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!

I love year-end retrospectives, and so, joining in like a guest unafraid of water at a pool party, here’s mine!

I read about thirty books this year, some from a list of classics, including La Cousine Bette and Desperate Characters, and some specific self-help books including The Highly Sensitive Person, The Actor’s Life and The Business of Being a Writer. Some books went together, like Wuthering Heights and Elizabeth Gaskell’s biography of the author. I got immersed in Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle in March but came up for air after the first two books and decided not to plunge back in. I stuck a toe in graphic novels, including Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? and Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Light reads included Theft by Finding and Brunch is Hell. Because I liked Carol Shield’s advice on writing, I read Stone Diaries. I liked Sally Mann’s book Hold Still, a choice influenced by Austin Kleon’s advice. University course subjects lead me to read Halfbreed by Maria Campbell and a collection of biographies on and writings by Nellie McClung.

On a whim I like to take out cookbooks at the library. These included How to Cook a Wolf, Six Seasons, Love and Lemons, My Kitchen Year, and Repertoire. I follow a menu plan for the year that is flexible enough to allow for new recipes and improvements, like when Jessica Battaliana’s Pork Saltimbocca surpassed all previous Chicken Saltimbocca attempts. And we’d probably adopt Jeanine Donofrio’s Vegan Carrot Waffles forever were it not our son’s aversion to carrots even in their sneakiest form. Food 52’s Fasoolya Khadra was deceptively delicious. We also liked their Rosy Chicken paired with Joy of Cooking Baked Polenta. Another delight was Cauliflower Ragu from Six Seasons. I’ve upped my salad repertoire thanks to the New York Times list of 101 Simple Salads of which the in-season peaches and tomato salad is a tasty memory. An August brunch stands out for its Plum Poppy-Seed Muffins and Mushroom and Shallot Quiche. Deb Perelman is a go-to for so many good recipes. Marie-Hélène’s birthday supper request was her Everyday Meatballs with fresh pasta. The Ice Cream Cake Roll was an impressive birthday dessert. Fresh strawberries still make Strawberry Shortcake one of my favourite desserts. In the summer we make Tomato Corn Pie. Around Christian’s birthday, we look forward to Butter Chicken. His favourite dessert is an Apple Crisp without oatmeal in the topping.

Still-young children make for a lot of nights in, but we did try out The Mitchell Block, Passero, and Nuburger at the Common on dates out. On weekends we’ll make a treat of a drink and Netflix. After watching Mindhunter, Rectify, Charité, Halt and Catch Fire, Ozark, Better Call Saul, the rest of Suits and most of Fargo, we’re looking forward to new seasons! On regular television Life in Pieces makes us laugh the most.

And you? Do you have any recommendations?