Some dinners recently have been extravagant, creative, unusual, and surprising. Usually at restaurants. Love that for me! Here, though, who cares about that?? Instead are some simple dishes I’ve cooked over the past few weeks that actually make me happier than nearly everything else, and I assume everyone who reads this (along with everyone I’ve ever met) is deeply invested in my happiness.
I’ve been traveling a fair amount these past few months - for weddings, births, deaths, and everything in between. Traveling in the summer! How novel and unique. It feels nice to travel, especially during my current phase of hating New York. I’m not going to elaborate on that, because you can just find any internet listicle that enumerates why New York is an overrated place to live and all of the reasons will be true.
The pasta above is spaghetti in a sauce of 1 beefsteak tomato grated on a box grater, a few tablespoons of butter, and some parmesan. Drizzle with olive oil and about 60% more basil than pictured, from a plant I’m growing on my fire escape. I’m disregarding the fact that basil is extremely easy to grow and instead considering myself a highly skilled and intuitive gardener for successfully keeping one plant in a pot alive.
I made this the other night, after returning home from my brother’s wedding (!) and an extended road trip partly down the West coast (Seattle, Portland, Redwoods, SF), and boy was it nice to be in places where the main attraction (at least for me) was the bonkers beautiful plants on the side of the road, rather than a line to get an overrated expensive [insert fleeting food item here].
Here are some Ikea meatballs bathed in a light gravy of beef broth concentrate mixed into some roux and a little milk. I had to test a few Jamaican recipes earlier in the week that I made this, so the meatballs are served on a toasted slice of hardo bread, which is slightly denser and sweeter than Wonder bread and I love it. Fusion!
I’m pretty sure I made this late at night after a day of babysitting, wherein lunch consisted of pretzels and goldfish soaked in a glass of orange juice mixed with grapefruit seltzer. The chef was 4 years old.
When I was a kid, my mom’s go-to dinner was this simple af chicken and rice. It also weirdly became kind of known as her signature in spite of the many other great things she would cook. Typically legs and thighs seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, that’s it. Short grain rice!! Chicken juices!!!!
I think I made this after a trip to Florida, when I went to be with my family after our cat of 20 years died. Shadow and this chicken, two constants of my childhood.
If you were a child in the 60’s-90’s, Shake ‘n Bake was a constant of your childhood too. My dear friend/loyal reader/older-twin sister/former coworker Theo even recreated it at work a while back.
Here, though, I bought and used the actual box mix, which is essentially just seasoned breadcrumbs. The trap of knowing how to cook things is that you rarely let yourself buy prepared foods (salad dressings, pasta salads, anything from Trader Joe’s) because you tell yourself you can make a better version for less money.
In a recent session with my therapist, I learned that I don’t often let myself simply be sad for extended amounts of time, because “sadness is unproductive” according to the person who spoke those words from my mouth (I guess she was me).
I’m trying to draw a line between these two things - in my mind, they are related. I just typed a bunch and deleted it all, now that I’ve landed on the conclusion that it’s harder to reject sadness and look on the bright side, but it’s a healthier habit. It’s harder (“harder”) to DIY Shake ‘n Bake, but it’s a healthier habit. And you know me, the pinnacle of health! I’ll stop there.
Buttered carrots and corn on the side because o b v i o u s l y.
A plain beef patty on some garlic toast doused in worcestershire sauce feels just like something my spirit restaurant (which I’ve never been to) would serve, and that’s really all you need when the beef is from a great source and super tasty and full of flavor. The lettuce is tossed with some Caesar dressing (from a bottle! growth???).
I bought these strawberries at the Union Square greenmarket, which is truly one of the most joyful places in this sewage pipe of a city, especially when there’s a guy playing alto sax on the corner of 17th and Broadway and it’s not that hot and you temporarily forget the fact that New York makes everything harder and you hate it.
The gorgeous smell of these berries floated on a breeze, but I’ll keep things real and tell you they tasted no different from supermarket strawberries.
I had told John they’d be in the fridge if he wanted some, before I ended up eating them all, one by one, myself.
I’ve baked so many snacking cakes from this excellent book that I’ve surely mentioned before, so I thought why not enable the healthy habit of always having cake around by purchasing a special designated plate for 8-inch cakes!
I looked online for a while and couldn’t decided what I wanted (footed? marble? wood? glass??), and the next day I found this at a dumpy outdoor flea market in Bushwick of all places. Beautiful, no? Handles!!
It serves as decoration when not in use (ideally never). Permacake!
Wow, I made into one of your newsletters!! So flattered 🥰.