Three Things

Easy summer dinners, kitchen tools of the pros, the Mary Oliver sleep prescription

Greetings eaters and readers! Now that my next book’s photo shoot is behind me, I’m starting to really focus on packing up the house for our move at the end of the month, and, of course, a lot of that packing is more emotional than physical. To that end, I texted my daughters, who will FINALLY be coming home on Friday, that they must reserve a week in August for the official Great Farewell Tour. (Farewell to what? They asked. We’re moving 18 miles away. Me: TO THE ONLY HOME YOU’VE EVER KNOWN. Maybe this is more about me than them? 🧐) Here’s what’s on the list so far: Dinners at special local restaurants; walking to the farmers market to gather ingredients for tomato sandwiches; hitting a few favorite hikes at Rockefeller State Park; lots of family dinners on the patio, plus a few “spontaneous” leave-the-dishes-for-later Carvel runs after those family dinners. If this sounds crazy to you, well, it probably is. But I keep repeating to myself the only way out is through in hopes that it helps me on the other end of things. In other news, did you read Melissa Clark’s story on plant-based eating (gift link NYT). She referred to the recent University of Oxford study that found if UK meat-eaters in cut their daily meat intake by about half it would be the equivalent of taking 8 millions cars off the road in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.* Lastly, I made the viral feta fried egg for breakfast! My review? In the words of my husband: “How could it be bad?” It’s literally fried cheese with an egg. Here are Three (more) Things I’d like you to know about this week…

*I know how one might cut that meat intake by at least half…

1. Soup and a Sandwich

Over at Cup of Jo today, I wrote about my new favorite way to slap together dinner — it’s a very simple formula that you might recognize from every diner menu in the nation: Pick a soup, then pick a sandwich. There are many suggestions for combinations (shown above is Avocado-Cucumber plus a Meatless Reuben), but what’s important is that the soup is chilled (we’re talking summer, remember?), and the sandwich must be simple simple simple — it should require zero food shopping and minimal knife work — or else dinner goes from “slap-together” to “Why am I sweating?”

Should you have a little more time and energy on your hands, though, might I suggest the tofu bánh mì on page 113 of The Weekday Vegetarians or my favorite pan-fried fish sandwich with slaw?

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2. What’s in a Food Stylist’s Bag?

Lauren Radel showed up to my photo shoot last week with her trusty bag of tools, and as always, I was fascinated by its contents. Not just the tweezers and the blow torch (which she seemed to use for everything, like on-set toasting of bread or browning of a crepe, facilitating cheese melting, etc), but just the regular old stuff that any home cook can appreciate. I thought I’d give you the download. Much like Wirecutter (and Carmy), Lauren adores her hefty workhorse Mac 8-inch chef’s knife, but a close second is this lighter Inox Suisin (which I couldn’t track down in the US, but maybe you’ll have better luck); there’s the iconic Kuhn-Rikon vegetable peeler, maybe the best deal going if you’re calculating cost per use; her small, sculptural Nacionale offset spatula which is made from one piece of steel and useful for delicate flipping and yogurt swirling; Joyce Chen kitchen scissors, which are nimble enough for precision jobs but sharp enough for big ones, too. (According to Lauren, “They cut through lobster shells like they’re paper.”) Lastly, the efficient, compact, Japanese Benriner mandoline, which, as you can see, is only the size of a standard chef’s knife — I have an Oxo that works well, but is kind of big and cumbersome so lives on an upper shelf in a box, which means I hardly ever use it. If I weren’t moving and downsizing my whole life right now (read: actively not acquiring), I’d definitely pick one up.

3. The Mary Oliver Rx

Lately, I’ve been having a lot of trouble turning off my brain at night — it’s on a loop of reviewing the ever-growing to-do list for my upcoming move, plus all the details involved in producing the photo shoot (which is over, but somehow still top-of-mind), as well as some family health issues that suddenly feel Sisyphean. Which is another way of saying: I’m not sleeping very well. As an attempt to quiet the noise, I started reading the Mary Oliver poetry compilation Devotions before bed and would like to go on record to say that there is no better way to go to sleep than with Oliver’s uniquely wondrous depictions of river otters and willow trees and rumbling creeks and kingfishers and herons and dippers with their “affirmative reports” (read: chirping) lulling me off to dreamland. But in addition to helping me sleep better, reading her poetry makes me realize that if I’m not careful, I am half asleep during the day, too, completely tuning out the natural world around me — what she calls in one poem “The Other Kingdoms.”  (“The trees, for example/with their mellow-sounding titles: oak, aspen, willow/Or the creatures, with their/thick fur, their shy and wordless gaze.”) Here’s a poem from the collection that would serve us all well to read before we take on the day, eyes wide open — I dare you not to feel uplifted.

Why I Wake Up Early

Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the field
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and the crotchety —

best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep from ever-darkness
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light—
good morning, good morning, good morning

Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.

Have a great day, in happiness, in kindness, and thanks for reading.

Jenny

P.S. Like what you’ve read? Cooked? Learned? Feel free to let all your friends know.