me in the right direction! 

Chili Cornbread Skillet (You should definitely go to this link to look at the photo, because my own photo came out awful!)

Chili
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped (optional) I did not use this.
3 (15-ounce) cans beans (any kind: kidney, pinto, black), rinsed and drained, OR 2 cans beans + 1 pound ground meat I used 2 cans black beans + 1 pound ground turkey that I defrosted from the freezer.
1 (15-ounce) can diced fire-roasted tomatoes, undrained
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon dried oregano
1 cup water
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese We couldn't really notice this, so you could probably omit it if you don’t have any on hand. I might double it up next time.
Cornbread
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
4 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 large egg
¼ cup vegetable oil

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
2. Heat the oil in a 4-quart oven-safe skillet or Dutch oven* over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and jalapeño and sauté until the onion is soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. If you’re using ground meat, sauté that now too.
3. Add the beans, diced tomatoes with their juices, tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, salt, oregano, and water. Stir to combine.
4. Allow the chili to come up to a simmer. Let the chili continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, while you prepare the cornbread topping.
5. In a large bowl, stir together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until well combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, and oil. Pour the milk mixture into the bowl with the cornmeal mixture and stir just until everything is moistened.
6. Sprinkle the cheddar cheese over the top of the simmering chili. Carefully pour the cornbread batter over the chili and cheese, and spread it around until the surface is evenly covered.
7. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake for 25 minutes, or until the cornbread is golden brown on top. To serve, simply scoop the cornbread and chili beneath into shallow bowls.

*I used my 4-quart Le Creuset. You want a pretty big surface area because the cornbread gets thick. The website notes that you could make the chili in any skillet or pot on the stovetop, then transfer it to a casserole dish, top with the cheese and cornbread batter, and pop it in the oven.

Love in the Time of Corona

Well, this isn't going to be the promised post with fun recipes and interesting book reviews, but rather a check-in to let you know how we're doing and to find out how you're all doing during this unprecedented time.

First off, we are all healthy. If I could look into a crystal ball and see that all my loved ones would come out of this unscathed (well, except for the emotional toll, which will hardly be negligible), I'd be fine. I could quarantine, shelter-in-place, lockdown, hibernate, whatever—indefinitely. I'm certainly not encouraged by the "leadership" in Washington, and it seems likely we missed our chance to "flatten the curve" on the spread of this disease. I hope, I hope, I hope I'm wrong.

So, here's our status update:

You won't be surprised to hear that my work life hasn't changed one iota. I've been working from my home office for decades now, and my industry hasn't been affected. So I have a full workload and everything I need to get it done. Well, there is one problem: I cannot concentrate. I am just so distracted by news, by social media, by checking in on friends and relatives, by worry, by figuring out logistics to minimize leaving the house while making sure we have everything we need. This is a problem that many people have if they are newly working from home, but I'm an old hand at this, so it's caught me by surprise. I'm really finding it hard to stay on task, so today I'm going to try  to work in small chunks of time and then take planned breaks. 

Andy is still going to work every day and has never been busier. He runs a small textile manufacturing company (started by his grandfather!), one of the sidelines of which is selling janitorial supplies (mostly wiping cloths). So he is positively swamped with orders, which is of course a good thing, but I can't help wishing he could just stay home. I'm very grateful that his workers and office staff are still able to come in too. For those wondering about his eye, the retinal reattachment surgery seems to have worked, although he still can't see very well. He needs a new contact lens prescription for that eye, but they're not seeing non-emergency patients right now. The other problem is that the surgery causes a cataract to grow very rapidly, so he'll need surgery to remove that within 6 months (we knew this going in—it's a given with this kind of surgery!). So just as his vision is improving from the surgery, it is also being clouded over by the cataract. It turned out that the worst part of the first 6 weeks or so of his recovery was nausea pretty much 24/7 because he couldn't see anything out of that eye and thus had no depth perception, peripheral vision, balance, etc. 

Steph is home. She's finishing up her master's at BU, and once her classes were moved online, there didn't seem to be any reason for her to stay in her apartment downtown for now. She'd be alone (her roommates went home too), she'd have to keep going out to get food and supplies, and there'd be nothing to do. I'm so glad she got to do her wonderful student teaching gig last semester! She had been substitute teaching for that same class a few times this semester, but now that's gone too. 

Pete left in early January to spend a semester in Copenhagen! He was just loving it there and having the time of his young life. We were hoping to visit him as soon as Andy got the green light from the ophthalmologist that he could fly. Then, last Wednesday, the number of COVID-19 cases in Denmark jumped dramatically, so I booked him a flight home Friday. (Minutes later, his program was officially canceled.) Then, that night, the Person Of The Utmost Stupidity announced his travel ban to go into effect on Friday—but neglected to mention (at first) that it did not apply to US citizens! I flew into a panic and spent a bloody fortune switching Pete's flight to Thursday. So he woke up Thursday morning to a string of frantic emails from me saying: PACK NOW AND GO TO THE AIRPORT! That was one of the most stressful days of my life, just waiting for him to get home. I kept fearing that he'd develop a fever and have to stay, or that they'd somehow determine that he had been exposed and put him in quarantine there or in London (where he had a layover). But he made it, and you better believe I hugged him within an inch of life. All his friends who were studying overseas are also home, and Colby sent everyone home from campus too. I'm glad he at least got those 2 months in Copenhagen but feel terrible that he was robbed of the last 2 months. He also got to spend a week in Dublin on a class trip, and another week traveling around Denmark. He is voluntarily semi-quarantining himself for now (not leaving the house, not seeing anyone but us) since we don't know whether he was exposed. All reports seem to suggest that it's the twenty-somethings who are spreading this around! They are largely asymptomatic, and thus many of them are not taking the social distancing recommendations seriously enough. 

Julie is also being robbed: She'll miss out on the end of her senior year in high school. I can't imagine she'll have a prom or graduation ceremony, but we can certainly hope. Worse, her club volleyball program was canceled.  We had been going to tournaments all over New England every weekend, and she was in heaven. She was also supposed to start volunteering at a school for the deaf a few times a week (the high school has a program where seniors can drop a class for the last term and do some kind of internship or special project). So her plans to make the most of her two great passions—volleyball and ASL—got dashed. She did bake up some splendid banana chocolate chip muffins the other day, though.

I did a few big shops last week, so my stand-up freezer in the basement is nearly full. But wow, 5 adults sure do go through a lot of food in a week! Pete in particular eats a ridiculous amount—his usual breakfast is a 3-egg omelet with spinach and cheese, 2 pieces of avocado toast, sometimes bacon, and coffee. I bought 3 dozen eggs and they'll be gone all too soon! Plus 5 people's worth of soap and toilet paper and laundry detergent and on and on.... I've had some deliveries too, and I'll try to run out to the market periodically to stock up on eggs and fresh produce.

I feel so lucky we can afford to get what we need. I have been donating to local organizations that are helping those who are not so lucky. And we've been getting some take-out to support our local independent restaurants, who will be among the hardest hit. If we go under complete lockdown, I will try to buy some gift cards so they can get a temporary cash infusion. 

A big THANK YOU to all the healthcare personnel, emergency responders, mail/package deliverers, supermarket/pharmacy employees, utility workers, and everyone else who is making our lives easier.

I hope everyone reading this is hanging in there. Please let me know how you're doing—comment below, respond on Facebook or Twitter, email me, whatever. Consider this a virtual "elbow bump."

16 Candles

You guys, I don't have time for a Real Post, but I just want to pop in to say THANK YOU to anyone who ever takes a minute to read this blog, especially these days when I hardly ever post. Today is my blog's Sweet Sixteen, and it hardly seems possible.

Please stay tuned, as I have made mental notes for forthcoming posts filled with book reviews, recipes, family anecdotes, editorial news, and other earth-shattering bits of info. In the meantime, cough into your sleeves and wash with soap and water!

Good Riddance, 2019!

I will be very glad to put this year behind us—besides the country and world going to hell in a hand-basket, it has been a tough year Chez Verbatim. The latest "excitement" is that Andy woke up on Christmas Eve with a detached retina! He has had a number of retinal tears in the last couple of years (all repaired by laser), plus a vitreous hemorrhage 2 weeks ago, so this was not entirely out of the blue but still not expected. They tried a cryo procedure, but it didn't do the trick, so he had surgery on Friday. He's now required to lie flat for a solid week; we go back Friday to see if he can be up and around. And then if all goes well, he will be able to see again in a couple of months. 

As I remarked to someone yesterday, I didn't realize that being married and raising a family would involve so many hospitals. But this is as good a time as any to mention how very grateful I am to live in Boston, where we have the world's greatest collection of doctors in every specialty. Even on Christmas Day, you'd be hard-pressed to find a "B Team" doctor at any of the many hospitals. I'm also grateful to have good health insurance—and grateful that we can afford to pay for it since we are both self-employed, and grateful that we can afford all the copays, deductibles, and noncovered expenses. It can really add up fast, as we saw this year.

In happier news, a couple of times a year we get the whole family (Andy's side) together when my niece visits from London. The last time was in June, and she's back now. Andy is of course unable to go out to dinner, so I stayed home with him, but we did manage to prop him up for a quick minute to get a photo beforehand:

I wish everyone good health in 2020—including 20/20 vision, because how could I resist that play on words?

Thankful

I hope that everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving had a lovely day! It is my favorite day of the year, and I have much to be thankful for, including having all my kids home for the weekend and lots of extended family on both sides! This year we had 16 adults and 1 toddler at the table(s), plus another 6 adults, 1 toddler, and 1 preschooler for the pre-meal cocktail hour before they headed off elsewhere for their main meal.

I did pretty much the same menu as always, with plenty of extras to send everyone home with leftovers. It's tricky to make sure everything is hot and ready at the same time, but as far as I'm concerned, as long as the gravy is hot, it doesn't matter what's under it! 

We are not so big on appetizers for Thanksgiving, so we just put out some nuts to nibble on and lots of knishes. (I'd been longing for the Myers-style knishes I grew up with and finally found them at Sudbury Farms, for locals who want some!) Then:

2 turkeys (each 15–16 lbs.), one roasted on Wednesday and the other on Thursday. This year I also roasted 2 turkey thighs and set them aside for leftovers because Andy says there's never enough dark meat to make it through the long weekend, but he said the thighs were somehow lacking in flavor (although the texture/doneness was right), which is odd because I treated them the same way as the scrumptious whole turkeys—brined and basted with butter while roasting. 

2 batches of plain boring gravy, mixed with the ultra-rich gravy made from the magical drippings of the first turkey (instructions here). (I still have the ultra-rich gravy from the second turkey and will likely freeze it and completely forget about, as usual.)

6 (!) pans of stuffing. And then Friday I made a 7th pan, which is already gone....

3 batches of roasted root vegetables (22 pounds!), two on Wednesday and one on Thursday. This is the first year I made a third batch, but I had left myself a note last year that we didn't have enough to make it through the weekend.

steamed green beans with butter and slivered almonds

mashed butternut squash with butter and a little brown sugar. (I have very little left over but intend to whiz it with some chicken broth to make soup for tomorrow.)

pumpkin bread (Lauren made this.)

cranberry Jell-o mold (Lauren made this.)

cranberry applesauce (Julie made this.)

For dessert, Andy picked up pies from Petsi's, and of course we had Julie's famous chocolate chip cookies and her homemade vanilla ice cream, plus a giant bowl of cut-up fruit from Jo and Barbara.

Oh wait, I did add a new item this year—a delicious not-too-sweet sangria with gorgeous blood oranges. Julie made this too:

Pomegranate Sangria 1 cup water 2 blood oranges, 1 juiced and 1 sliced ¼ cup orange liqueur (I used triple sec.) 2 tablespoons pomegranate liqueur (I had never heard of such a thing! It's called Pama.) 1–2 tablespoons superfine sugar (I don't buy superfine sugar and didn't feel like "making" it in the mini food processor, so I used a scant 2 tablespoons regular granulated sugar.) ½ cup pomegranate seeds 2 rosemary sprigs 1 (750-mL) bottle dry sparkling red wine, chilled In a large pitcher, stir together the water, blood orange juice, orange and pomegranate liqueurs, and sugar. Add the blood orange slices, pomegranate seeds, and rosemary sprigs and refrigerate overnight. When guests arrive, add ice to the pitcher and stir in the sparkling wine.

 

 

Hello, yeah, it's been a while. Not much, how 'bout you?*

Back in June I mentioned my frozen shoulder, which I am happy to say has improved markedly! I went to acupuncture about a dozen times but had no relief whatsoever from the pain, and the CBD oil was likewise a bust. I was so miserable I went back to the ortho, and he sent me for a cortisone shot with fluoroscopy (that's where they give you the injection aided by an x-ray to be sure they get the right spot). That did the trick, and a week later I was able to start physical therapy. I'm still going—and doing my daily exercises faithfully—and am in much better shape than I would've believed possible! I have regained nearly all my mobility, except for reaching behind my lower back.

When I mentioned last time the puzzles I like to do, I forgot to include a newish one. It's called Guess My Word, and it couldn't be any simpler: You try to figure out the word of the day by guessing other words and learning whether they are alphabetically before or after the hidden word. Every day there's a normal word and a hard word to guess.

The books we've been discussing in my book group have been hit or miss. We all really liked Flight Portfolio by Judith Orringer. (I knew that name was familiar, so I looked back and found that we had already done The Invisible Bridge—I'm not surprised that I couldn't remember it at all when I read my review!) My only regret about Flight Portfolio was that I wish I'd known ahead of time that it was based on a real person! I was sure it was fiction until I read the Acknowledgments in the back. Here's the Amazon description:

In 1940, Varian Fry traveled to Marseille carrying three thousand dollars and a list of imperiled artists and writers he hoped to help escape within a few weeks. Instead, he stayed more than a year, working to procure false documents, amass emergency funds, and arrange journeys across Spain and Portugal, where the refugees would embark for safer ports. His many clients included Hannah Arendt, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, and Marc Chagall, and the race against time to save them is a tale of forbidden love, high-stakes adventure, and unimaginable courage.

I highly recommend this book, and there's plenty to discuss.

Before that we read Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, which seemed to get rave reviews all over the place except in our group! The only thing we all liked was the author's nature writing—which makes sense, since she is a nature writer and had never tried her hand at fiction before. We all found the plot eye-rollingly contrived and nonsensical, and the characters two-dimensional and unbelievable. It was a huge disappointment. 

Next up is The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. I've loved every one of Patchett's books, so I have high hopes for this one.

Andy and I have seen approximately zero movies this year, but we did get out to Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles, a documentary about the making of "Fiddler on the Roof," and its long legacy. (If you go to that link, the violinist shown is Sheldon Harnick, the show's lyricist.) It was FANTASTIC. I can't recommend it highly enough to anyone who has ever seen any production of the show, or the movie. (And yes, it includes a clip from Lin Manuel Miranda's wonderful wedding video, which I hope you've all seen already!) We loved it so much we were tempted to just stay in our seats for the next showing.

Oh, and we got to ride on the USS Constitution during one of her harbor turnaround cruises. It was a sparkling-gorgeous day, and we were treated to a 21-gun salute, plus a speech from a special guest, local legend Marvin Gilmore. There were also crew members visiting from the USS Sioux City, and they got to climb the riggings on Old Ironsides, which I have to believe was quite an honor and a treat. (Longtime verbatim readers might remember that years ago I got a private tour of the Constitution with famous cookbook folks!) Update 10/18/19: If I’d waited one more day I could’ve posted a link to this story about our day on the Constitution with Marvin Gilmore!

And ... we celebrated our 31st anniversary yesterday! Imagine that. Two days earlier, Andy had a Big Birthday (hint: starts with a 6 and ends with a 0), and two days before that Julie turned 18! This is  our last season of school sports, so we have been going to every one of her volleyball games. She is co-captain this year and loving every minute of it, as are we. 

I guessed I missed out on a summer update. Well, we had a full house, possibly for the last time, as Steph is in her first apartment! She's doing her grad. studies at BU and student teaching first-graders, which she LOVES. Pete is a junior up at Colby and is spending next semester in Copenhagen! I hope we'll get to visit.

Other than that, there's mostly been a lot of editing going on here. Hoo boy, a whole bunch of cookbooks I edited have October publication dates! Here are some to keep an eye out for:

True, the one in the bottom right isn't a cookbook—it's a delightful book about two sweet little Scottish boys who have all kinds of fabulous adventures with their (incredibly enthusiastic and tolerant) parents. 

*If you remember this sappy song, you're at least as old as I am!

Quarterly Update

Yoo-hoo! It's me!

Last time we spoke, it was March and I was doing some cold-weather cooking. Now it's the end of June and too hot to cook, so I don't have a recipe for you today. Since then I was in the hospital for a long while with a very sick kid (who is much improved, thanks!), and I remain boundlessly grateful to live in Boston and to have good medical insurance.

In the meantime, I have developed adhesive capsulitis —aka "frozen shoulder"—in my left shoulder, and I can't even describe how painful this is. (Side note: If you have told me in the past that you had frozen shoulder, I can guarantee that I was not sufficiently sympathetic. I HAD NO IDEA.) I had my chiropractor work on it for many weeks, but he said it was finally time to see an orthopedist. The orthopedist said they used to do surgery and physical therapy for frozen shoulder but found that they really don't help, and all I can do is wait it out—for a year or two! He did say that some of his patients have had good results from acupuncture, so I had my third appointment today. I had acupuncture many years ago and it helped with other conditions, so I'm hopeful. (Right now I'm about to pass out from the strong menthol smell of the tape she put on my shoulder after sticking needles in me.) The orthopedist also suggested I try CBD oil (topical, not oral), so I ordered some. He had thought I'd be able to march into any Whole Foods or CVS to buy it, but it was not available anywhere I could find (at least not here in Massachusetts), so I went online. I'll let you know how it works.

What else ... at the end of March I also went to my beloved American Copy Editors Society annual meeting. This time it was practically in my backyard—Providence, Rhode Island—so while I didn't get to check off somewhere new and fun from my travel wish list, I did save a lot of time and money. And I got an almost unreasonable amount of pride out of showing off this very sweet little New England city to colleagues from all over the country—and even one from Australia! This year, instead of presenting a lecture-style session on cookbook editing, I ran a hands-on recipe editing workshop, which I think went over very well. (Pro tip: When in doubt, it never hurts to hand out chocolate!) Anyhow, it was a whirlwind 5 days of learning and networking and mostly having fun with my far-flung editorial colleagues and friends. Next year: Salt Lake City!

Speaking of cookbooks, here are just a handful that I edited since I last checked in: 

Oh, and did I mention that Steph graduated cum laude from Boston University? She'll start her grad work in the fall, which includes student teaching first graders. She's spending this summer babysitting various families from last fall's student teaching gig in a kindergarten class.

A couple of weeks ago we had a fabulous celebration up in Ogunquit for the 90th birthdays this spring of Andy's father and Andy's aunt. Relatives came from all over the place and ate and drank and roasted/toasted the birthday boy and girl. Here's my gang:

And that's about all. Summer is usually a very busy time for book publishing folks, but I'm trying not to overschedule myself and to allow myself some time to just relax. As I've surely mentioned before, my preferred activity when I have down time is word games and puzzles. At any given time I am in the midst of dozens of games of Scrabble, Letterpress, Words With Friends, and Boggle. (I am this close to giving up on Words With Friends, though, because of all the annoying, disruptive, stupid little bells and whistles they added a few months ago that you can't seem to opt out of!) Challenge me to a game if you are so inclined! I also find these games to be a nice mini-break during the day when I reach a natural stopping point in work (e.g., the end of a chapter)—I'll take my turn in a few games and then head back to the comma mines. I also love crossword puzzles, acrostics, sudoku, kenken, you name it. My favorite way to spend an hour in the evening is to put on the Sox game, have Andy pour me a drink, and curl up with the day's NYT crossword on my iPad. I know lots of people who use the timer because they are trying to solve as fast as they can, but I am the opposite. I really enjoy the process of solving the puzzle and can't imagine wanting to rush through it. To me that would be like wolfing down a fine meal! I prefer to savor every bite. I also love "variety puzzles," such as the ones published in the WSJ every Saturday (I print it out). My favorite is the "Rose Garden," and I even have three different subscriptions to them: one from Joon Pahk at Outside the Box Puzzles, one from Andrew Ries at Aries Puzzles, and one from Michael Blake at Garden Party Crosswords. (Yes, I LOVE these puzzles!) Another puzzle source I recently discovered is the (free) Puzzle Page IOS app, which has loads of interesting puzzles of all kinds. 

And that's about all for this update. If you would like to know more about my thrilling daily ins and outs, feel free to connect with me on Twitter, where I'm quite active. I'm also on Facebook and Instagram but post there only infrequently. 

15 Years

I mean to post this yesterday, but somehow the day got away from me: Happy 15th Blogiversary to me! Fifteen years seems like an absurdly long time to have had a blog, but here I am. I hardly ever post, but when I do, I'm gratified that there are still a few out of you out there who read and respond (in the comments, on Facebook, on Twitter, via email, via carrier pigeon...). I value the many friends I've made through this blog, long before there was such a thing as social media.

While I'm here, I might as well share a recipe with you. It comes from a swell book I proofread (one of the perks of my line of work!), and I've made it a couple of times already. It's not terribly photogenic, but it sure makes for a hearty winter dish.

Arroz con Puerco

1 (1¾-pound) boneless pork butt roast, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 onions, peeled, 1 quartered through root end and 1 chopped
5 garlic cloves, peeled, 3 lightly smashed and 2 minced
2 bay leaves
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
6 cups water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1½ teaspoons ground cumin
1½ teaspoons dried oregano
2 cups medium-grain rice, rinsed
½ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon paprika
½ cup frozen peas
½ cup pimento-stuffed green olives, chopped
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro (I used parsley!)
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

In a large Dutch oven, combine the pork butt, quartered onion, smashed garlic cloves, bay leaves, and 1 tablespoon kosher salt. Add the water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, skimming off any foam that rises to surface. Reduce the heat to low, partially cover, and cook until the pork is tender, about 1 hour.

Place a colander in a large bowl and drain the pork. Measure out 4 cups of the cooking liquid; if you don’t have enough, add water to equal 4 cups. Discard the onion, garlic, and bay leaves.

Wipe out the Dutch oven with paper towels. Add the oil and heat over medium heat until shimmering. Add the bell pepper, chopped onion, minced garlic, cumin, oregano, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, and ½ teaspoon black pepper and sauté until the vegetables are tender, 5 to 7 minutes.

Stir in the rice, garlic powder, and paprika and cook until the edges of the rice begin to turn translucent, about 2 minutes. Add the pork and the reserved 4 cups cooking liquid and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, scrape the sides of the pot clean of any rice, cover, and cook, undisturbed, for 20 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat and let it sit, still covered (don’t lift the lid!), for 20 minutes. Fluff the rice with a fork. Stir in the peas, olives, cilantro, parsley, and vinegar and serve.

Go Brandless!

Like most people, I have some products that I will buy only one certain brand (Heinz ketchup, PG Tips tea), some that I'm happy with several different brands (tomato sauce, yogurt), and others I don't care much about so I buy generic or whatever is cheapest (sugar, vegetable oil). I tend to buy a lot of stuff at Trader Joe's because I find their stuff to be of good quality and not terribly expensive. I was intrigued when I heard about Brandless, an online retailer of all manner of food products, health and beauty items, and some household stuff. As you may have guessed from the name, all of their products come in plain packaging (which I happen to find appealing), so you're not spending extra on any of that. All of their foodstuffs are free of artificial flavors and preservatives, and many are organic. Their household cleaners are nontoxic, their beauty products are cruelty-free, and so on. Everything costs $3 (so obviously the package sizes vary quite a bit!), which allows you a low-risk way to try something new without dropping a bundle. And, on top of all that, for every order you place, they donate a meal to someone facing hunger/food insecurity through a partnership with Feeding America.

Julie and I have placed several orders already, and we've loved pretty much everything—I use their shampoo and conditioner exclusively now, and their snacks are all awesome. If you spend $39 (which is very easy to do), shipping is free, and sometimes they offer freebies. If you would like to give them a try, you can use this link to get $6 off your first order of $39 (I will also get $6 off my next order if you do so). Or, if you'd rather do it on your own, just go to their site and start filling your shopping cart! And through the end of March, if you sign up they will donate an additional ten meals to Feeding America. Happy Shopping!

Winner Winner

I made a really yummy chicken dinner the other night—perfect on yet another cold winter evening. The original recipe called for 4 bone-in, skin-on breasts, but I used thighs instead because they are so much tastier. (And no photo once again because I am just really bad at remembering to do that.)

Pan-Roasted Chicken with Root Vegetables

6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound small red potatoes, unpeeled, cut in quarters or eighths
4 parsnips, peeled, thick parts halved lengthwise, and cut into 1-inch pieces
4 carrots, peeled, thick parts halved lengthwise, and cut into 1-inch pieces
4 shallots, peeled and quartered
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary or ¼ teaspoon dried
1 tablespoon minced fresh chives

Preheat the oven to 450°F.

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat for 5 minutes. Pat the chicken dry and season all over with salt and pepper. When the pan is screaming hot, add the oil and heat until it’s just smoking. Place the chicken, skin side down, in the skillet and cook until well browned, about 7 minutes. Flip the chicken and cook until lightly browned on the other side, about 3 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate.

Add the potatoes, parsnips, carrots, shallots, rosemary, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper to the fat left in the skillet and toss to coat. Spread the vegetables out into a more-or-less even layer and place the chicken, skin side up, on top of them. Put the skillet in the oven and roast until the chicken is done, about 25 minutes.

Remove the skillet from the oven. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter, tent loosely with aluminum foil, and let rest while you finish the vegetables.

Being careful of the hot skillet handle, stir the vegetables, return the skillet to the oven, and roast until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in the chives and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve the chicken with the vegetables.

 

Recipe 3 of 3: Chicken

Well, it took me long enough, but here you go, another tried-and-true recipe, this time from the NYT. I've already made this three or four times, most recently last night. It takes almost no effort at all and is delicious. We load the chicken into pitas, then add sliced cukes and tomatoes and lots of tzatziki, plus rice pilaf on the side (I use the boxed mix from Trader Joe's).

Oven-Roasted Chicken Shawarma

2 lemons, juiced
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
½ teaspoon turmeric
A pinch ground cinnamon
Red pepper flakes, to taste
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 large red onion, peeled and quartered cut into 8 wedges
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Combine the lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, turmeric, cinnamon, and red pepper flakes in a large bowl (or a ziplock plastic bag), then whisk to combine. Add the chicken and toss well to coat. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour and up to 12 hours.

When ready to cook, heat the oven to 425°F. Use the remaining tablespoon of olive oil cooking spray to grease a rimmed baking sheet. Add the onion to the chicken and marinade, and toss once to combine. Remove the chicken and onion from the marinade and place on the baking sheet, spreading everything across it in a single layer.

Roast until the chicken is browned, crisp at the edges, and cooked through, 30 to 40 minutes. Allow to rest for 2 minutes, then slice into bits. (To make the chicken even more crisp, set a large pan over high heat, add a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, then the sliced chicken, and sauté until everything curls tight in the heat. Last night I forgot to start the rice until late, so I did this part and it was extra good!) Scatter the parsley over the top and serve.

Recipe 2 of 3: Steak

Hmmm, I bet you didn't think it would take me 2 weeks to continue this recipe thread, did you? Me neither. I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving in the meantime. Someone wanted to know if I get bored making (mostly) the same menu every year. Once a year? No, I don't get sick of it! In fact, I love it. I've often said that I could happily subsist on endless bowls of stuffing and gravy.

But Turkey Day is over, and there are other things to eat now! I've made this steak recipe twice: once in the summertime on the grill, and once earlier this week when I planned to grill but was thwarted by a downpour. But that means that now I can also vouch for the alternative pan-searing method! The first time I made it, I let it marinate for only about an hour, but the second time I let it go for several hours, and I didn't notice a difference. This recipe comes from Leite's Culinaria; someone in the comments section there said they tried it once with 30 minutes of marinating and once overnight and couldn't tell either. So this is a good recipe to keep in mind when you don't have much time to do anything beyond buy a steak and cook it.

Grilled (or Pan-Seared) Flank Steak

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons soy sauce
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 (1½-pound) flank steak
Salt and pepper

In a large zip-top plastic bag, combine the vinegar, ketchup, soy sauce, and garlic powder. Add the steak and seal the bag, pressing out the air. Turn the bag over a couple of times and massage the marinade into the steak. Let the steak marinate for 20 minutes at room temperature (or up to 24 hours in the refrigerator).

Preheat your outdoor grill to medium-high and oil the grates OR heat a cast iron skillet or grill pan on the stovetop over medium-high heat.

Remove the steak from the marinade, letting any excess drip off, and cook for 3 to 5 minutes per side, depending on how thick it is and how rare you like it. 

Transfer the steak to a cutting board and let it rest for at least 5 minutes, then slice it thinly across the grain. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Recipe 1 of 3: Pasta

My post yesterday was originally going to be 3 book reviews, 3 movie reviews, and 3 recipes, but it seemed like too much. But I do have three recipes to share, all of which I've made more than once already, which means they're all keepers.

This first one might seem like a lot of work, but it really isn't (hence the "Shortcut" part of the title). Yes, the meatballs are homemade, but they come together easily and you don't have to fry or even bake them—they go right into the casserole. Likewise, you don't even have to cook the pasta—it goes in dry, with plenty of water to cook it while everything else cooks. It calls for a 9 x 13-inch ceramic baking dish, which is something I don't own. (Do you? Is this something everyone else has?) I used my trusty Pyrex, which worked fine although it went into the oven quite full and bubbled over a wee bit the second time I made this, so I recommend putting it on a rimmed baking sheet. (And by the way, if you like this, you might also like our family's beloved Baked Ziti with Spinach and Tomatoes, which is in such regular rotation around here that I can practically make it with my eyes closed.)

Shortcut Baked Rigatoni with Meatballs

8 ounces ground pork
8 ounces ground beef
½ cup plain dry breadcrumbs
⅓ cup lightly packed torn basil, plus more for garnish (I found that "torn" basil had too much of a presence in the meatballs, so the second time I made this I chopped it instead.)
¼ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus more for garnish
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
1 pound rigatoni (I used penne the second time; they are skinnier and thus easier to poke down to make sure they stay submerged.)
1 pound fresh mozzarella, torn/cut into 1-inch pieces 
3 cups store-bought marinara sauce
2½ cups water

Preheat the oven to 400°.

In a large bowl, combine the pork, beef, breadcrumbs, basil, Parm, eggs, and 1 teaspoon each salt and pepper; mix well. Roll tablespoonfuls of the mixture between wet palms to form 30 meatballs.

In a 9 x 13-inch ceramic baking dish (see above; I used Pyrex), spread half of the uncooked pasta in a single layer. Arrange half of the meatballs and half of the mozzarella over the pasta. Spoon half of the marinara sauce on top, and season with ½ teaspoon salt. Repeat with the remaining pasta, meatballs, mozzarella, sauce, and another ½ teaspoon salt. Add the water to the dish, then cover tightly with aluminum foil.

Bake until the pasta is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, about 1 hour. Uncover and bake for 5 more minutes. Turn on the broiler, and broil 8 inches from the heat until the top is lightly browned. Let stand for 5 minutes, then garnish with more basil and Parm and serve.

3 Books + 3 Movies

Book 1: A while back I read The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry. It was supposed to be for my online editors' group book discussion, but we somehow never got around to it. I was still glad, though, because it is not likely something I would have chosen to read on my own. It is "set in late nineteenth-century England, about an intellectually minded young widow, a pious vicar, and a rumored mythical serpent, [and] explores questions about science and religion, skepticism, and faith, independence and love" (from the Amazon description). So on the one hand, it has all of the language and manners of a Jane Austen novel (and Cora Seaborne does recall Elizabeth Bennet at least a little), but it also has this sort of supernatural/eerie undercurrent. Here's what the Times review said: "A novel of almost insolent ambition—lush and fantastical, a wild Eden behind a garden gate.... It’s part ghost story and part natural history lesson, part romance and part feminist parable. I found it so transporting that 48 hours after completing it, I was still resentful to be back home." I, too, found it really well written and engaging throughout.

Book 2: I can't remember who recommended The Echo Maker by Richard Powers, but it won the National Book Award and was a Pulitzer finalist, so that seemed good enough for me. Alas, I was ultimately disappointed. It's the story of Mark, who barely survives a car accident, and his sister, Karin, who reluctantly returns to her hometown in Nebraska to take care of him. But when Mark comes out of his coma, he is found to be suffering from Capgras syndrome (a real thing that I had never heard of!), wherein he thinks that Karin is an imposter for his real sister. That part was very interesting to me, especially when Mark starts reminiscing to her about "the real Karin" and she learns how much she really meant to him, and how highly he thought of her. But the novel is way, way too long, with deep dives into environmental issues—most notably about the crane population along the Platte River. Much of the writing is truly lovely, but there was just too much of it! I was getting restless and bored but trudged onward because there were a couple of revelations I was eager to have resolved. As it turned out, they both came at once, so I didn't even really get to savor them. (Whenever a book drags and then finishes up in a hurry, I always imagine the author getting an email from his editor that says, "I want the ending ON MY DESK by Friday, and this is the FINAL deadline extension you will get!")

Book 3: Last month my (in-person) book group met to discuss Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund. I loved this book! I should mention that I also loved Moby-Dick, so I had high expectations—and they were mostly met. I was really impressed with how successfully the author took an existing setting and cast of characters and created an entirely new central character to build a story around. Most of the book takes places on Nantucket, which I especially enjoyed. One complaint was that Una, the title character, as well as some of the other characters, displayed what felt to me like anachronistically liberal, forward-thinking attitudes toward racial, religious, and gender/sexual differences. But I still enjoyed it very much (and I literally gasped at a particular moment near the end that I won't spoil for those of you who haven't read it!), although I will say that it also suffered from the aforementioned long-long-long-book and then quick-finish syndrome.

Movie 1: A few weeks ago a friend and I went to see The Wife, which is based on a Meg Wolitzer novel that I never read. Glenn Close plays Joan, the wife of a Nobel-winning novelist, played by Jonathan Pryce. This seems to be the role Joan sought and wanted and enjoys. But there's a metric ton of bubbling, seething rage and resentment below that elegant, agreeable exterior, and watching it come to the surface is breathtaking. Close is just amazing in every scene. The actress who plays the young version of Joan in the flashback scenes is Annie Starke, who is Close's real-life daughter! I could see the resemblance, and it added to the realism for me. I did not care for Christian Slater as the journalist who wants to write a biography of the novelist and is trying to pump Joan for inside info—he didn't ring true to me at all. This is a small, literary movie (my local art-house cinema still uses real butter on the popcorn!), not the sort of thing that anyone would call "must-see," but I think it's worth every minute just to watch Close.

Movie 2: Andy and I played hooky on our 30th (!!) anniversary last month and went out to lunch and then to see A Star Is Born. Bradley Cooper is just terrific—acting as well as singing (as well as just standing there looking pretty). He really commands the screen. (Oh, and I also saw him give an interview entirely in French, so he may in fact be perfect.) I've never been a Lady Gaga fan, but I felt as though I got to actually see her here—without the crazy costumes, and just singing her heart out, which she does really, really well. I felt as though she was sort of playing herself, so I'm not sure whether I can judge whether she can act, but she was really good and convincing in this role. It's the same story we've all seen and heart before, but updated (including the ending). Sam Elliott is also memorable in a small role as Bradley Cooper's older brother.

Movie 3: Julie has sort of retro taste, so she's the only one of her friends who even knows who Freddie Mercury is, let alone would want to see a biopic about him. But Andy and I were eager to see Bohemian Rhapsody, so the three of us went yesterday. Yes, it was really ham-handed and Hollywoodized and overacted and everything else you've been hearing, but it was also a blast. I had heard rumors that the movie glossed over crucial facets of Freddie's life—being gay, doing drugs, getting AIDS—but this was not the case. The movie is not meant to be about these parts of his life, it's about the music, so they're definitely there but just not the main focus. I thought Rami Malek was absolutely terrific as Freddie—and it's not his fault there were too many Very Intense Reaction Shots and ridiculous blocking choices. I also thought that Gwilym Lee absolutely out-Brian-Mayed Brian May. In short: I laughed, I cried, I sang along. If you think you want to see this, you probably do—and you won't be sorry.

October Happenings

Hey, guess who's been married for 30 YEARS! Me and Andy, that's who! Hardly seems possible (since we think we're still 30 years old...), but there you go. On the day-of, we played hooky and spent the day together—lunch out, a movie, watching Julie's volleyball game, etc. Way more fun than going to work!

Then this past weekend we went up to Ogunquit—yes, just the two of us!—and had a great time. It was the annual OgunquitFest, which includes all kinds of fun stuff like a craft tent and classic car show and wine tasting and a haunted house (no thank you!). Ogunquit goes all out for Halloween—pretty much every establishment had really creative decorations; here's just a couple of the fun and spooky things we saw:

We had dinner at Walkers Maine, which was wonderful in every way. I saw a review that said "Feels like home, tastes like heaven," and that pretty well sums it up. The main dining room has a warm and comfortable but still upscale-feeling atmosphere, and every bite of our food was swoon-worthy. There was a small private party for a wedding in the back room, right next to where we were seated, and it felt so sweet to congratulate the bridge and groom as we celebrated our own milestone! It definitely felt like the special night out we were hoping for.

And now it's back to real life. I have a ton of work to get done in order to leave plenty of time to watch the Red Sox win yet another World Series! I'll be watching from my living room couch with Andy on Tuesday night and from my seat at Fenway with Steph on Wednesday night! Steph and I were at Game 1 of the ALCS, which was the only game we dropped to the Astros, so we are definitely ready for a win.

Ten Books

Look at me, posting twice in two days! This is just a quickie, with photos of some of the books I've edited since the last time I did this (which was over a year ago).

   

   

   

    

   

Pickled Tink

One culinary feat I've never attempted is canning. I'm not terribly interested in it, to tell you the truth, and also a little nervous about doing it properly. However, if I do ever decide to try it, probably the first thing I'll put up will be pickles. Until then, refrigerator pickles will certainly do! A friend had a bumper crop of cukes this summer, which translated to my own bumper crop of pickles. I kind of pieced together a bunch of recipes I found online, but the first batch I made was much too vinegary for my taste. I don't like sweet pickles, but these were way too acidic. After that I hit on a very good formula.

Refrigerator Pickles

5 pounds pickling cucumbers
Fresh dill fronds
Garlic cloves, peeled
Whole black peppercorns
Mustard seeds
Celery seeds
6 cups water
3 cups apple cider vinegar
½ cup kosher salt

Scrub and trim the cukes, then cut them into spears or chips, however you like 'em. (I did some of each.) Divide them up among several glass jars. Add some dill fronds, garlic cloves, peppercorns, mustard seeds, and celery seeds to each jar.

In a large pot, combine the water, vinegar, and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve the salt. 

Pour the hot brine into the jars and make sure everything is submerged. Cool to room temperature, then close the jars and refrigerate for at least 2 days before tasting. They should keep for a few months, if you don't eat them all before then!

End of Winter, All of Spring, Beginning of Summer

Hey, remember when I used to blog regularly? Sigh. Here are a few tidbits from the last [gulp] 4½ months:

Tidbit 1: I think I must be the ideal demographic for the Mr. Rogers documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? since I watched the show religiously as a child. I mean, it was all I could do not to sing along with every song during the movie. I still remembered every word, and every puppet's name, and every square inch of the set. I've tried to explain to the kids that, first of all, there wasn't a whole lot of children's TV in those days, and there certainly weren't any other "screen time" distractions—no computer, no videos, no video games, no tablets, no phones, no apps, no nuthin'. But beyond that, it was Mr. Rogers himself, of course. He was the first one who said to kids, "I like you just the way you are. You're special. You are loved." It sounds so corny to my kids and so obvious, but that just wasn't the way grownups talked to kids in the 1960s and '70s. Anyhow, I loved every minute of this and wept like a baby during some parts.

Tidbit 2: My book group met in June to discuss Less by Andrew Sean Greer, but I couldn't make it, so I only just read it this past weekend. Wow. I can't remember the last time I was so captivated by a writer's style—the prose was so sparkling, so inventive, so warm and engaging, I started fretting early on that it was such a short book because I knew I'd want more when it ended! I also really and truly laughed out loud on at least a dozen occasions in the book—one time so hard that I had tears streaming down my cheeks and couldn't return to the story until I composed myself. I can't recommend this book highly enough. (And obviously the Pulitzer folks felt the same way!)

Tidbit 3: I see that I haven't been here in so long that I never even talked about the annual ACES meeting in Chicago! (ACES stands for American Copy Editors Society, but the name was recently changed to The Society for Editing as a way to include international editors and other kinds of editors—development editors, line editors, slot editors, etc. It's still referred to as ACES, though.) Usually we meet in March, but the organizers wisely pushed the date back to April to allow for the chance at some decent weather, and it was a great decision! The meeting was at the Palmer House, which is a gorgeous Old World–style hotel (now a Hilton, but still elegant), with a grand lobby that was ideal for 700 (!) editors to meet for drinks, Scrabble, drinks, chitchat, drinks, etc.:

Oh, and of course we also had full days with lots of interesting workshops and sessions (I presented again!), plus the usual spelling bee and a cocktail party at the headquarters for (nerd alert!) Encyclopedia Britannica:

(If you think that's the nerdiest thing that happened, you obviously didn't see my button proclaiming that Merriam-Webster has finally gotten rid of the hyphen in the word good-bye:

Yes, we were that excited.)

And food! I had been instructed not to ask for ketchup on my Chicago hot dog under any circumstances, and I even spotted this sign in the hot dog joint down the street:

Fortunately no one noticed that I used some of the ketchup meant for my fries on my dog! Don't tell. (I also tried the famous deep-dish pizza and was not won over.)

Tidbit 4: The following delicious recipe is not your typical summertime fare; indeed, Julie and I made it during one of the snowpocalypses last winter, but I never got around to posting it. So here goes:

Green Mac & Cheese

1 (5- or 6-ounce) bag baby spinach
½ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley
2½ cups milk, divided
1 pound 1¼ to 1½ pounds elbow macaroni (or cavatappi, which I prefer) (Update 4/9/20: I've made this a bunch of times, and every time, including today, I forget that it makes way too much cheesy green sauce for 1 pound of pasta. So I'm finally adding this note!)
¼ cup unsalted butter
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 pound white cheddar cheese

In a food processor, buzz the spinach, parsley, and ½ cup of the milk until smooth. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the elbows and cook until al dente. Rinse with cold water and drain.

In the same pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat; add the flour and stir until golden brown. Add the remaining 2 cups milk and the seasonings and stir until smooth. Add the cheese and mix until well incorporated. Add the spinach mixture and mix until fully incorporated. Mix in the pasta and serve!

Tidbit 5: This isn't really a tidbit but more of a quick summer catch-up. All's well here. It's nice to have a full house again, although juggling 3 cars and 5 full-time jobs has been interesting at times! Steph is working at a daycare center (she starts student teaching in the fall!). Pete is working at the same running shop as usual. And Julie is a camp counselor at the day camp they all went to—this is the first summer I haven't had to send them a check in 15 years! We did make it up to Ogunquit a couple of times, in various familial configurations—and in fact I actually did no work whatsoever for one entire weekend, which is something I haven't been able to say in many months. (Yes, it felt great!)

How's your summer going? What are you reading and watching and eating and doing?

Back in 2004....

Once again it's time to take note of the fact that another year has gone by, and as of today it's now been a whopping 14 years since I started this blog! As I mentioned last year, social media and other forms of communication have left blogging in the dust, but I vow to keep showing up here at least once or twice a month, with a recipe or a book review or an update on the kids/cats.

As always, thanks go out to those of you who still bother to come by and read my posts—and even leave a comment here or on Facebook! It's pretty amazing how many friends I've made through this thing. Hope to be saying the same thing next March 8....

***

The only excitement going on here involved two injured feet. First Calvin somehow got a big gash in his paw. I was in Providence overnight with Julie for a volleyball tournament, and Andy said Calvin was limping horribly when he woke up, so he whisked him off to Blue Pearl (which is where we took Violet when she got so sick—they are really terrific there! Can't say enough good things about the facility and the care we've gotten there). He got two staples in his paw, an antibiotic shot, and the dreaded cone. Oh, the poor guy! He was miserable—not only in pain, but unable to bathe or even scratch himself, crashing into everything, confounded by how to eat with the damn thing on. A few hours later, I noticed that one of the staples was gone, so I had to schlep him back to Blue Pearl to have the staple replaced. Then, shortly after that, I saw that he had figured out how to contort himself so that he could lick the injured paw beyond the cone! So I went back again and got him a bigger cone, which made him even more miserable. Until he figured out that if he braced it against something solid, he could sort of back up and wriggle out of it. I'd look over and see him just sitting there smugly without it on, and I'd have to put it back on him. But he didn't manage to pull out any more staples. They also gave us some pain meds, but we were only able to administer a few doses successfully. Finally, after 10 (!) days, I brought him back and got the staples out and the cone came off for good. He's very happy and appears to have healed up completely. (Andy didn't see what happened, but I suspect it was Luna because Calvin likes to meow and shove his paws under the door dividing the Balrog part of the house from the rest of us, and then Luna attacks his paws. He thinks it's a game, but I guess she got him good this time.)

Later that same week, Julie sprained her ankle at volleyball practice. On the last play of the night, she was in the air and came down rolling her ankle. It didn't seem broken because she could put weight on it, so we just iced it up and let her sleep on it, then I took her to the ER the next morning. The x-ray showed no fracture, thank heavens, so they just gave her an Aircast and sent her on her way. She was on crutches for a few days (she is a pro from when she had surgery on her toe a few years ago), then one crutch, and finally nothing. We're going to get her an ankle support that she can wear while playing; a lot of the other girls wear them all the time too.

Other than all that, right now I'm about as swamped with work as I've ever been. All at once I got a few very desirable new clients (and I never say no to a desirable new client!), and on top of that got offered some swell-sounding projects from long-time clients (and I never say no to swell-sounding projects*), and then there were the usual things I already had going on, so I find myself blocking out my days like a Tetris puzzle where even one misused half hour could mean GAME OVER. I just finished editing one of my favorite cookbooks ever (I'll tell you about it when it comes out!), and I'm also proofreading an Italian textbook for the first time in a couple of decades, which mi piace molto.

*The other day I had to turn down a book about <gulp> Mr. Rogers! I was heartbroken, but there was no way I could fit it in unless I canceled other projects I'd already committed to. That evening, wouldn't you know it, the new Mr. Rogers documentary was on PBS. I honestly could not stop crying while watching it. He likes me just the way I am! <sob>

Valentine's Day Dinner

A few weeks ago, I made an old favorite dish that I'd kind of forgotten about—Arroz con Pollo—and was reminded of why it had been a favorite. This version is a bit of work, but nothing too difficult, and it's worth every minute. I won't let this one fall out of memory again!

I had it in mind when I spotted an old clipping from Saveur in my recipe file. This dish uses smoked Spanish chorizo (not the fresh Mexican kind) instead of bacon for that smoky pigginess, and it's divine. I can usually find the Palacio brand around here. You have to start a good 2 hours before you want to eat, but nearly all of that is hands-off time—including 1 hour 10 minutes in the oven. This was lovely with a hearty Ribera del Duero for Valentine's Day.

Chicken and Brown Rice with Chorizo

2½ pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
¾ pound smoked, dried chorizo, cut into 1"-thick slices (I did more like ¾ inch, but I still found it thicker than necessary. Next time I'll go even thinner.)
1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh oregano (I forgot to get this, so I used 2 teaspoons dried oregano, which worked out fine.)
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (I used barely a sprinkle—likely not even ⅛ teaspoon—because I wanted more smoke than heat.) 
1½ cups long-grain brown rice
½ cup dry white wine
3 roasted red peppers (from a jar), patted dry and cut into thick strips
3 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup frozen peas

Heat the oven to 400°.

Season the chicken lightly with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Working in batches, add the chicken, skin side down, and cook, undisturbed, until the skin is a deep golden brown, about 8 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate and set aside.

Pour off and discard any accumulated fat and juices from the pot. Add the chorizo and cook, stirring frequently, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the chorizo to a plate, leaving the fat behind in the pot. Set the chorizo aside.

Add the onion, garlic, bay leaf, oregano, and crushed red pepper to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is lightly browned and somewhat soft, about 8 minutes. (Mine got quite nicely browned and very soft in that time—just don't burn it!) Add the rice and cook, stirring frequently, until the surface is glossy, about 2 minutes. Add the wine, bring it to a boil while stirring, and reduce by half, about 1 minute.

Nestle the chicken, chorizo, and roasted red peppers into the rice mixture. (There wasn't much "nestling" going on, as the rice is very shallow. I put the chicken in skin side up.) Pour in the broth and season the liquid to taste with salt and pepper. (I did not add more salt and pepper.) Raise the heat to high, cover the Dutch oven, and bring the liquid to a boil. Transfer the covered pot to the oven and bake until the rice is tender and the chicken is cooked through, about 1 hour 10 minutes. (I checked at that point and there was still some liquid at the bottom, so I let it go another 5 or 10 minutes.) Remove the dish from the oven, uncover, and gently stir in the peas with a fork. Cover and let sit for 10 minutes to defrost the peas and allow the flavors to meld.

Targeted

You know those "sponsored posts" (read: ads) that show up in your Instagram or Facebook feed? Usually I scroll right on by, but now and then one catches my eye. In truth, it's more than "now and then": I find that whatever algorithms the various social media folks are using to target ads to the right demographics are right on the money, at least in my case. More and more, I see stuff that I at least pause to look at—and I have a theory that the longer I pause, the more likely it is that the ad will continue to show up in my timeline for a while.

Anyhooo, the first time I actually bought something was Madison Reed hair powder, which you brush on your gray roots to tide you over when you're in between color jobs (a state I find myself in more often than not, it seems). It works pretty well, although really only in front—I can't imagine trying to do one's whole head—and really the only problem is that I never think to use it. (Remember, I work from home! I had to make a rule that I'm not allowed to eat lunch unless I've gotten dressed, or else my family would come home for dinner to find me still in my jammies.) I had this blog post in mind this morning, though, so I used it.

Then a long time went by and I wasn't interested in any ads. (I don't know how they got the impression I'm in the market for fancy-shmancy bras, because I'm not.) And then! I suddenly started seeing all kinds of interesting things and even bought a few—but not always from the intended seller, which is one reason that these ads don't really "work."

First I saw these cute little snow booties, but they were sold by a very sketchy-looking Chinese outfit, and I wasn't confident that I'd be able to return them if I didn't like them or they didn't fit. So I searched for something similar on Zappos but found nothing, then I saw a whole bunch of options on Amazon. I ended up getting these, and I love them. My only complaint is that they have no arch support whatsoever, but I don't walk around much in them. They keep my feet warm and dry when it's not awful enough out to need actual boots. (My kids think they are horrific-looking.)

Then I saw a company called Thrive Causemetics, and before you hate on the cutesy name, I will tell you that they do indeed have a worthy cause: For every item they sell, they donate one to a woman with cancer. There are some really nice photos on their website—for instance, of women who've lost their hair getting new eyebrows drawn in. I don't wear makeup, but I did buy an eyebrow pencil and a lipstick. (For those who are quick to point out that I don't wear lipstick: Perhaps I will start. I seem to have an allergic reaction to most brands that makes my lips feel burnt and chapped, but this brand claims to be extra-hydrating. Stay tuned.)

And then I succumbed to the lure of that video where the woman puts her feet in these plastic bags filled with glycolic acids and whatnot and then a week later all the skin on her feet peels off in long, disgusting strips. They were lavender scented, though, so I found a different brand on Amazon that offered an unscented variety. And guess what: They worked! I wore the baggies for 90 minutes, then rinsed off the goo. Then nothing happened. And nothing happened. And then a few days later, I woke up and my feet looked like a shattered but intact windshield. And then that night the peeling started! It took several days for it all to come off. It was simultaneously really cool and really gross. I would say that my heels and big toes did not 100% exfoliate, but they did very well, and the rest of my feet are like a baby's tush. I do not recommend using these in any 2-week period in which you will be going barefoot, because you will be leaving bits of skin all over your yoga mat. You might not even want to wear sandals, because your feet will look pretty horrible in the interim.

Finally, I bought my kitties a pack of these little HexBug toys that run around erratically. They love them! Phoebe discovered where I keep them and now I find them all over the house—she doesn't know how to turn them on, but she carries them around in her mouth and puts them somewhere and waits for them to go. (Then probably gets bored and decides to take a nap.) So far only one has gone to its final resting place under the fridge.

Rotten Food

The title of this post does not refer to the yummy recipe below, but rather to my new composting service! For the last few weeks, I've been using City Compost to pick up and cart away all my kitchen scraps—and I really do mean all. Not only do they take the usual suspects, like vegetable and fruit trimmings, coffee grounds, and so on, but they also take all meat and dairy scraps! So, bones, skin, fat, moldy cheese, you name it. They even take any cat food my kitties turned up their tiny adorable noses at, dead flowers, plain white napkins and paper towels, and clam and mussel shells. Also cooked leftovers, rotten/expired food, packaged products, and more. So I've gotten into the habit of scraping the cutting board, plate, Tupperware, or baking dish right into my handy stainless steel canister under the sink. Every couple of days I dump that into a big airtight bucket that I keep outside on the back steps. Then the City Compost people come to pick it up and bring me a clean one! I was worried about odors, but I haven't had a problem yet. In six months I'll have the option of getting compost, but I won't likely do that since I'm a horrible gardener (and have a bazillion bunnies in my yard). I highly recommend this service if you want to keep your compost-worthy kitchen trash out of the landfill.

But the following recipe, which I made last week, had very few leftovers to worry about, because it was delicious. Another winner from Simply Recipes—and another reminder to pull out the ol' slow cooker once in a while.

Slow Cooker Chinese Pulled Pork

2½ teaspoons five-spice powder (This was almost overpowering, maybe because I'd just bought a fresh jar. I'll use less next time.)
1 (3- to 3½-pound) pork shoulder, cut into very large chunks (3 to 4 inches)
¼ cup hoisin sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons dry sherry or Shaoxing cooking wine (I used a dry white wine.)
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 tablespoons minced garlic
12 Hawaiian dinner rolls (We'd never had these before, much to the shock of my supermarket guy when I asked about them! They were good, but really, any rolls will do—even hamburger buns.)
1 large scallion, sliced
Asian slaw (see below)

Rub the 5-spice powder all over the pork chunks and put them in a slow cooker.

Whisk together the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, honey, sherry, ginger, and garlic in a glass measuring cup. Pour the sauce over the pork. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours, until the meat easily pulls apart. About halfway through the cooking, turn the meat over in the pot. Use a ladle or a large metal spoon to remove any excess fat that has risen to the surface while the meat has been cooking. Don't discard it yet, as you may want to add some of it back. Use two forks to pull apart the pork into shreds. If the pork seems dry, add back some of the fat. (I didn't need to do this—there was plenty of liquid.) Serve over Hawaiian rolls and top with sliced scallion and slaw.

Someone in the Simply Recipes comments had suggested serving this topped with Asian slaw, which sounded like a swell idea to me. They pointed me toward this Bobby Flay recipe, which was very good, and we enjoyed the cold, crunchy slaw on top of the rich meat. I probably won't bother de-stringing and julienning snow peas again—I'll likely just buy a bag of shredded coleslaw mix and use his dressing recipe.

Asian Slaw

¼ cup rice vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
4 ounces snow peas, julienned
1 large carrot, julienned
½ head Napa cabbage, finely shredded
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds (Whoops, forgot this!)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Whisk together the vinegar, honey, sesame oil, and soy sauce until the honey is dissolved. Add the peas, carrots, cabbage and sesame seeds. Toss to combine; season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour.

The End of the Viking Era

Those who've been reading verbatim since the Old Days (read: before social media, when blogging was all there was) know that I generally have terrible experiences with appliances, large or small—I'm not sure whether there were more posts here about my washer/dryer tribulations or my toaster-of-the-month phase! 

When we bought this house, we bought a Viking range, with 4 burners on top plus a grill between them, and a giant oven. It was love at first sight. It turned out that we used the grill only twice; it was a nightmare to clean, with really sharp metal slats that had to come out and go back in. It just wasn't worth it, so the grill section became kind of a big trivet. We also had a separate griddle that could sit across two burners. The exhaust hood was also a bear to keep clean (and trust me, I am not particularly fastidious). But man, that thing could cook. But twice the oven door hinges gave out, and they were very pricey to replace—and the second time, I was told that Viking no longer makes them anymore, so I'd be in trouble if it happened again. And then one year on the Monday before Thanksgiving (I was expecting 26 guests!), I decided to run the oven self-cleaner and blew the fuse. I called the place where I got it, and they said that they no longer sell Viking, so they no longer service them either. In a panic, I called Yale Appliance, and they told me that they would have to order a new thermostat, which would not be there in time. I think I might have burst into tears; the next thing I knew, the customer service guy guy had called all his repairmen and, sure enough, one of them happened to have the right thermostat on his truck. He came and installed it the next day. I think I might have hugged him. So recently, when the door hinges started feeling kind of shaky again, and then the oven started calibrating itself to whatever temperature it damn well felt like using that day, I decided that 17 years was the maximum age this particular Viking was going to reach. 

I went straight to Yale since they had been so good to me, and they said they no longer even sell Viking anymore because it is so hard to get parts, and so expensive. So just before this past Thanksgiving, I got a Thermador, and I love it. I went for 6 burners and got a new exhaust hood, too. And there was a special deal where I got a free dishwasher too! Which was convenient because my old KitchenAid was on its last legs. Every time I used it I had to carefully replace the cracked rubber gasket in the track—and the dishes weren't getting all that clean, frankly. The new one is a Thermador but apparently made by Bosch. It is fine, and the dishes come out spotless, but I don't love it for three reasons: (1) The regular cycle takes 2½ hours! I know that's how all the new models are, but sheesh. (2) All the controls are hidden, so you know it's on because there's a blue light at the bottom, but there's no way to tell how much time is left and no way to tell if the contents are clean or dirty when it's closed (our KitchenAid had a "clean" indicator light when the cycle finished). (3) All the dividers and pegs are in the wrong positions for my plates, bowls, and cups! Nothing fits the way I'd like it. But it was free and it does its job. And the range! Is heaven. I highly recommend Yale to any of my local readers.

I feel like I have a bunch of recipes I've neglected to share with you, but I can't think of what they are, so I'll just share this one I made last night. It comes from Food52, and it turned out great. ("Pastalaya" is meant to signify jambalaya made with pasta instead of rice.)

One-Pot Pastalaya

1 tablespoon olive oil (You might need a little more if you use turkey sausage as I did.)
1 pound andouille sausage, cut into ¼-inch-thick rounds (I used Wellshire turkey andouille, which comes in a ¾-pound package.)
¾ pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces (I bumped this up to 1 pound to make up for the andouille.)
1 cup finely diced onion
¾ cups finely diced celery
¾ cups finely diced green red bell pepper (Anyone else hate green bell pepper?)
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons paprika
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon dried basil
1½ teaspoons Italian seasoning blend
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 to 1½ cup water (I used 2 cups; see below.)
10 ounces dried pasta (I used rigatoni.)
¾ pound peeled and deveined large shrimp
Thinly sliced scallion, for garnish

In a very large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the sliced sausage and sauté until it begins to render some of its fat. Add the chicken and sauté until the sausage and chicken begin to brown a bit. Stir in the onion, celery, bell pepper, garlic, paprika, and Italian seasoning and sauté until the vegetables soften. Add the crushed tomatoes, partially cover the pan, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add 1 cup water, bring to a low boil, and stir in the pasta. The pasta should take about 12 minutes to cook, so at the 7-minute mark, add the shrimp and continue to simmer until the pasta is al dente and the shrimp is just cooked through. If you need to loosen the dish up a bit, add ½ cup of water during the last few minutes. I added the shrimp after 7 minutes, but after another 5 minutes, the pasta was not nearly done. The pasta wasn't really submerged in the liquid and I had to keep stirring to keep it under—I wonder whether you're supposed to partially cover the pan during this part too? Anyhow, I added the ½ cup of water and cooked the pasta for a few minutes more, then fished out the shrimp, added yet another ½ cup of water, and continued to cook until the pasta was done. Then I stirred the shrimp back in. It turned out fine and was really delicious.

Serve in bowls, garnished with the scallion.