supposed to be writing (#3)
...but I ate my way through LA instead !
dear wonderers and worriers,
Do you ever get the sense that the various loose threads in your life could wrap themselves into a neat little ball? {edit to add: only to unravel into a tangled disaster}. I have had my attention drawn to so many interesting pieces of writing or reporting this week, but my brain has equally focused on inflammatory/sensational headlines: Ford shut down all its plants; we aren’t cursed, we’re targeted, my toddler is an introvert, should I be worried? you AREN’T a visual learner! I thought about what this would look like as a collage: would I screen shot the series of daytime news clips, flipflopping about prospective booster shots? how could i knead in the delicious mixed metaphors from Salman Rushdie : “under the influence of the kormas of my aunt’s vengeance – spiced with forebodings as well as cardamoms– my mother [...] shrivelled like a rotting mango[1]” and Jazmine Hughes : “Nas is a bouillabaisse of his forebears: the wholesome sex appeal of a George Michael, the glitz of an Elton John or a David Bowie, the disruption of a Le1f or a Sylvester, the emotion of a Frank Ocean.”[2]
Instead of hitting send on this hotbed of thinking, I went to LA and tried to track down the right documents for my long stay visa (tldr; i was tense but also sat by a rooftop pool while doing it). I also read, watched and listened to the best, least curated assortment of things that I’ve encountered in a long while.
- feed me
I ate so many things last week that I’m still digesting the summary. But upon my return to the great HTX, I beelined to @bl4cksmith for a cortado with housemade almond milk and dos tacos: eggs, potato, refried beans smeared thinly across two perfectly warmed tortillas, smothered in green hot sauce. While traveling, I made a salad for a large group and they liked the dressing. It’s the sort of thing that I always throw together, but I make it up each time. Here is my process:
salad dressing w/ mustard
1. Squeeze the nicest lemon you have (this one was a locally farmed Eureka – practically cheating) into a pyrex measuring cup and fish out any seeds that slip in.
2. Add a dollop of dijon mustard – I think this was a teaspoon and a half to a good quarter cup of lemon juice. Pour in a dash of honey or maple syrup if you’re low-fodmapping or eating pancakes soon. Maple syrup is runny, but I aimed to add about ½ a teaspoon.
3. Stream in olive oil – start with 2 tbs or less – then beat vigorously with your fork until the mixture emulsifies. Again, the mustard does this for you, practically cheating. Add a pinch of salt and mix again.
4. Taste the dressing with a leaf of spring mix: if too tart, add a tiny glug of olive oil and perhaps a touch more salt. Sometimes, more obviously when I have skipped step 2, a few twists of a pepper grinder makes a big difference with the balance of sharpness.
5. This dressing is not thick, but the honey-mustard combo will make you think of creaminess. Drizzle slowly, cautiously, or with reckless abandon over your salad (mine always has bell pepper, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, and/or haphazardly torn fresh herbs) in a large and probably unpretty bowl. Transfer gingerly to a serving dish to avoid potential sogginess.
6. Words of advice: I love sharpness and have bought my own bag of citric acid to recreate the bottom of a cape cod salt-and-vinegar chip bag as proof, so the whole point of this dressing is the lemon. Salt is key to avoid over-olive-oiling.
7. Variations: My gateway salad dressing as a blithe and unsuspecting twelve-year old involved crushing a clove of garlic with a generous teaspoon of kosher salt, before carrying on with steps 1, 3, and 4. Sigh, those salad days. I more frequently dress my butter lettuce with a squeeze of lemon and maybe, but not necessarily, a separately applied splash of olive oil.
- read me
“The Subversive Joy of Lil Nas X’s Gay Pop Stardom,” Jazmine Hughes for the NYT mag
wow, no thank you, Samantha Irby : irreverently funny essays, though the self-criticism was harder to read in print than to hear as read by the author via Libby
- see me
Please go watch Zola so I can reference it as often as I need to. I’m getting sucked into the universe of the Salt Lake City Housewives and I couldn’t resist it if I tried. Mormons! Snow! What more does anyone need. – a cosmic purple tie-dye bucket hat, that’s what.
I also watched Promising Young Woman, which won the 2020 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, instead of sleeping one night and wow, I am still processing it. It is beautiful and haunting and described as a “thriller,” which is all it takes to capture my attention/how I experience the world now.