Quotes
Via the newsletter Scratch, a link to Marisa Kabas’ post “Refusing to accept an AI-poisoned future of journalism” had this wonderful bit on writing:
I don’t write because it’s fun (though sometimes it is.) I write because it feeds my spirit. It helps me unspool my thoughts and feelings in the hopes of helping others do the same. The process is the purpose. You don’t have to always like or enjoy the process, but if you don’t respect it enough to do it yourself, there is no purpose.
And from Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s article “I Taught My Son Everything, Except How to Take a Vacation” this reflection on the oft-repeated “it goes by so fast” (referring to childhood) that felt especially true:
I realized that it’s not that it goes fast, that’s not what people mean. What they are saying is that they wished it would last forever. And that is something I can endorse, that I wish it all could last forever.
Old recipes
Our household has inherited a pile of cookbooks and a stack of hand-written recipes. Fond memories of a particular recipe from Kitchen Treasures prompted me to make it this week. I’m not very familiar with hot dish type meals, and in fact failed to get this one right (the rice I’d prepared in advance and took from the fridge stayed too cold and prevented the layers from combining in that pleasing hot dish way…). I think that my interest in cooking coincided with the trend towards from scratch cooking and very much influenced our family’s taste in food.
Trying to discover more about food trends lead me to The Food Historian’s blog, and two posts in particular here and here. Besides some helpful context, there was this:
As the old adage goes, you can have good, fast, and cheap, but never all three at once. Good and fast is expensive, good and cheap takes time, and fast and cheap is usually not very good. And when you're working multiple jobs to make ends meet, getting decent-tasting food on the table in a timely manner is more important than worrying about cooking from scratch.
On the subject of old recipes, there is a touching story of a cook at a nursing home, choosing to find and use recipes from the residents’ lives. Told (around the 9:42 minute mark here) by Craig Bowerson thanks to host, Chef Owen Roy, Bowerson concludes saying: “cooking: it’s the ultimate expression of love.”
Cooking
This week we tried Hetty McKinnon’s “One Pot Broccoli Quinoa Soup” and it was perfect, considering, if you will, the weather here… freezing rain, and snow, and ice…
Postcards
Adding a mushroom to last week’s collection…
Making up for the dismal views this time of year is the cheerful birdsong.
Happy Sunday!