Three Things

Weeknight dinner ideas, my livestream cooking class, a January tradition I can get behind

Greetings eaters and readers! Hope you all had a nice weekend. I’ve been listening to two Leonard Cohen songs on repeat since Saturday night — my friend Joanna hosted a birthday party that included a few musical acts from her guests (shout-out Adam, Rob, David) and, among other things, we were treated to the most joyous performances of both “Passing Through” on guitar and “Hallelujah” on piano and violin. Alas, I had exactly zero talents to offer for the occasion, but I am teaching a livestream Cooking Class with Milk Street Kitchen on February 26 if you’d like to join that particular party. The first 25 sign-ups get 50% off with the code WEEKNIGHT50 and after that, it’s 15% off with COOKWITHJENNY. One more thing before your Official Three Things: For our friends out in LA, Go Fund Me has a list of verified fundraisers for families and businesses affected by the wildfires — you can find it here. And now, this week’s trio…

1. Start with Frozen Peas

I’ve devoted many words to my love of frozen vegetables, but today I’d like to double down on just one of them, namely green peas, which we all know by now are sweeter and way more flavorful than their fresh counterparts at least 99% of the time. Even though peas are technically spring produce, I find myself deploying them a lot this time of year, when the in-season pickings are slim and I crave that pop of bright green on a sad, beige plate. If you need convincing in this department, the no-fuss Mint-Pea Lasagna (above left, page 172, The Weekday Vegetarians: Get Simple) would be a good place to start, as would the Smashed Pea Toasts with Ricotta (above, right) which, now that I think about it, would be quite a nice vegetarian moment on the old Super Bowl Spread. Lastly, over the weekend I threw some frozen peas into the food processor with some chickpeas, livening up a falafel-like fritter, and it just might be new go-to pantry dinner. Here’s the recipe.

Dals Chickpea Fritters With Green Peas

98.3KB ∙ PDF file

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Other fritter-adjacent dinners for your consideration: Craggy Chicken Patties with Caesar (above), Turkey Burgers 2.0, and Crispy Cabbage Pancakes, page 132, The Weekday Vegetarians.

2. The Book That Launched a Love Affair

I was so sad to read that Jules Feiffer died last week. Feiffer was known mostly as the legendary cartoonist for The Village Voice, where he skewered politicians and captured the lives of anxious New Yorkers in his scratchy, manic style. But in our house, and especially for our daughters, he was famous for writing or illustrating (often both) some of our most cherished kids’ books: The Phantom Tollbooth, A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears, and perhaps most crucially: the picture book Meanwhile (for ages 4-8) shown above. In it, a boy discovers that if he uses the classic comic book trope “Meanwhile,” it will take him somewhere else, even if it’s only in his imagination. I think of this superpower often (imagine?) and also credit the book with launching my daughter’s lifelong obsession with comics, graphic novels, and, tbh…reading.

3. Burns Night

It’s been a bit of a sleepy January over here. We’ve spent the past few weekends mostly holed up watching football (the American kind and the better, original kind), reading, bingeing that SNL doc (omg, so good) and going to the occasional play — but not seeing a ton of people. On Friday night, though, I ventured down to the Lower East Side to read at a Substack event along with a bunch of other newsletter writers — Alex Auder, Emily Sundberg, Emily Kirkpatrick, Natasha Stagg, Nate Silver, JP Brammer, and Chris Gayomali — to celebrate Burns Night. Have you heard of this? It’s a Scottish celebration held annually to honor the 18th-century poet Robert Burns. A “Burns Supper” typically includes Scotch, haggis, and humorous poetry readings, but this event cut to the chase, and made it all about the Scotch and burns, i.e. toasts that were “murder by words.” We all picked random topics to roast — ghosts, tabloids, Barry’s gym, freshwater fish — and read around the fire at a speakeasy. Such a fun idea — and if you’re looking for an excuse to get people together on a cold night, 10 out of 10 recommend, even if you just make it all about the Scotch.

Have a great week,
Jenny

PS: Super Bowl Food ideas coming your way this Friday — If you don’t want to miss it, be sure to subscribe.

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🥬 🍅 For easy, approachable vegetarian recipes, check out my New York Times bestselling book The Weekday Vegetarians or the follow-up: The Weekday Vegetarians: Get Simple. 🍳🌿