Totems, Inflation, Carlos, and Honeysuckle

Saturday News Scraps V1/E12

Table of Content:

• Kitchen Essentials

• Fruit Stand Economics

• Browsing Through the Library Shelf

• My Man Carlos

• Honeysuckle

Kitchen Essentials
The things we need to make it our own

I have five objects in my kitchen that I have carried from one home to another to another. Over the long years they have fashioned how I cook, the kind of person you will find when you wander into my kitchen, and the flavors of the food I will serve you at my table. You have them, too!

In the meantime, here are mine:

A Small Copper Pot ~ My sister carried this little heavy pot back for me from Paris. That fact alone would allow it to have a special place in my kitchen. It’s a handsome, well made copper pot meant for the perfection of very special sauces. It would rarely be used if I stuck to that edict. Instead, I take mine down from its hook several times a week and put it to work for very humble duties such as boiling eggs or just enough potatoes for two or to dissolve coagulated oil in jars of anchovies and olives. 

A Dutch oven and a cast-iron skillet ~ Every kitchen worthy of its name needs to have a Dutch oven and a cast-iron skillet. One should buy them in a thrift store or at a yard sale to avoid the trouble of having to season them properly. Both of mine are so well seasoned they have an admirably thick crust on them that my husband claims is evidence of my shoddy cleaning skills. That’s how much he knows about cooking.

Jams ~ The current count of jams in my refrigerator is eleven and there’s a half dozen more down in the cellar. There are the usual berry flavors and marmalades,

plus, of course, apricot and apple. They are joined by the likes of fig, ginger, fig and ginger, black current, sour cherry, jalapeno, and mint. I’ll always stand in the jelly and jam aisle in any market I find myself in and pick up a bunch of others, which is why I find myself with basil, violet, and cucumber jams. Jams are my secret ingredient in blending sauces, marinates, and glazes. Some perk up pie fillings and, of course, add zing to layer cakes. And yes, I have toast every morning with a thick slather of one of them over a good slab of butter.

Shallots ~ I didn’t know about shallots until about my third kitchen and I was working at my first food writer job. I still wouldn’t have known about them but our tiny, dark apartment that we shared with city cockroaches was down the street from one of those fancy fruit markets that only Manhattan seemed to have had in the 80s. I took a bunch of shallots home and used them as if they were onions. They are not and that is good. I now throw them whole around roasts or roughly chop and sauté them in a little butter then smush them into mashed potatoes. Mix them in with apple slices for apple pie, and their sweet, light sharpness provides an unexpected savory.

Speakers ~ Except for the kitchens before my husband slipped into the picture, there’s always been two pairs. The first are very good speakers that sit atop the cabinets. They are attached by too many speaker wires to the stereo in the living room. The other is a simple portable—the current one a Bluetooth that pairs with my phone. This is a sore point with my husband: the speakers on top of the cabinets produce a better sound than the tinny portable so why don’t I use them more? Because the damn stereo, like his other beloved electronics, is hopelessly complicated with too many knobs and remotes needing to do the simple chore of providing me with music. All I have to do with the portable is turn it on, match it with my phone’s music library and, presto!, I have all the songs I need to dance from counter to stove to refrigerator and back again!

Food Stand Economics
A teachable moment

(My husband comes back from the fruit stand with  a requested bag of cherries. They are at their peak and, therefore, necessary to our well-being.)

Him: (plops the bag on the counter) $21! They were $21!
Me: Seven dollars a pound, right?
Him (waves the receipt around): It was six dollars for the other things and then the guy says 'that's $30!'!!
Me: You bought the ones in the bag.
Him: Yeah, so?
Me: So the bag is always at least three pounds. Didn't you see the loose ones in the box?
Him: They looked rotten.
Me: You have to dig around. They're way cheaper and you also don't have to buy three pounds.
Him: They looked rotten.
Me: You've been eating rotten fruit for years.
Him: No, I haven't.
Me answering him with an eye-rolling smirk.
Him:  You go next time.
I begin to wash his expensive cherries while he slinks off.

Browsing Through the Library Shelf
This Week’s Reads

As We Eat not only wrote a fascinating piece on Juneteenth but presented a list of books, recipes, and, as if that was not enough, a podcast to go with it. This, however, is a fine representation of the comprehensive work the team does—always above and beyond the call of immediate duty and great fun to learn the many aspects of whatever As We Eat is presenting.

100DayProject Newsletter. It’s an interesting idea—every 100 days the newsletter gives a prompt to their readers in the hope to kickstart their creative flow. There’s something about dedicating a moment each day to thinking exclusively about one task that helps to organize your thought and think beyond your comfort zone. It’s very mediative, too, and, on my most hair-pulling days, has helped to push aside a good portion of the debris floating around in the brain.

Chris Duffy’s “It’s a very dangerous dance,” was recommended to me by a friend who felt I needed to laugh. This story is how the hora solves many problems for a shy groom to perform his marriage’s required first dance. Chris and I also recommend TerrynGrams which makes us laugh, too.

For your further reading pleasure, please go to my recommendation list. Each and every one is a gem.

The Magic Hour
My man, Carlos Victoria, grilling and mixing drinks.

I’d marry Carlos if we weren’t both already taken, and he by one of my most beloved friends. Among the reasons for loving him is his prodigious skills as a mixologist and for being the creative mind behind his company, Sunset Botánica, which makes all kinds of inventive rubs, bitters, and shrubs. Click here for some videos showing Carlos cooking in his backyard with his dog, chickens, and good friend. Below is a preview of what’s in store for you.

Honeysuckle

This very moment honeysuckles bloom. Vines tangle everywhere in the neighborhood. Their scent saturates the house, knocks you out just walking to the corner, especially at night when there’s only a lagging dog for company. The childhood memory honeysuckle evokes is of being allowed to play outside after dinner. After all the sweaty running and chasing and losing balls in the dimming light, we collapse onto the early summer grass and breath in the perfume of a perfect world. One or another of us roll up and pull blossoms off the honeysuckle vines for us to pinch away the delicate stamens and gorge on their sticky juice, as sweet as candy, until the adults called us in.

Don’t forget to tell us what is in your kitchen!